Rethinking the Holocaust

by Yehuda Bauer

Book Overview

Yehuda Bauer, one of the world's premier historians of the Holocaust, here presents an insightful overview and reconsideration of its history and meaning. Drawing on research he and other historians have done in recent years, he offers fresh opinions on such basic issues as how to define and explain the Holocaust; whether it can be compared with other genocides; how Jews reacted to the murder campaign against them; and what the relationship is between...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300093004
• ISBN13: 9780300093001
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

A profound reconsideration of the Holocaust

This work is written by one of the major Holocaust historians. In it he summarizes the work of a lifetime. He in this work attempts to understand the unprecedented character of the Holocaust. His conclusions are that the Holocaust is truly unique, distinguished from other genocides in that those involve real disputes, usually by neighbors over land and territory. The Holocaust , the murder of the Jews of Europe, the murder of over one third of the Jews of the world, was unique in that its perpetrators had the goal of eliminating the Jews wherever they were, every place on earth.. A Jew simply by being born was a target of the Nazis. Bauer points out that there was a strong ideological component in the Shoah, and that the Nazis dream was to create a new order of the world free of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and a whole variety of others they considered inferior races. Bauer points out that thre was a strong irrational element in Nazi Ideology. The Jews in Germany had not been enemies of German culture but rather had made most significant contributions to it. The insane hatred of the Nazis for the Jews, their determination to murder all Jews ,was pursued even when it undermined the German war effort. Bauer provides many stories that point out the enormous cruelty of the Shoah. In his concluding chapter which is an address he gave to the German Bundestag he speaks forcefully about the importance of education in preventing a similar evil coming to the world.

Excellent Historical Overview

Rethinking the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer is an excellent historical review of the various issues that are raised by the Holocaust. Bauer is one of the preeminent holocaust historians and this book will only reenforce his place in historical studies.The book reviews most of the recent historical issues ranging from the holocausts place in history to a comparison with more recent genocides. The central thesis is that what seperates the holocaust from the more recent genocides is not the necessarily the evil of the act. What has happened in Africa or Bosnia is not less evil or horrible than what the Nazis did. However, the African and Bosnian genocides were more significanly limited in scope. The Nazi plan was to hunt down the Jews where ever they lived and to eliminate them as a race. This desire seperates the holocaust from all other genocides.The most interesting chapter discuses the theology of the holocaust. The central theological difficulty of the holocaust is how to reconcile an all powerful God with one that is just. The question being how could a just God who had the power to stop the death of millions not stop that murder. One conclusion is that God is all powerful or just, but not both. Bauer does not have any real answers, and there might not be any; however, the discussion is thought provoking and leads to furhter readings. This chapter was worth reading the book.

An essential book for Jews

I have to thank the New York Times Book Review for inducing me to read the book. Because it is so painful to read abot the Shoah and because most of the facts are already imprinted in my brain, I avoid books on the subject. But I wanted to know what was going on, as some of the revisionist ideas had filtered through and were bothering me. I found everything I wanted in this book, plus a lot more. The trauma is there, so the more we know and understand, the better.

The Dean of holocaust historians discusses its historiagraph

This is an excellent overview of the implications of the holocaust on regular living. Various points of view are examined and treated well. Bauer's attack on the religious point of view is both pointed yet too simplistic.