This epic book completes the richest and fullest study yet made of the Nazis' persecution of the Jews. Based on a vast scholarly literature, it also incorporates original research and personal letters, diaries, etc. Acclaim for Volume 1: "This will be the standard work for many years to come" (Daniel Johnson, The Times) "There have been many books about Nazism's persecution of the Jews, but none as magisterial or comprehensive as this" (Richard Evans, Sunday Telegraph) "The merits of this work are many; it is easily the best book of a distinguished historian. It is based on a great variety of sources, published and unpublished, and the judgement of the author cannot be faulted on any major issue...This is a very good, very important book. It needed to be written before the last historians disappear who, because of the date and place of their birth and their personal experience, know certain things in their bones about the period of the Holocaust." (Walter Lacquer, Los Angeles Times) "Saul Friedlander is the most astute, sophisticated and stylish historian of the Holocaust working in any language today." (Michael Burleigh)

A history of the anti-Jewish policies of Nazi Germany, focusing on the victims' attitudes, reactions, and fate. Describes discrimination against Jews (and "Mischlinge") in the economic, social, cultural, and legal spheres, and the gradual process of segregation, isolation, and compulsory emigration. Gives examples of specific cases of persecution, and of the Jews' reactions. Discusses the extent to which the German elites - Churches, universities, leaders in the economic, political, and cultural spheres - shared in the Nazi antisemitic ideology and condoned Nazi policies. Among the traditional elites and the general populace, there were varying degrees of compliance with anti-Jewish attitudes, but they shied away from violence. Describes the development of German racial antisemitism from the 19th century, which emphasized the mythic dimensions of race and the sacredness of Aryan blood. This fused with a religious vision of a German (or Aryan) Christianity, and led to what can be called "redemptive antisemitism". Emphasizes Hitler's role and the function of his ideology in the genesis and implementation of the anti-Jewish measures. In his worldview, the Jew was dehistoricized and transposed into an abstract principle of evil. In the confrontation between an immutable evil (Jews) and an immutable good (Aryans), the outcome could only be envisioned in religious terms: perdition or redemption. For Hitler, the struggle against the Jews was the basis of his understanding of history, politics, and political action. Yet, his ideological fanaticism was tempered by pragmatic calculation. It is the relationship between the uncommon and the ordinary, the fusion of the widely-shared murderous potentialities in the world and the peculiar frenzy of the Nazi apocalyptic drive against the mortal enemy, the Jew, that give universal significance and historical distinctiveness to the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question".

A collection of essays written between 1985-92. Contents: