The purpose of Weinberg’s text is to suggest a way in which the dramatic events of World War II may be seen. Weinberg argues that the war must be seen as a whole, and that the presentation of it in discrete segments covering the European and Pacific portions separately distorts reality and obscures important aspects of the war on both sides of the world. In addition, any understanding of the great struggle requires a mental self-liberation from the certain knowledge of its outcome. In desperate struggles millions fought and died, hopeful or fearful--or both--but without awareness of the end.

This is an updated single volume edition of the complete history and analysis of Hitler's foreign policy leading to the outbreak of World War II. Weinberg shows the inexorable goal of Nazi Germany's foreign policy and Hitler's key role in setting its course.

Ch. 17 (pp. 217-244), "The 'Final Solution' and the War in 1943, " deals with the persecution and extermination of the Jews in the context of the war. The main German focus in regard to the Jews in 1943 was to kill as many as possible of those still alive in the ghettos of Eastern Europe and those whose lives were protected by the reluctance of Germany's allies, satellites, and collaborator regimes to hand them over to the Germans. The collapse of Italy placed the Jews in Italian-controlled territories in the hands of the Nazis. The circle of the Nazis' victims broadened in 1943 - Gypsies were included, as well as persons of partial Jewish descent ("Mischlinge"). In the same year, the Nazis took the decision to occupy Hungary and annihilate its Jews. Concludes that there were limits on the genocidal program due to the turning tide of the war, but the Germans made massive efforts to kill as many Jews as they could. Notes that 1943 also saw significant attempts at organized Jewish resistance.