This book answers two fundamental questions about the Holocaust. How, and why, did it happen? Laurence Rees' masterpiece is revealing in three ways. First, it is based not only on the latest academic research, but also on 25 years of interviewing survivors and perpetrators, often at the sites of the events, many of whom have never had their words published before. Second, the book is not just about the Jews - the Nazis would have murdered many more non-Jews had they won the war - and not just about Germans. Third, as Rees shows, there was no single 'decision' to start the Holocaust - there was a series of escalations, most often when the Nazi leadership interacted with their grassroots supporters. Through a chronological narrative, featuring the latest historical research and compelling eyewitness testimony, this is the story of the worst crime in history.
Sunday Times top 10 bestseller 'Groundbreaking ...You might have thought that
we know everything there is to know about the Holocaust but this book proves
there is much more' Andrew Roberts, Mail on Sunday 'By far the clearest book
ever written about the Holocaust, and also the best at explaining its origins
and grotesque mentality, as well as its chaotic development' Antony Beevor
This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history -
how, and why, did the Holocaust happen? Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five
years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Now, in his magnum
opus, he combines their enthralling eyewitness testimony, a large amount of
which has never been published before, with the latest academic research to
create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more
than three decades. This is a new history of the Holocaust in three ways.
First, and most importantly, Rees has created a gripping narrative that that
contains a large amount of testimony that has never been published
before.Second, he places this powerful interview material in the context of an
examination of the decision making process of the Nazi state, and in the
process reveals the series of escalations that cumulatively created the
horror. Third, Rees covers all those across Europe who participated in the
deaths, and he argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the
epicentre of Nazi thinking, what happened cannot be fully understood without
considering the murder of the Jews alongside plans to kill millions of non-
Jews, including homosexuals, 'Gypsies' and the disabled. Through a
chronological, intensely readable narrative, featuring enthralling eyewitness
testimony and the latest academic research, this is a compelling new account
of the worst crime in history.
The bestselling historian on the dramatic wartime relationship - and shocking
similarities - between two tyrants This compelling book on Hitler and Stalin -
the culmination of thirty years' work - examines the two tyrants during the
Second World War, when Germany and the Soviet Union fought the biggest and
bloodiest war in history. Yet despite the fact they were bitter opponents,
Laurence Rees shows that Hitler and Stalin were, to a large extent, different
sides of the same coin. Both were prepared to create undreamt-of suffering,
destroy individual liberty and twist facts in order to build the utopias they
wanted, and while Hitler's creation of the Holocaust remains a singular crime,
Rees shows why we must not forget that Stalin committed a series of atrocities
at the same time. Using previously unpublished, startling eyewitness testimony
from soldiers of the Red Army and Wehrmacht, civilians who suffered during the
conflict and those who knew both men personally, bestselling historian
Laurence Rees - probably the only person alive who has met Germans who worked
for Hitler and Russians who worked for Stalin - challenges long-held popular
misconceptions about two of the most important figures in history. This is a
master work from one of our finest historians.
An award-winning historian plumbs the depths of Hitler and Stalin's vicious regimes, and shows the extent to which they brutalized the world around them. Two 20th century tyrants stand apart from all the rest in terms of their ruthlessness and the degree to which they changed the world around them. Briefly allies during World War II, Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin then tried to exterminate each other in sweeping campaigns unlike anything the modern world had ever seen, affecting soldiers and civilians alike. Millions of miles of Eastern Europe were ruined in their fight to the death, millions of lives sacrificed. Laurence Rees has met more people who had direct experience of working for Hitler and Stalin than any other historian. Using their evidence he has pieced together a compelling comparative portrait of evil, in which idealism is polluted by bloody pragmatism, and human suffering is used casually as a political tool. It's a jaw-dropping description of two regimes stripped of moral anchors and doomed to destroy each other, and those caught up in the vicious magnetism of their leadership.
The brutal Japanese treatment of allied prisoners of war, as well as countless
thousands of Chinese civilians, during World War 2 has been well documented.
Here, the author re-examines the key decisions made by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt during the war. As the truth about Stalin's earlier relationship with the Nazis is laid bare, a surprising picture of the Soviet leader emerges, one that is embarrassing for many Russians.
Published for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz--a devastating and surprising account of the most infamous death camp the world has ever known.
Previously unpublished archival material, photographs, and eyewitness testimony offer a look at Nazi Germany from Hitler's rise to power to the end of World War II
The book unveils the dramatic and secret negotiations that shaped World War II, highlighting pivotal decisions and alliances that influenced the course of the conflict. Laurence Rees delves into the lesser-known aspects of wartime diplomacy, offering insights into the motivations and strategies of key players. This chronicle emphasizes the complexity of the war, revealing how behind-the-scenes dealings were instrumental in both the initiation and progression of one of history's most significant events.
This text offers interviews with witnesses who knew Stalin and Hitler, together with documents from Russian archives. It explores in detail the reasons why Hitler invaded Russia, why it was a mistake to believe Hitler was a reasonable conqueror, and, ultimately, was Stalin another Hitler?
