The Holocaust

This volume brings together some ... important and stimulating contributions to our understanding of Nazi genocide. These readings have been selected for the purpose of acquainting students with a variety of views, some of classic stature, others very recent. After an introduction that contains a brief historical overview of the Holocaust, [the book] explores problems of definition and origins [and then] looks at the motivation of Holocaust perpetrators. [Next, it] compares conflicting views about the victims' survival strategies and women's experience of the camps [and] examines charges that the victims failed to put up any significant resistance to their tormentors. [The book then] inquires into the attitudes and actions of bystanders while the victims were being murdered [and] finally ... considers the possibilities that some Jews might have been saved from the gas chambers through military action or intercession by outside forces. - Preface.