Winner of the 1991 National Jewish Book Award and the Shazar Prize, one of Israel's highest awards for historical writing, The Holocaust is astonishingly comprehensive. Leni Yahil weaves a gripping chronological narrative that stretches from the Norwegian fjords to the Greek Islands, from Amsterdam to Tehran--and even Shanghai. She systematically explores the evolution of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe, probing its politics, planning, goals, and key figures. Along the way, she destroys persistent myths about the Holocaust; that Hitler had no plan for exterminating the Jews, that the Jews themselves went peacefully to the slaughter. The book also recounts numerous uprisings and acts of resistance in ghettos and concentration camps, as well as the activities of Jewish partisan units. Yahil describes the work of Jews in America, Palestine, and world organizations on behalf of Hitler's victims--often in the face of resistance by the Allied governments and neutral states--and explores the factors that affected the success of rescue efforts. The Holocaust is a monumental work of history, unsurpassed in scope and insightful detail. Objective yet compassionate, Leni Yahil brings together the countless diverse strands of this epic event in a single gripping account.
