Perpetrators

The World of the Holocaust Killers

Nonfiction, History, Jewish, Holocaust, Modern, 20th Century, Military, World War II
Cover of the book Perpetrators by Guenter Lewy, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Guenter Lewy ISBN: 9780190661151
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: July 3, 2017
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Guenter Lewy
ISBN: 9780190661151
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: July 3, 2017
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

"Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions." Primo Levi's words disclose a chilling truth: assigning blame to hideous political leaders, such as Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich, is necessary but not sufficient to explain how the Holocaust could have happened. These leaders, in fact, relied on many thousands of ordinary men and women who made the Nazi machine work on a daily basis--members of the killing squads, guards accompanying the trains to the extermination camps, civilian employees of the SS, the drivers of gas trucks, and the personnel of death factories such as Auschwitz. Why did these ordinary people collaborate and willingly become mass murderers? In Perpetrators: The World of the Holocaust Killers, Guenter Lewy tries to answer one of history's most disturbing questions. Lewy draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources, including letters and diaries of soldiers who served in Russia, the recollections of Jewish survivors, archival documents, and most importantly, the trial records of hundreds of Nazi functionaries. The result is a ghastly, extraordinarily detailed portrait of the Holocaust perpetrators, their mindset, and the motivations for their actions. Combining a rigorous historical analysis with psychological insight, the book explores the dynamics of participation in large-scale atrocities, offering a thought-provoking and timely reflection on individual responsibility for collective crimes. Lewy concludes that the perpetrators acted out of a variety of motives--a sense of duty, obedience to authority, thirst for career, and a blind faith in anti-Semitic ideology, among others. A witness to the 1938 Kristallnacht himself and the son of a concentration camp survivor, Lewy has searched for the reasons of the Holocaust out of far more than theoretical interest: it is a passionate attempt to illuminate a dismal chapter of his life--and of human history--that cannot be forgotten.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions." Primo Levi's words disclose a chilling truth: assigning blame to hideous political leaders, such as Hitler, Himmler, and Heydrich, is necessary but not sufficient to explain how the Holocaust could have happened. These leaders, in fact, relied on many thousands of ordinary men and women who made the Nazi machine work on a daily basis--members of the killing squads, guards accompanying the trains to the extermination camps, civilian employees of the SS, the drivers of gas trucks, and the personnel of death factories such as Auschwitz. Why did these ordinary people collaborate and willingly become mass murderers? In Perpetrators: The World of the Holocaust Killers, Guenter Lewy tries to answer one of history's most disturbing questions. Lewy draws on a wealth of previously untapped sources, including letters and diaries of soldiers who served in Russia, the recollections of Jewish survivors, archival documents, and most importantly, the trial records of hundreds of Nazi functionaries. The result is a ghastly, extraordinarily detailed portrait of the Holocaust perpetrators, their mindset, and the motivations for their actions. Combining a rigorous historical analysis with psychological insight, the book explores the dynamics of participation in large-scale atrocities, offering a thought-provoking and timely reflection on individual responsibility for collective crimes. Lewy concludes that the perpetrators acted out of a variety of motives--a sense of duty, obedience to authority, thirst for career, and a blind faith in anti-Semitic ideology, among others. A witness to the 1938 Kristallnacht himself and the son of a concentration camp survivor, Lewy has searched for the reasons of the Holocaust out of far more than theoretical interest: it is a passionate attempt to illuminate a dismal chapter of his life--and of human history--that cannot be forgotten.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Citizenship Behavior by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Southern Honor by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Our Lady of Everyday Life by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Twentieth-Century Sprawl by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book The Varieties of Consciousness by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Bound to Empire : The United States and the Philippines by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book The World from Beginnings to 4000 BCE by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book The Matter of High Words by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Nietzsche on Ethics and Politics by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Sorry About That by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Al-Azhar: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Derecho de las nuevas tecnologías (en el siglo XX derecho informático) by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book A Creative Duet by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction by Guenter Lewy
Cover of the book Arnold J. Toynbee:A Life by Guenter Lewy
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy