Holocaust

Discusses the causes, the events, and the consequences of the Holocaust. Analyzes the ideological pre-history of the Nazi period in Germany and Austria after World War I, searching for a reason for the later annihilation of European Jewry. Contrary to most European countries, in Germany and Austria Jews had achieved a high level of social advancement and integration, against which modern antisemitism was directed. Focuses on the persecution of European Jewry during the Nazi period. Reports on mass murders in Poland, the annihilation of Jewish communities in the USSR in 1942-43, and the annihilation in all of Europe in 1942-44. Discusses the phenomena of the passive bystanders and the active collaborators, examines the system of concentration and extermination camps, and describes the death marches. Concludes that those who survived often remained invalids, with immense psychological damage. The topic of the genocide of the Jews disappeared from the public arena at the end of the 1940s, but returned in the 1950s-60s due to Nazi war crimes trials. Traces, also, different trends in commemoration, which began in the 1970s.