THE BOOK FAIR

THE HOLOCAUST

Author:       Martin Gilbert

Published:  1985/2014

Genre:         Holocaust Non-Fiction

Cover:         Paperback

Pages:         959

Gilbert’s comprehensive study recounts the systematic murder of the millions of Jews during WWII with detailed facts, statistics, eyewitness accounts, maps and a detailed bibliography.  The stunning account is for any who wish to learn about the innumerable atrocities committed in the Holocaust to individuals, to families, to those in ghettos, towns and cities across Europe as Jews were purged nation by nation.

Informative, replete with accounts and articles that attest to Nazi terror, the author exposes the full extent of the Nazi reign of terror, signified by lies, deception and trickery for ghoulish torture and horrific murder.

Gilbert notes each country’s fall to the German army and its subsequent treatment of the Jewish populations. 

The author describes in detail, the conditions in the ghettos and death camps.  Laden with overwhelming death, sections prove difficult to read, however, Gilbert’s intent makes clear the enormity of the Holocaust, and that the tens, hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of Jews murdered in a day, were insensitive and impersonal  to the Germans, and collaborators.

Amid the descriptions of massive murders lies a wealth of information.  The excerpts provide a general, overall view of the war as the author records the extent of individuals suffering rather than one cohesive story.  Gilbert answers the question of how the German war on Jews succeeded, the crimes too unimaginable to be effable, and yet, are true.

Gilbert also shines light on the nations particularly cruel to the Jews during their most desperate time:  Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Romania, Croatia and Poland.  Gilbert also notes those who resisted the Nazis and who assisted the Jews.  Gilbert begins with the rise of Hitler and ends post WWII.