A remarkable story of survival for almost three hundred Jews who live to recount the brutalities of a Nazi work camp. In 1972 the Hamburg State Court acquitted Walter Becker, the German chief of police in the Polish city of Starachowice, of war crimes committed against Jews. Thirty years before, Becker had been responsible for liquidating the nearby Jewish ghetto, sending nearly 4,000 Jews to their deaths at Treblinka and 1,600 to slave-labor factories. The shocking acquittal, delivered despite the incriminating eyewitness testimony of survivors, drives this author’s inquiry. Drawing on the rich testimony of survivors of the Starachowice slave-labor camps, Christopher R. Browning examines the experiences and survival strategies of the Jewish prisoners and the policies and personnel of the Nazi guard. From the killings in the market square in 1942 through the succession of brutal camp regimes, there are stories of heroism, of corruption and retribution, of desperate choices forced on husbands and wives, parents and children. In the end, the ties of family and neighbor are the sinews of survival. 10 photos

The most detailed, careful, and comprehensive analysis to date of the descent of the nazi persecution of the Jews into mass murder. Argues that genocide was not a preconceived plan but rather a discovered possibility.

The most detailed, careful, and comprehensive analysis to date of the descent of the nazi persecution of the Jews into mass murder. Argues that genocide was not a preconceived plan but rather a discovered possibility.

Product Description:     Christopher R. Browning addresses some of the most heated controversies that have arisen from the use of postwar testimony: Hannah Arendt’s uncritical acceptance of Adolf Eichmann’s self-portrayal in Jerusalem; the conviction of Ivan Demjanuk (accused of being Treblinka death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible") on the basis of survivor testimony and its subsequent reversal by the Israeli Supreme Court; the debate in Poland sparked by Jan Gross’s use of both survivor and communist courtroom testimony in his book Neighbors; and the conflict between Browning himself and Daniel Goldhagen, author of Hitler’s Willing Executioners, regarding methodology and interpretation in the use of pre-trial testimony...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Presents a history of the Third Reich, covering such topics as major battles, personalities, events, and comparisons between pre- and post-War Germany.

Presents a history of the Third Reich, covering such topics as major battles, personalities, events, and comparisons between pre- and post-War Germany.

Product Description: Christopher R. Browning repond ici a trois questions essentielles pour la comprehension du genocide juif.1/ La prise de decision et l'elaboration de la politique au sein du regime nazi qui ont conduit a la " solution finale ."2/ Le recours momentane, pour des raisons pratiques, a la main-d'oeuvre juive, ce qui, d'un cote, pouvait entrer en conflit avec le projet ideologique du regime de destruction totale, mais lui etait en fait clairement subordonne, et qui, de l'autre, eut des repercussions sur les victimes dans la mesure ou il leur accorda un bref sursis avant l'extermination...read more

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The Path to Genocide studies three aspects of the events leading up to the Final Solution in Nazi Germany. First, Nazi's "solutions" to their self-imposed "Jewish problem" before resorting to mass-murder are examined, specifically ghettoization and early resettlement plans to expel Jews to Eastern Poland or the island of Madagascar. Second, the responsibility of shaping Nazi Jewish policy is shown to extend to the lower and middle echelon of government, through accommodation and conformity of a wide variety of perpetrators, including bureaucrats, doctors and policemen. Finally the role of Adolf Hitler in the decisionmaking process is examined, with a historiographical analysis of other accounts of his role. Browning argues that while Hitler did not operate according to a premeditated plan or blueprint, he did make the key decisions. This volume of essays provides perspectives on German Jewish policy both from the bottom of the government apparatus and from the top. (view table of contents)

Tells how a German reserve police batallion rounded up 1,800 Jews from the Polish village of Jozefow, shooting all but a few hundred of them (view table of contents)

An important concern in understanding the "machinery" of the Holocaust is the timing of the decision to put into effect the Final Solution, the systematic murder of the European Jews. This book explores the crucial first steps in implementing the mass murder, including Hitler's role in the decision-making process. The participation of middle and lower middle echelon Germans, and the development of the technology of destruction, in particular, the gas van for use in the death camps. Looking at events from summer 1941 to Spring 1942, Christopher Browning sheds important new light on the historians' debate about how the policy of systematic mass murder emerged.

Product Description: German Jewish policy was not the result of a conspiratorial plot hatched in Hitler's mind following Germany's defeat in WWI and then carried out with single-minded purpose and patient cunning through the instrumentation of a monolithic dictatorship...read more