A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War, Book Review Example

In his book, The Holocaust, Martin Gilbert gives a history of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. The book gives every account on the impact of the rise of Nazis in German on the Jewish people and what actually occurred during the Second World War. It offers a comprehensive history of the horrific tragedy. The author analyses anti-Semitism against the Jews within Europe from the time of Martin Luther to Hitler. The German’s invasion of Russia gives a prospect into the genocide.

Gilbert uses different accounts of eyewitnesses and relentless accumulation of details to organize the events and people so as it appears chronological (Martin 252). The tragedy arose due to rise in barbarism and reached a dreadful climax where the soviets and allied converged on the death camps with outbreaks of anti-Semitism after the surrender of the Germans. In the book, Gilbert shows with substantial evidence on how the Jews resisted throughout the time of war by their individual defiance and acts of courage. He also gives many examples of the Gentiles who risked their lives in protecting “Hitler’s prey.” It further describes how such Nazi rule had spread and how murder evolved from one country to the other as the German’s were extending their conquests.

The holocaust consisted of specific crimes that were innumerable and steadily resulted into the unleashing of cruelty. The issues discussed in this book can be majorly divided into three: the build up of inequity between the Germans and the Jews, prosecution of the Jews and the murder of the European Jews. The Germans did not regard the Jews as being equal to them. They regarded themselves as a superior race and thus did not want to associate with them. This led to anti-Semitism against the Jews. This led to the persecution of the Jews. They were hunted like rats, horrified by the war in the west that created terror in the east. Although, the Jews had resisted such evils, they were detained in the concentration camps where they were tortured, lived hungry and killed. There was also mass killing of the Jews in what they so called, crushing fires of hell (Martin 568). Blood of innocence poured. There were eye witnesses who saw every event of this tragedy, some of whom were killed while others survived. Their information was gotten from the diaries in which they had recorded the happenings.

The concentration camps that were built were used to detain both the imagined and real ideological and political opponents. Other victims included were the Jews, Roma, and those of racial and ethnic hatred. The aim was to concentrate and monitor of the Jewish population in the effort of facilitating their deportation. The invasion of the Soviet Union resulted into mass murders of millions of Jews and some were deported. Towards the end, they were marched from one concentration camp to the other in what they referred to as death marches (Martin 786).

This book is well written since it gives an account that is so detailed and contains numerous personal and eyewitness account all through. This brings out a sense of reality. The narrative tells us that the holocaust was a systematic state-sponsored, bureaucratic persecution and a deliberate murder of millions of men, women and children. The Germans had believed that they were superior while the Jews were inferior. During this tragic period the groups that were also targeted include the Roma, Slavic people, socialists as well as communists among others. The book has numerous pictures and maps to make it easy for the reader to locate every place that is mentioned throughout the book. However, this book neglects to give more details about the Nazi and what the ordinary Jews had known. It fails to explain how the German became ripe for such an evil to blossom. It also doesn’t show the use of the stolen valuables.

Work Cited

Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe during the Second World War. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1986.