Can It Happen Again?: Chronicles of the Holocaust

by Roselle K. Chartock (Editor), Jack Spencer (Editor)

A collection of over 100 eyewitness accounts, memoirs, documentary materials, and selections from eminent writers about the Holocaust and genocide.

Genres: Holocaust, History, Nonfiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 1995

Reviews

[Terry Tucker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was published in 1995 at a time the authors said that the Holocaust was being introduced into school curricula. It was originally issued in 1978. I found this gem at the Half Price Books Flagship store in Dallas. This book is an anthology and should be required reading for High School - at all grades and not just as a one semester class.
The book is broken down into six sections, starting with "What Happened," and progressing to "The Nature of Man," "Victims and Victimizers,""How and Why," "What This Reveals about the Individual and Society,""Aftermath," and concluding with "Could it Happen Again?"
The readings are compiled from more than 100 first hand (primary) accounts and secondary sources.
This book is a serious look at the issues of intolerance, obedience, resistance to authority, conformity, individualism, freedom, repression, good and evil. It is an exploration of morality at all levels.

"...Never before in modern history had one people made the killing of another the fulfillment of an ideology, in whose pursuit means were identical with ends."
When one views todays political landscape and the brutality of mob consensus in social media, the question of "Can it Happen Again" is critically important. History does not repeat itself exactly, but it has exceptionally strong parallels. The Themes in which this book examines and explores are timeless. I strongly suggest this book.

[Tomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be a good introduction to a study of the Holocaust. (And yes, it can.)

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

July 2, 2025 - Donald Trump is currently president of the United State of America. I read this book in the late 80s, just a few years after I graduated from high school. I read this book truly not knowing a thing about the Holocaust other than it happened.

I never wrote a review, so today, I decided to right one.

I had gone to a very conservative right wing school and didn't learn a lot of anything. Books became my teacher. So, as a 20 year old, I read this book shaking my head at the attrocoties of what happend. Throughtout the book I recalled talking to my mother asking, did this really happyen and then saying, no, no, no, this cannot happen again. And yet now in 2025 I can definitively say yes, it can and it is!

This is what Hilter did. And, this is what Trump is doing - you can put a check box after each one of these things:

Used racism to rise to power
Removed civil rights
Proposed mass deportation
Promised to make the country "great again"
Anti-(everyone who is not male, straight or white) but especially anti-Mexican or latin
Created detention camps (later called concentration camps)
Ridculed the media
Banned books
Censored information
Gave misinformation
Exploited workers
Accumulated additional wealth and wealth for others
Using forced labor - this is coming!
Created a document call the "final solution" - Trump's is Project 2025

The USA is creating concentraiton camps. We are removing citizenship statuses from immigrants, we are not providing due-process to people, we are tearing families away from each other. We are removing women's rights, we are removing human rights from anyone who is not male, straight or white. The world is watching the United States repeat everything that Hitler did and no one is stopping this.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read, if you have read other books on the Holocaust some parts will be a re-read. still a good reflection on what drove people to do unthinkable acts.