Nazi Anti-Semitism: From Prejudice to the Holocaust

by Philippe Burrin, Janet Lloyd (Translator)

From a leading historian of Nazi Germany, a new exploration of the evolution of policies that led to the horror of the Holocaust.

One of the continuing puzzles of twentieth-century history is how Germany moved from a kind of anti-Semitism that was despicable, but did not seem exceedingly dangerous, to the Final Solution. This question has been much debated in recent years, and historians have arrived at very different answers.

In Nazi Anti-Semitism , Philippe Burrin, one of the leading historians of Nazi Germany, offers a new understanding of the evolution of Nazi thought and policy. Disagreeing with those such as Daniel Goldhagen (author of Hitler's Willing Executioners ) who would condemn the German population as a whole for being inherently anti-Jewish, Burrin presents a more nuanced picture and shows how Nazi policy evolved gradually. How the Germans proceeded from seemingly unthinkable premises to the actual horror of the Holocaust is the story that he tells in this essential book.

Burrin's France Under the Germans , published by The New Press in 1997, received widespread praise and has become a seminal work. Already published to great acclaim in France, Nazi Anti-Semitism opens new perspectives in a vital historical debate with continuing relevance.

Genres: Holocaust, World War II

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Philippe Burrin enseigne à l'Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales de Genève.

Reviews

[Brett C · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty short book that gives a new take on anti-semitism under the Nazi Germany. You literally read from the beginning systematic prejudices and discriminations against the Jewish population to the decision of mass murder and the Holocaust. I found this book interesting.

[Marie Andrews · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Read for research for my dissertation*
This book was okay. It was written in a very clear and concise manner, which made it easy to understand if you knew very little about the subject. However, it doesn't always go into very much depth (the book itself is only ~150 pages) so I wouldn't recommend it if you know quite a bit on the subject already. It mainly focused on why the Jews were at the brunt of the Nazi policies and the history of Jewish people in Germany pre-1933, but it would have been great to explore some anti-semitism policies in more detail, the effects of this, and perhaps even some personal experience stories. It was super quick and easy to read though.

[Jamie Neith · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this because the thesis was interesting to me, it proposed three questions which are, "why did this take place in Germany when antisemitism was widespread throughout Europe?", "Why did antisemitism become the norm in german society - and why was it radical?", and, "why did the Nazis settle on massacre when other solutions, such as apartheid, could have been considered..." -each question seems simple enough to answer and sort of touched on the main thing I wanted to know, which basically was WHY. I guess it's virtually impossible to understand the answer to this question and for that reason I felt disappointed by the book. Why was Hitler such a sicko, I guess we could look at his background, his mental illness, blah blah. Why were the Nazis so fucking stupid? Why did they follow? Why was this condoned. Why did so many people die. Summing up one of the biggest atrocities our world has ever seen can't really been done with a thesis that is so specified. The book literally answered the question that it posed and didn't really veer off course. Which basically made it more boring than I expected. Sort of mad that I spent 23 dollars.