Laurence Rees

One of the most baffling feature of the Nazi regime was that, despite being a brutal dictatorship obsessed with order, perfection, and discipline, some of the major decisions that came to define it were actually taken in complete chaos, rushed uncertainty, and wild arbitrariness, often under the pressure of outside and unpredictable events. Tragically, Auschwitz, which since then became the symbol of a whole nauseating ideology, didn't escape such rule; like Laurence Rees reminds us here in show more this remarkable book retelling the story of the camp.

The British historian and journalist (he wrote and produced many documentaries for the BBC) shows how what started as a simple transit camp for prisoners slowly turned into one of the most efficient killing machine of the Third Reich. Cleverly structured, he gives us to see the Auschwitz-monstrosity continuously metamorphosing itself, depending varyingly on the circumstances of the war - especially events on the Eastern front.

Beyond that, he also tries to understand how human beings could have committed such atrocities. There's the abject and brutal cynicism of a Rudolf Hoess, or, the sadism of a Joseph Mengele; but, beyond these two emblematic and well-known figures, Laurence Rees actually went to interview SS involved in the extermination process (in Auschwitz and elsewhere). The window thus opened upon their psyche is chilling. Without denying the issue of individual responsibility when faced with immoral and unethical choices, by putting their deeds straight back into the context of the time we get a better glimpse of why they ultimately went with it all. Such awareness is shocking, but, it also help to shed lights as to why, loosing itself into the Cold War and the fog of another brutal and murderous regime (Stalinism in Eastern Europe) we will have to wait several decades after the end of WWII before fully getting to grip with the true magnitude of such a genocide. Back then indeed, antisemitism and anti-Jewish actions were far from being the sole prerogative of the Nazis! Most culprits went unpunished. Let's remember, too, that despite the Allies knowing about it all at least since the summer of 1944, liberating these camps were not a priority on their military agendas (the camp will ultimately be liberated only in January 1945...).

Polemics aside, one of the core strength of the book is that the author takes the time, each chapter, to dedicate a few pages to personal stories of people having been through it. It's not about a vulgar display of pathos (though it can be an emotionally difficult read) but, about better understanding the human impact of what were cold and bureaucratic measures (eg. the brutality of the ghettos in Poland, their cleansing, the mass arrests in France, the Danish exception...). On an even more individual level, he even reveals amazing stories where truth surpasses fiction (eg. a Jewish prisoner and a SS guard falling in love with each other...) blowing thus away the black or white dichotomy so easy to fall into when dealing with such topics.

Informed, rich, intelligent, sensitive... Here's a must read for anyone trying to better understand one of the most bewildering episode of our history. show less

Based upon a quarter century of interviews with hundreds of survivors and perpetrators of systematic mass murder by the Nazi regime in the Second World War, Laurence Rees, in his "The Holocaust: a New History", writes a deeply moving and harrowing account of humanity at our worst- and in a few occasions of extraordinary courage and compassion, at our best.

The "Holocaust" as an historical term is relatively new and indefinite. It is usually applied to describe the genocide that killed six show more million European Jews, but Rees argues that, although Hitler's pathological hatred of the Jews was central to the Nazi crimes against humanity, we should also understand the larger context in which the Nazis murdered millions of Catholic Poles, Red Army POWs, Soviet civilians, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, political prisoners, disabled people and others- and planned to starve to death tens of millions of the "sub-human" inhabitants of the lands they conquered in the East in their quest for "Lebensraum" for Germanic settlers.

Rees also argues that the Holocaust developed chiefly in response to the events of the war. While Hitler always intended to somehow rid Germany of the Jews, the extermination of the Jews of Europe only became systematic with the invasion of the Soviet Union: and after all other nations, including the United States, refused to accept large numbers of Jewish refugees. show less

Rees asks in his intro, "When do you think the Second World War ended?" and his answer to that is, "Well, it depends how you look at it." In 1945 when the war ended in the West, in eastern Europe the people "simply swapped the rule of one tyrant for another." How did this injustice happen? Rees, with the help of eyewitnesses and key archival material recently made available in the Soviet Union, attempts to answer this crucial question. A thoughtful and thought-provoking book.

Pretty good book about the Holocaust focusing mainly on Auschwitz that also covers a lot of rest of the so-called Final Solution too; the motivations, personnel, bureaucracy, logistics. etc. The best aspect is the mundanity of it all except for the victims. Most people like you and me, when asked say "I'd never do a thing like that," or I'd resist." Bullshit! Replace the Jew, for which you might not have a great hatred for, by Muslim, or Gay, African-American or Asian, Transgender...you get show more what I mean. What if your government showed up tomorrow and said: "We want you to take care of these people in resettlement camps," or "How about a nice paying job in the administration, say paying twice what your getting now, with healthcare." Or how about as they are just rounding up these folks or as they truck/bus them by your house. You'd be out in the street throwing rocks, screaming and shouting with a rake at the perpetrators even if they told you they knew where you lived or there was plenty of room for you too, or your kids. Right. Even worse, when they put up those "We're Hiring" notices at three times what your making at WalMart? You'd never do it. Or a cushy executive/manager job in "logistics" or "engineering," where you never have to see a gun, or worse; particularly if your other choice was going to Iraq, or Afghanistan, or Korea, or the Republic of Niger or Mexico. You'd be right there at the job fair, maybe I would too. That's the real scary part. Both sides of the fence were just ordinary people in a civilized modern country, not some madmen.

Look in the mirror tomorrow and seriously ask the question. It'll creep you out. show less