Author Description

A collection of 320 documents, including official directives and reports, protocols of meetings, speeches, newspaper articles, propaganda, and personal letters and diaries, from both Jewish and Nazi sources. The introduction (p. 13-50) traces the changing position of the Jews within German society and waves of antisemitism from the Enlightenment to the Weimar period, and describes Nazi anti-Jewish measures and Jewish and non-Jewish reactions to them until 1937. A collection of 329 documents, from both Jewish and Nazi sources, concerning Jews in Germany and Austria in 1938-39, including the "Anschluss", the "Kristallnacht" pogrom, and the draconian anti-Jewish measures following the pogrom. The introduction (p. 13-63) chronicles the discrimination against and persecution of the Jews in the context of Nazi policy in general and the Nazi bureaucracy. Presents, also, a brief history of the Jews of Austria and of Austrian antisemitism. A collection of 321 documents, from both Jewish and Nazi sources, dealing with the persecution of Jews in Poland between September 1939-July 1941. The introduction (p. 13-56) traces the history of the Jews in Poland before World War I, their situation during the Second Polish Republic, the events that led to the war, the German attack on Poland, Jewish deliberations regarding whether to stay or flee, the administration of the occupied territories, the explusion of the Jews, their identification and dispossession, Jewish Councils and Jewish self-help, forced labor, ghettoization, everyday life and reactions of the Jewish population, and non-Jewish reactions. A collection of 320 documents dealing with the persecution of Jews in Germany (p. 83-563) and in the Protectorate, Bohemia and Moravia (p. 565-745), between September 1939-September 1941, from Jewish, non-Jewish, and Nazi sources. The introduction (p. 13-64) traces the history of that persecution. The war served as an excuse for Nazi authorities to toughen measures against "internal enemies", first and foremost the Jews. Discusses the first deportations, restrictions against the Jews, forced labor, "Jewish houses", plans to settle the Jews in Madagascar, their reactions to the persecution, the Jews' increasingly desperate attempts to leave Germany, and the Nazi preparations and implementation of Operation Barbarossa. Argues that a turning point was reached in fall 1941, when German units began to massacre Jews in eastern Poland and the Wartheland. In the Reich and the Protectorate, preparations for the deportation of Jews were going on full speed.