The Holocaust

“Contributed magnificently to the vast corpus of Holocaust literature.... Serve[s] as an excellent guide for the perplexed.”

“Rees has compiled a readable, moving, and comprehensive overview of this scholarship, enlivened by vivid first‑person reminiscences... Readers looking for a single‑volume history of the Holocaust will have trouble finding one better than this.”

“Rees has spent his life researching, writing, and making documentaries about the Holocaust, and his new book is full of facts and stories that landed on the cutting‑room floor when he was editing his other works. It is a long and detailed explanation of why the Holocaust happened, of why Hitler was embraced by millions, of why what's thought of by many as an aberration wasn't an aberration at all but a result of all the history and politics and religion and prejudice that went on for centuries before.”

“Anyone wanting a compelling, highly readable explanation of how and why the Holocaust happened, drawing on recent scholarship and impressively incorporating moving and harrowing interviews with victims as well as chilling accounts by perpetrators, need look no further than Rees's brilliant book.”

“A masterpiece... Rees' best book yet”

“This is by far the clearest book ever written about the Holocaust, and also the best at explaining its origins and grotesque mentality, as well as its chaotic development.”