Holocausto moldea nuestra manera de pensar y hablar del mayor crimen de la historia. Es la historia de toda Europa, de la sucesión de hechos en los que esta gran atrocidad estuvo enraizada, desde la Edad Media a la Contemporanea. Deborah Dwork y Robert Jan van Pelt situan el Holocausto dentro de la historia de los judios en Occidente, desde el antijudaismo tradicional, pasando por la Ilustracion, el nacimiento del estado-nacion, las desdichas de la I Guerra Mundial y el inestable periodo de entreguerras. Al estudiar el ataque aleman a los judios mientras el Reich devoraba Europa, los autores nos muestran las multiples facetas de un cataclismo cultural, politico y social, y de agonia moral.
Unrivaled in reach and scope, Holocaust illuminates the long march of events, from the Middle Ages to the modern era, which led to this great atrocity. It is a story of all Europe, of Nazis and their allies, the experience of wartime occupation, the suffering and strategies of marked victims, the failure of international rescue, and the success of individual rescuers. It alone in Holocaust literature negotiates the chasm between the two histories, that of the perpetrators and of the victims and their families, shining new light on German actions and Jewish reactions. No other book in any language has so embraced this multifaceted story. Holocaust uniquely makes use of oral histories recorded by the authors over fifteen years across Europe and the United States, as well as never-before-analyzed archival documents, letters, and diaries; it contains in addition seventy-five illustrations and sixteen original maps, each accompanied by an extended caption. This book is an original analysis of a defining event.