The Holocaust | Thomas Cussans

The Holocaust was the systematic murder of Europe's Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Second World War. An understanding of the historical circumstances that fed the Holocaust remains the essential means of making sense of the inexplicable crimes that occurred. This commemorative volume describes Jewish life before the spread of Nazism in Europe and Nazi ideologies. The author discusses the mass murder, the death camps such as Auschwitz, the perpetrators, the witnesses, the escapees, the refugee havens and the 10,000 Kindertransport youngsters who were given safe haven in Britain. We are told stories of the resistance, acts of heroism, survivors and those who risked their lives to save the Jews. Finally, we learn about the liberation of the camps, the resettlement of the Jews and how the events are remembered now. The 15 removable documents included in this book have been carefully selected to take us beyond the horrifying statistics and remind us that each number was a person. They include: letter describing Kristallnacht and a diary extract about life in the ghetto; list of Jews to be transported, including place of departure and destination; and drawings by a child incarcerated at Theresienstadt concentration camp.