The History of the Holocaust keeps being written and rewritten in ever greater detail, but almost always by Jews. Wolfgang Benz's book makes an important contribution by bringing German perspective to this horrific event. The first book written by a scholar of the younger generation, The Holocaust does not attempt to explain the role of antisemitism throughout history, the origins of National Socialism, or to question why German citizens allowed the Holocaust to take place.

Instead, Benz's goal is to provide and analyze the incontrovertible facts and political decisions that led to the dehumanization and systematic murder of millions of Jews and other ethnic minorities in Germany and Eastern Europe during the Nazi regime.

From the Wannsee Conference of January 1942, which established a plan "to rid all German territory of Jews by legal means," to the laws that allowed active governmental discrimination against Jews, the stripping of their civil rights, the establishment of ghettos throughout Eastern Europe, the creation of killing centers, and the development of an efficient system of extermination, The Holocaust details the events, individuals, and decisions that determined the fate of millions.

An important work of historical analysis, this volume is a powerful introduction to the history of the Holocaust. The book concludes with a discussion of what the German people really knew about the genocide.