Perpetrators Victims Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe, 1933-1945 Paperback – September 15, 1993

The book arrived promptly in good condition.

This is a very good book that grips you with each page because it just shows how far the Holocaust era dug into an entire nation. Well worth taking a look at if nothing else other than to give a wider perspective of a very disasterous time.

Hilberg, the foremost historian on the Holocaust, produces another thoroughly researched, attentive book on the Holocaust. His writings are without judgement per se, he lets the acts speak for themselves. An amazing historian.

One of the best on the subject.

This is not really the type of book I would normally buy. It is very dry, and I struggled to follow. I guess I do better with a narrative format, one that has stories and anecdotes that bring the history to life. Hilberg is obviously an historian of the highest level, but there is a reason I love history, but never much enjoyed college history classes. The book is well researched, and I must say that it offered me many great insights. I guess i just need to be more selective with the format I choose. Still, I have to give this a good recommendation, based on the thoroughness and documentary evidence provided.

for husband

Raul Hilberg is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the Holocaust.His writing is clear, there is no baggage or ideology, just a simple desire to tell the story of the 20th century's worst atrocity.The book is systematic, dealing first with the ideology of Hitler and the senior Nazis who planned the Holocaust and moving on to look at the victims and the perpetrators. Hilberg also describes how many people who were aware of the process of attempted mass murder of all Jews but did little to stop it.The Russian writer and journalist Vassily Grossman, who was among the first to enter the death camp at Treblinka after liberation, was shocked to learn that just a few dozen SS and a slightly larger group of local armed helpers could gas and bury several thousand victims each day. Hilberg goes further than Grossman to explain how many of the victims were tricked into thinking they were going to resettlement in the East. He also explains how even those who knew their fate were broken long before they were rounded-up for the transports. The erosion of health and self-worth was not sudden; for German Jews the process began in 1933 with Hitler's rise to power and the removal of Jews from the civil service. But Hilberg points out that even by 1936, most German Jews still felt 'German', especially those who had fought with honour in the First World War. For many the turning point, the moment of awful awareness, was in 1938 by which time refuge or escape from the growing violence was harder to achieve.Some Jews made temporary conversion to Catholicism in the hope of being spared. Sometimes this was successful more often the attempt was exposed. Hilberg describes the revulsion of one atheist Jew, fully aware of his fate, for those who sought protection through false conversion.Personally I found the most disturbing passage was Hilberg's description of how so many non-Jewish Croats, Latvians, Estonians, Poles and Ukrainians were eager to help the Nazis to clear ghettos, drive gassing vans, shoot women and children in forest clearings and 'finish-off' the Jewish, Gypsy and Russian wounded. Some were motivated by bitterness and hate, especially those who had experienced Russian domination and cruelty before 1941. Many of these people had been victims of Russian excess in their turn and they held Jews responsible for Soviet 'bolshevism'.Some of the perpetrators were reluctantly drawn into killing and tired of it, making feeble attempts to disengage themselves from the murder machine. But a similar number had a sadistic thirst for it, setting-up gladiatorial contests between inmates, in which both would die. Sometimes the work-camp controllers made prisoners lift huge rocks from one place to another until the strain of this useless work exhausted them. (In his own memoir of being a prisoner in Buchenwald, Bruno Bettleheim points out that this 'hopeless work' was also used by the SS in their own physical training. The difference being that the SS recruit was fit, strong and well fed, the camp inmate starving, weak and louse-ridden).I found the book too grim to read straight-off. It requires concentration then reflection. It is a dire warning to us that the most mundane of people can be drawn into serving a pathological and vicious regime.

In Perpetrators, Raul Hilberg addresses the Holocaust from the perspective of the actors. He divides his work into three major categories which he will define and classify as Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders; each of them juxtaposing different chronicles and allowing the reader to recreate the torrid scenarios in a graphic format. With a skillful -albeit provocative- style, he accounts the different roles of social behavior experienced during the Jewish catastrophe from 1933-45. Because he was born to a Polish-Romanian Jewish family in Austria and actually experienced the shocks of war, Hilberg smudged his work with the colors of a protagonist writer, homogenizing his personal tribute to the victims of the European massacre. Both authors – Dawidowicz and Hilberg - provide exhaustive illustrative details of the Jewish calamity. Zooming with two different views, they portray historical facts with clear scrutiny. Paradoxically to Raul Hilberg’s work, Dawidowicz emphasizes the accountability of the Jurendat (Jewish leaders), exhibiting a pragmatic more logical point of view in two different angles. Simultaneously, Hilberg’s view on the Jewish counselors –more sympathetic unbiased and candid - gently differs in its study, providing elements of abyssal study. With great merit, both authors amalgamate the record of the Jewish tragedy immortalizing its predicament in a wholly factual exposition. Two great historians and catalysts of an innovative yet contemporary reflection on the Jewish theme.

Quem já leu "A destruição dos judeus da Europa", sabe do estilo de RH. Esta obra serve como um sumário muito bem pontuado entre as personagens, sem perder tempo com filigranas.. Par os iniciantes, ideal. Sempre muito bem escrito. 2 estrelas por conta do formato (pocket book) e pela qualidade da encadernação....tipo livro de banca de jornal, papel de 3ª categoria. Uma pena. Mas para não gastar um absurdo numa capa-dura..."é o que tem prá hoje"...Conhecimento no Brasil custa muito caro.

This book is divided into 3 sections; one for each of the words in the title (Perpetrators, Victims and Bystanders).The subject matter is impartial, direct, balanced and accurate. This material will assist those who wish to understand the Nazi Holocaust in greater detail, as well as the minds of the participants, the nature of their victims. 'Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders' is not a sensationalist account and consequentially will present itself as 'standoffish' at times. Raul is the preeminent academic on the Nazi Holocaust: the subject matter reflects this, juxtaposed to the purposes of distortion. I assert that this work reveals insight and illumination. Hilbergs accomplishment in his work, his study and conclusions are to be commemorated in fact. I salute his honesty, integrity and professionalism.I recommend this book under the context of a sober reflection of a very serious topic.

I bought this book in American as I could no longer find the Italian edition. It is a great book and talks about these 3 main categories of people who had to do with the Jewish Catastrophe. It makes a deep analysis of the single people, their education and background and the time they lived in. It is a great book which has helped me in better identify, highlight and understand some aspects of those who have been involved into the destruction process.Raul HIlberg is a great author, a great historicist and I thank him very much for his awesome work of research during the years.

Raul Hilberg is regarded as one of the foremost experts on the Holocaust.His writing is clear, there is no baggage or ideology, just a simple desire to tell the story of the 20th century's worst atrocity.The book is systematic, dealing first with the ideology of Hitler and the senior Nazis who planned the Holocaust and moving on to look at the victims and the perpetrators. Hilberg also describes how so many people, within and outside Germany, who were aware of the process of attempted mass murder of all European Jews, did little to stop it.The Russian writer and journalist Vassily Grossman, who was among the first to enter the death camp at Treblinka after liberation, was shocked to learn that just a few dozen SS and a slightly larger group of local armed helpers could gas and bury several thousand victims each day. Hilberg goes further than Grossman to explain how many of the victims were tricked into thinking they were going to resettlement in the East. He also explains how even those who knew their fate were 'broken' long before they were rounded-up for the transports. The erosion of health and self-worth was not sudden; for German Jews the process began in 1933 with Hitler's rise to power and the removal of Jews from the civil service. But Hilberg points out that even by 1936, most German Jews still felt 'German', especially those who had fought with honour in the First World War. For many the turning point, the moment of awful awareness, was in 1938, by which time refuge or escape from the growing violence was harder to achieve.Some Jews made temporary conversion to Catholicism in the hope of being spared. Sometimes this was successful more often the attempt was exposed. Hilberg describes the revulsion of one atheist Jew, fully aware of his fate, for those who sought protection through false conversion.Personally I found the most disturbing passage was Hilberg's description of how so many non-Jewish nationals in Nazi occupied Europe; Croats, Dutch, Latvians, Estonians, Poles and Ukrainians were eager to help the Nazis to clear ghettos, drive gassing vans, shoot women and children in forest clearings and 'finish-off' the Jewish, Gypsy and Russian wounded. Yet Danes did not 'turn-in' their Jewish neighbours, it seems. Some collaborators were motivated by bitterness and hate, especially those who had experienced Russian domination and cruelty before 1941. Many of these people had been victims of Russian excess in their turn and they held Jews responsible for Soviet 'bolshevism'.Some of the perpetrators were reluctantly drawn into killing and soon tired of it, making feeble attempts to disengage themselves from the murder machine. But a similar number had a sadistic thirst for it, setting-up gladiatorial contests between inmates, in which both would die. Sometimes the work-camp controllers made prisoners lift huge rocks from one place to another until the strain of this useless work exhausted them. (In his own memoir of being a prisoner in Buchenwald, Bruno Bettleheim points out that this 'hopeless work' was also used by the SS in their own physical training. The difference being that the SS recruit was fit, strong and well fed, the camp inmate starving, weak and louse-ridden).I found the book too grim to read straight-off. It requires concentration then reflection. It is a dire warning to us that the most mundane of people can be drawn into serving a pathological and vicious regime.

excellent presentation from a different perspective on what happened in the persecution and compliance by society of the Jews in WW2