Noted Holocaust scholar David M. Crowe presents a distinct and comprehensive examination of one of the greatest human tragedies in modern history.

Acclaimed scholar, professor, and writer in the field of Holocaust studies, David M. Crowe begins this compelling new text with a detailed overview of the history of the Jews, their two-millennia- old struggle with a larger Christian world, and the historic anti-Semitic hatred that created the environment to help pave the way for the Holocaust.

But it would take more than these traditional prejudices to bring Europe to the edge of the Holocaust. It would take someone like Adolf Hitler, who blended his own anti-Jewish hatred with contemporary ideas about eugenics, Aryan racial superiority, and post-World War I German nationalism to inform Nazi racial policies and bring about the implementation of the Final Solution. Crowe analyzes the complex origins and evolution of these policies not only toward the Jews, but also toward the Roma, the handicapped, and other groups deemed racial inferiors. For many victims, the Holocaust tragedy did not end in 1945: the pain of memory would be eternal. The text concludes with an examination of survivors' efforts to seek international justice and economic reparations.