Europe Against the Jews, 1880-1945

by Götz Aly

Overview

From the award-winning historian of the Holocaust, Europe Against the Jews, 1880-1945 is the first book to move beyond Germany’s singular crime to the collaboration of Europe as a whole.

The Holocaust was perpetrated by the Germans, but it would not have been possible without the assistance of thousands of helpers in other countries: state officials, police, and civilians who eagerly supported the genocide. If we are to fully understand how and why the Holocaust happened, Götz Aly argues in this groundbreaking study, we must examine its prehistory throughout Europe. We must look at countries as far-flung as Romania and France, Russia and Greece, where, decades before the Nazis came to power, a deadly combination of envy, competition, nationalism, and social upheaval fueled a surge of anti-Semitism, creating the preconditions for the deportations and murder to come.

In the late nineteenth century, new opportunities for education and social advancement were opening up, and Jewish minorities took particular advantage of them, leading to widespread resentment. At the same time, newly created nation-states, especially in the east, were striving for ethnic homogeneity and national renewal, goals which they saw as inextricably linked. Drawing upon a wide range of previously unpublished sources, Aly traces the sequence of events that made persecution of Jews an increasingly acceptable European practice.
Ultimately, the German architects of genocide found support for the Final Solution in nearly all the countries they occupied or were allied with.

Without diminishing the guilt of German perpetrators, Aly documents the involvement of all of Europe in the destruction of the Jews, once again deepening our understanding of this most tormented history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250170170
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	04/07/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	214,225
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Götz Aly is the author of Hitler’s Beneficiaries and Why the Germans? Why the Jews?, among other books. One of the most respected historians of the Third Reich and the Holocaust, he has received the National Jewish Book Award, as well as Germany’s prestigious Heinrich Mann Prize, the Ludwig Börne Prize, and the Geschwister Scholl Prize, among numerous other honors. His books have been translated into 13 languages. He lives in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Prophets of Future Horrors
2. The Sluggish Versus the Ambitious
3. Peace, Civil War, Pogroms
4. Minorities and Migrants
5. Discrimination, Disenfranchisement, Denaturalization
6. Expulsion and Eradication
7. The Return of the Unwanted
Conclusion: Civilization and Its Breakdown
Bibliography
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index

Editorial Reviews

02/17/2020

In this sweeping and persuasive study, German historian Aly (Why the Germans? Why the Jews?) investigates how and why “the architects of genocide were able to find support for the Final Solution in nearly all of the countries occupied by or allied with Germany.” Noting that the phrase “anti-Semitism” first appeared in 1880, Aly links Russian pogroms, nativist political movements, and unequal distribution of industrial progress to this new form of hostility based on “national, social, and economic arguments.” Though contemporaneous observers claimed that anti-Jewish sentiment arose from envy and “base greed,” the reality, according to Aly, was that restrictive laws curtailed professional opportunities for most Jews. In the wake of WWI, efforts to compel Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe intensified, leading to persecution and violence. While France let in tens of thousands of Jewish refugees in the 1930s, other countries, including the U.S., curtailed entry permits, leaving few safe options for relocation. During WWII, leaders in Croatia and Romania seized the opportunity to rid their countries of Jews. Aly packs this dense account with statistics and analysis, making a convincing case that “the pace and extent” of the genocide could not have been achieved without widespread cooperation. This expertly researched account is destined to influence future histories of the Holocaust. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

05/01/2020

In this latest work, German historian Aly (Why the Germans? Why the Jews?) seeks to explain the successes and failures of Third Reich-directed genocide by tracing the development of late 19th- and early 20th-century anti-Semitism in European nationalist societies and governments. Through it all, Aly never loses sight of the primary and ultimate responsibility of Nazi Germany for the Holocaust. The author supports his contentions that people were motivated by envy and greed, and that desires to advance the educational and economic status of majority populations motivated the governments of Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and others to approve and implement laws that amounted to ethnic cleansing of Jews in the years before World War II. Included are numerous references to works by other historians and sociologists, along with contemporary witnesses. Particularly moving are the testimonies of Holocaust survivors who encountered rejection by their liberated post-war governments and the countrymen who invaded their homes and property, never expecting their return. Aly succeeds in demonstrating how Germany enlisted the populations and governments of occupied countries in their project of mass murder. VERDICT Essential reading for anyone trying to understand the Holocaust with a view toward preventing future genocides. [See Prepub Alert, 10/7/19.]—Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA

Library Journal

2020-01-26
The award-winning German author dips into his vast archive of resources to produce a major work on anti-Semitism.

Anti-Semitism has been around for centuries. Though occasionally somewhat dormant, usually during times of fiscal strength and political peace, it always returns to rear its ugly head, each time spelling disaster for Jewish populations. Aly—the highly respected historian of the Holocaust who won the 2007 Jewish Book Award for his excellent Hitler's Beneficiaries—examines the period of 1880 to 1945 to show how, why, and in what forms anti-Semitism increased sufficiently to support the Nazi concept of the Final Solution. The author ranges widely across Europe, examining Russia, Romania, France, and Greece as well as Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and other less-explored locales. “There is no way we can comprehend the pace and extent of the Holocaust,” writes Aly, “if we restrict our focus to the German centers of command.” While Jews were restricted from many jobs, they applied all their strength and determination to areas that were permitted, such as pharmacology, medicine, and journalism. Governmental actions began with bans on Jews serving municipalities and joining trade associations, and they also experienced limited access to education. After World War I, the concept of self-determination morphed into a brand of nationalism and misguided “racial theory” that led to increased animosity and violence. “Insofar as gentiles in the first half of the twentieth century pressed for Jews to be partially or completely stripped of their civil rights or insisted they be shipped off to somewhere outside Europe,” writes the author, “they were motivated by [an] obsessive anxiety: the fear of a supposedly overwhelming power and the real intellectual and economic agility of a small, precisely delineable ‘foreign’ group.” Though the gruesome subject and detail are sometimes tough to swallow, readers should forge ahead, relishing the author’s incredible research and singular scholarship.

Aly delivers again, this time expanding his lens outside of Germany to offer further revelations about the Holocaust.

Kirkus Reviews

"Aly is an earnest, tireless compiler of the often arcane or overlooked [with] a masterly command of the facts of the Nazi catastrophe. . . . his most ambitious effort."
—The New York Times Book Review

"If HBO's The Plot Against America makes you want to know the grim real-life context, read German historian Götz Aly's new book, Europe Against the Jews."
—New York Magazine

“Sweeping and persuasive . . . Aly makes a convincing case that the 'pace and extent' of the genocide could not have been achieved without widespread cooperation. This expertly researched account is destined to influence future histories of the Holocaust.”
—Publishers Weekly

“A major work on anti-Semitism of incredible research and singular scholarship. . . . Aly delivers again, this time expanding his lens outside of Germany to offer further revelations about the Holocaust.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Aly's panorama of horror is devastating. This is often a tough read—but a necessary one.”
—Der Spiegel

“Götz Aly's account comes alive with its descriptive details. They are what reveal the true infamy of anti-Jewish persecution.”
—Frankfurter Rundschau

“Götz Aly . . . uses exemplary individual destinies with their small stories to tell a much larger story, which makes this book all the more urgent.”
—Bayerischer Rundfunk

“Historian Götz Aly unfolds a panorama of enmity in Europe Against the Jews. His book has arrived just at the right time because it shows how much European hatred of Jews was stoked by nationalism.”
—Deutschlandfunk radio

“Reading this book, you have to ask yourself: What flaw in those democracies helped nurture an anti-Semitism that made the Holocaust possible? And when you've finished, you can't help but ask yourself: What flaw in present-day European democracies has helped nurture anger and resentment toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants, and where will this story end?”
—Freie Presse

“This book couldn't be more current. Aly gives a persuasive answer to the urgent question: What laid the groundwork for the anti-Semitism in Europe that allowed the National Socialists to find support for the Final Solution?”
—Handelsblatt

“What Aly has unearthed in Eastern European archives and elsewhere yields a wealth of previously unpublished evidence . . . a comprehensive and disturbing overview of European anti-Semitism.”
—Süddeutsche Zeitung

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