The Holocaust cover art

The Holocaust

A New History

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The Holocaust

By: Laurence Rees
Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
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About this listen

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Holocaust by Laurence Rees, read by Jonathan Keeble.

This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history - how, and why, did the Holocaust happen?

Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Now, in his magnum opus, he combines their enthralling eyewitness testimony, a large amount of which has never been published before, with the latest academic research to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more than three decades.

This is a new history of the Holocaust in three ways. First, and most importantly, Rees has created a gripping narrative that that contains a large amount of testimony that has never been published before. Second, he places this powerful interview material in the context of an examination of the decision making process of the Nazi state, and in the process reveals the series of escalations that cumulatively created the horror. Third, Rees covers all those across Europe who participated in the deaths, and he argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the epicentre of Nazi thinking, what happened cannot be fully understood without considering the murder of the Jews alongside plans to kill millions of non-Jews, including homosexuals, 'Gypsies' and the disabled.

Through a chronological, intensely readable narrative, featuring enthralling eyewitness testimony and the latest academic research, this is a compelling new account of the worst crime in history.

20th Century Europe Germany Military Modern Politics & Government War & Crisis Judaism War Great Britain Holocaust Survival Western Europe Crime Scary Inspiring Imperialism Middle East

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Critic reviews

Anyone wanting a compelling, highly readable explanation of how and why the Holocaust happened, drawing on recent scholarship and impressively incorporating moving and harrowing interviews need look no further than Laurence Rees's brilliant book (Professor Ian Kershaw)
You might have thought that we know everything there is to know about the Holocaust but this book proves there is much more...
Absorbing, heart-breaking...he has drawn skilfully on speeches, documents and diaries of the Third Reich, and on the vast library of secondary literature, to weave together a powerful, inevitably harrowing revelation of the 20th century's greatest crime
This is by far the clearest book ever written about the Holocaust, but also the best in explaining both its origins and grotesque mentality, as well as its chaotic development
A fine book. Rees is a gifted educator, who can tell a complex story with compassion and clarity, without sacrificing all nuances...it comes alive through the voices of victims, killers and bystanders.
The interview material is largely compelling, always illuminating and on occasion, very moving . . . Like all of Rees's work, it is accurate and carefully researched
Rees has distilled 25 years of research into this compelling study, the finest single-volume account of the Holocaust. It is not a book for the faint-hearted. Some of the first-hand testimony is both shocking and heart-rending. Yet it has important things to say about human nature - what our species is capable of doing if not prevented by civilized laws - and demands to be read
A masterpiece. Laurence Rees's best book yet . . . In compelling prose, Rees tells the full story of the most shameful period in the story of Mankind
With The Holocaust he has set himself the task of writing an accessible chronological account of the murder of six million Jews in conditions of scarcely imaginable horror. He's done it excellently. There is no shortage of books on the Holocaust but Rees's stands out as a readable and authoritative exposition of how and why it happened, and the barbarous methods by which it was pursued. The amount of ground it covers in 500 pages is remarkable - from the anti-Semitism of popular German literature of the 19th century to Hitler's suicide and the surrender of his regime. It's excellently written and skilfully interweaves narrative history, sound interpretation and the recollections (through interviews, listed in the notes as "previously unpublished testimony") of survivors. Rees provides an exemplary account of how the greatest crime in modern history came about.
All stars
Most relevant
I've read and watched Laurence Rees's work about the ' Final Solution ' which was made by the BBC and is on Netflix as a 6 part documentary. This book is 25 years of work combined into as the author correctly states ' A New History '.

We all know about the atrocities of the Holocaust and how the sick, elderly, disables and Jews were persecuted. This book is a little different, though it does highlight the atrocities of that period it actually takes the readers into the mechanics of how and why the Holocaust came about.

I've actually ordered and received 2 other books by the author and a couple more books about this subject as even after reading and watching things about the Holocaust I still can't understand how one deluded maniac could influence a nation of people to rally against a race that Hitler blamed for the Germans losing the First World War.

Highly recommend this book for people who would like to know how this all came about and why it is still important to this day to keep this dark episode of the 20th Century open for future generations to learn from.

Astonishing Piece Of Work

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Amazing. Terrifying. An insight like none I've read or watched before.
The narrator is, I feel, a good choice. He brings a level of intensity and care to a telling of this history that is respectful.

The book itself is well paced, indepth and compelling to listen to.
The author presents the research, backed up by citing documents and interviews, in a chronological way. He gives his opinions and shows why he came to those conclusions.

If you want a broader (in the sensw that it covers a larger time scale) knowledge of the acts that took place in this dark area of our recent history, that is also full of detail this is definitely a good book to try

wow

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This is an excellent book, full of great detail and first hand accounts of works changing events. It goes into unflinching detail about what happened in places like Auschwitz and Sobibór, so is necessarily a hard listen, but worth it to understand what lead to the Holocaust.

Great book but a hard subject

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A well written book on Nazi Germany and her sycophants treatment of not only the Jews but anyone they deemed "subhuman".

The inaction of the Pope and Catholic Church as they put their fear of Russia before the life's of Jews.

Harrowing

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If you could sum up The Holocaust in three words, what would they be?

Horrifying, compelling Staggering

What other book might you compare The Holocaust to, and why?

I have read other books on WW2 but none like this - maybe some horrific fiction book

Have you listened to any of Mr Jonathan Keeble’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Haven't listened to any of his other stuff but I thought he did a great job with this

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Let this never happen again

Any additional comments?

Hopefully in the days of instant news this can never happen again though with regimes like Mugabe still going on it appears we are not learning lessons. I'm not sure how much WW2 means to young people these days but maybe this book should be taught to them so they can learn especially in the current political climate and the rise of the racists

Staggering book

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