Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution

Hitler, the Germans, and the Final Solution is a deeply insightful social history of Hitler’s rise to power and the attitudes of the German people during the era of the Third Reich.

This book is the culmination of more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi Germany by one of the period’s most distinguished historians. The volume brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian Kershaw’s research on the Holocaust for the first time.

The writings are arranged in three sections—Hitler and the Final Solution, popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in historiography—along with an introduction and a closing section on the uniqueness of Nazism provided by Kershaw.

Kershaw was a founding historian of the social history of the Third Reich, and he has conducted pioneering research on the societal causes and consequences of Nazi policy throughout his career. His work has illuminated the ways in which the attitudes of the German populace shaped and did not shape Nazi policy.

This volume presents a comprehensive, multifaceted picture both of the destructive dynamic of the Nazi leadership and of the attitudes and behaviour of ordinary Germans as the persecution of the Jews spiralled into total genocide.