Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1935 to 1939 by David Cesarani - 2016, 1081 pages

I offer my great thanks to Max u for the Amazon Gift Card that allowed me to read this book.

An autodidactic Corner pick

“Who is on the lookout from this strange tower to warn us of the coming of new executioners? There are those of us who sincerely look upon the ruins today as if the old concentration-camp monster were dead and buried beneath them. Those who pretend to take hope again as the image fades, as though there were a cure for the plague of these camps. Those of us who pretend to believe that all this happened only once, at a certain time and in a certain place, and those who refuse to see, who do not heed the cry to the end of time.”  Jean Cayrol

Those without a real understanding of the Holocaust and the tremendous impact it still has on the world have little hope of an understanding of international politics. 

All teachers of history should read Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1935 to 1939 by David Cesarani.  This is a long book but once you read this you will know way 

more than just the basics.  Cesaranj begins his opus by telling us most people who know about the Holocaust, and of course with every passing day as ignorance becomes a mark of pride,

fewer have even heard of it, learned about it from TV shows.  Most think it was confined to concentration camps in Germany.

Cesarani integrates the political history of the rise of Hitler to the Holocaust.  He makes it very clear it was not just Germans who enthusiastically murdered Jews.  The Poles and the Lithuanians helped kill in the millions in mass shooting episodes.  It sickens me to see the current governments of Poland and Lithuania trying to deny their governments were fully complicit and eagerly cooperated in the murder of Jews.  France for sure has the blood of my beloved Irene Nemirovsky on her hands.  Ukrainians, Romanians, Hungarians all we’re happy to get rid of Jews in their areas.  Partially it was a form of robbery as the property of the Jews was then up for grabs.

Most who talk of the Holocaust try to say it was all caused by Hitler and the Nazis but almost all Germans approved of the Holocaust but of course after the war none of them 

of them had ever even known what was happening.  

Cesarani goes into depth explaining why Hitler hated Jews so much.

He talks about various plans for removing Jews either to Madagascar or far Eastern Russia.  There is chatter on the internet now that Zionism is tied to Nazi ideology and from Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1935 to 1939 by David Cesarani you can understand why people think this or try to claim it.

Cesarani talks about what happened to camp survivors who had no place to go.  Most did not want to return to destroyed homelands to live among those who wanted them gone.  Most survivors wanted to go to either The USA or Palestine.  Much of the strength of Israel comes from the spirit of Holocaust survivors who helped form Israel and made “Never Again” a sacred motto.

Read Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1935 to 1939 by David Cesarani and you will be much closer to understanding world events.