Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism (Jewish Society and Culture)

This compelling and meticulously researched investigation engages with one of the most controversial of questions regarding Hitler's Final Solution: namely, to what degree did the German public actively assent to the genocidal policies of the Nazi regime?

David Bankier address this question with regard to the German public as a whole, drawing upon a wide range of documents and sources, including the extensive files of the Nazi security services, diplomatic and Allied intelligence materials, the reports of government and party authorities, and eyewitness accounts. Much of this material has never previously been brought to the light of day.

The Germans and the Final Solution stand as the fullest assessment to date of the attitudes of the German public to the Nazi policy of antisemitism and its genocidal conclusion. David Bankier's pathbreaking work will be widely read by scholars and students of contemporary European Jewish history and the history of Nazi Germany.