The Final Solution sets out to clarify the key questions surrounding the attempt by the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. The controversial results of this study challenge many of our accepted ideas about the period.

Introduction Part 1 Antecedents, preconditions and legitimation 1 Volksgemeinschaft, ‘Aryanization’ and the Holocaust 2 Euthanasia and the Final Solution 3 The idea of the Final Solution and the role of experts Part 2 Operation Barbarossa, the Wehrmacht and the question of timing 4 Himmler, the architect of genocide 5 The relation between Operation Barbarossa as an ideological war of extermination and the Final Solution 6 Wehrmacht, Einsatzgruppen, Soviet POWs and anti-Bolshevism in the emergence of the Final Solution 7 Operation Barbarossa and the origins of the Final Solution 8 Hitler and the euphoria of victory: the path to the Final Solution Part 3 The implementation of the Final Solution and responses 9 The response of Polish Jewry to the Final Solution 10 The Holocaust in Lithuania: some unique aspects 11 Types of Genocide? Croatians, Serbs and Jews, 1941–5 12 How far did Vichy France ‘sabotage’ the imperatives of Wannsee? 13 German public awareness of the Final Solution 14 Rescue through statehood: the American Zionist response to the Holocaust 15 Different worlds: British perceptions of the Final Solution during the Second World War 16 Enmity, indifference or cooperation: the Allies and Yishuv’s rescue activists Part 4 Historiography 17 Documents on the Holocaust in archives of the former Soviet Union Conclusion: the significance of the Final Solution

'It should be essential reading for all those involved in the subject.' - The British Journal of Holocaust Education'It is impossible to summarise all the essays ... all are distinguished. Not a pleasant book; but reading it is, I would say, a necessary way of approaching the end of the century.' - Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph'An indispensable guide to the present state of knowledge and understanding of the holocaust.' - Independent on Sunday'The book, which closes with a thought provoking, if somewhat sombre, essay on the significance of the Final Solution, is well produced and represents a further step in our ongoing attempts to understand this unprecedented tragedy.' - AJR Information July 1994'A valuable and stimulating collection of essays.' - - Antony Polonsky, Time Literary Supplement