Will I love The Years of Extermination, 1939 – 1945?

I could not write about scapegoating without writing about perhaps history’s ultimate example of scapegoating: the Nazi persecution of the Jews. I focused on this volume because I wanted to understand how Hitler turned the German population against a small minority in their country. I appreciated how Friedländer takes his time and carefully traces the ideological and cultural steps that go into creating a scapegoat. Volume II covers the horrendous result: the Years of Extermination, 1939-1945.

With a narrative of just over 650 pages, this is the book for the reader out there who wants it all: the names, the dates, the facts, the figures, the individual experience, and the analysis, all wrapped up in an engrossing, readable narrative. Friedländer’s impeccable scholarship speaks to the historian in me, but, more importantly, it speaks to the humanity in me. When I sat down to read this second volume, I wasn’t struck by how thick it was. I was struck by the magnitude of tragedy that the book represented. For the reader who has read widely on… show more.