The Holocaust in the Soviet Union

by Yitzhak Arad

Overview

Published by the University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

The Holocaust in the Soviet Union is the most complete account to date of the Soviet Jews during the World War II and the Holocaust (1941–45). Reports, records, documents, and research previously unavailable in English enable Yitzhak Arad to trace the Holocaust in the German-occupied territories of the Soviet Union through three separate periods in which German political and military goals in the occupied territories dictated the treatment of the Jews. Arad’s examination of the differences between the Holocaust in the Soviet Union compared to other European nations reveals how Nazi ideological attacks on the Soviet Union, which included war on “Judeo-Bolshevism,” led to harsher treatment of Jews in the Soviet Union than in most other occupied territories.

This historical narrative presents a wealth of information from German, Russian, and Jewish archival sources that will be invaluable to scholars, researchers, and the general public for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803222700
Publisher:	University of Nebraska Press
Publication date:	07/01/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	304,187
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Yitzhak Arad served as the director of Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Authority, from 1972 to 1993. He is now retired but continues to research and write about the Holocaust. He is the author or editor of several books, including Documents on the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union, 8th edition (Nebraska 1999); Ponary Diary, 1941–1943: A Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder; and Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps.

Table of Contents

Contents

List of Tables  Preface            Part 1. The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union before World War II

1. Jews in Czarist Russia        

2. Jews in the USSR and in the Annexed Territories between the Two World Wars

Part 2. The Impact of Political and Military Developments on the Jews of

Eastern Europe, September 1, 1939, to June 22, 1941

3. German-Soviet Relations and Geopolitical Changes in Eastern Europe   

4. The Jews in the Soviet Annexed Territories          

5. Preparations in Germany for the Attack on the Soviet Union and the Annihilation of the Jews 

Part 3. The German Attack on the Soviet Union

6. Invasion under the Slogan "War on Judeo-Bolshevism"   

7. Evacuation of the Soviet Population: Jews in Organized and Individual Evacuation      

8. Anti-Jewish Pogroms during the Early Days of Occupation         

9. The German Administration in the Occupied Territories and Its Anti-Jewish Policy       

Part 4. Mass Murder, First Stage: June 22, 1941, to Winter 1941-42

10. Einsatzgruppen Routes of Advance and Method of Extermination       

11. Reichskommissariat Ostland: Ghettos and Extermination          

12. Reichskommissariat Ukraine: Ghettos and Extermination          

13. Military Administration Areas: Ghettos and Extermination       

14. Extermination of the Jews of Crimea      

15. The German Army from "Freedom of Action" for the Einsatzgruppen to Active Collaboration in the Murders           

16. Persecution of the Jews in District Galicia          

17. Romania and Transnistria: Expulsion and Mass Murder 

Part 5. Mass Murder, Second Stage: From Spring to Late 1942

18. The Killing Actions in Ostland and the Grodno-Volkovysk Region (Generalbezirk Bialystok)

19. Annihilation in Reichskommissariat Ukraine       

20. Mass Murder in District Galicia: Operation Reinhard     

21. Annihilation in Areas under Military Administration      

22. Transnistria: Life in the Shadow of Death          

Part 6. Mass Murder, Third Stage: From Early 1943 until the End of German Occupation

23. Liquidation of the Last Ghettos in Reichskommissariat Ostland

24. Liquidation of the Last Ghettos in Reichskommissariat Ukraine

25. Survival in Transnistria    

26. Action 1005         

Part 7. The Murder of Specific Jewish Groups

27. The Murder of Mixed Marriages, Their Offspring, and Jewish Children in Boardinghouses     

28. The Murder of Jewish Prisoners of War  

29. Extermination in Ostland of Jews from the Third Reich 

Part 8. The Robbery of Jewish Property and Cultural Values

30. Confiscation and Plunder            

31. The Pillage of Cultural Assets     

Part 9. Non-Jewish Society and Its Reaction to the Genocide of the Jews

32. The Local Population       

33. The Righteous among the Nations           

34. Attitudes of the Churches and Clergy toward the German Administration and Its Anti-Jewish Policy

Part 10. The Jews in Their Struggle for Life and in Armed Resistance

35. The Individual, the Public, and Jewish Councils in a Battle for Survival           

36. The Jewish Armed Underground in the Ghettos 

37. The Jews in Forests and the Partisan Movement 

38. Blood Account: Casualties and Survivors           

Conclusion     

Epilogue: The Holocaust and Soviet Governing Authorities

Notes  

Bibliography  

Index  

Editorial Reviews

"A significant contribution to the continuous effort of scholars to fathom the phenomenon known as 'The Holocaust.'" —Jewish Book World

Jewish Book World

"[The Holocaust in the Soviet Union] is a magisterial work of great significance. Particularly for readers more familiar with the Holocaust in western Europe and occupied Poland, there is a great deal to learn from it."—Maarten Pereboom, Shofar

— Maarten Pereboom

Shofar

"Yitzhak Arad has produced a notable work that is particularly valuable for its comprehensive documentation of Nazi crimes over a large geographic area."—Waitman W. Beorn, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

— Waitman W. Beorn

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

"This book is a supreme achievement and an essential work for all Holocaust libraries."—Hallie Cantor, Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

— Hallie Cantor

Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

"A masterful synthesis. . . . This study provides a much-needed panoramic view in a field that has produced mostly regional and microstudies in the past two decades. . . . Arad's remarkable tome has both an encyclopedic as well as broad-brush quality to it that makes it required reading in Holocaust Studies."—Bradley D. Woodworth, Russian Review

— Bradley D. Woodworth

Russian Review

"Arad's book constitutes a welcome and valuable contribution to Holocaust scholarship."—Šarūnas Liekis, Journal of Baltic Studies

— Sarunas Liekis

Journal of Baltic Studies

"Yitzhak Arad has produced a notable work that is particularly valuable for its comprehensive documentation of Nazi crimes over a large geographic area."—Waitman W. Beorn, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

Holocaust and Genocide Studies - Waitman W. Beorn

"[The Holocaust in the Soviet Union] is a magisterial work of great significance. Particularly for readers more familiar with the Holocaust in western Europe and occupied Poland, there is a great deal to learn from it."—Maarten Pereboom, Shofar

Shofar - Maarten Pereboom

"This book is a supreme achievement and an essential work for all Holocaust libraries."—Hallie Cantor, Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter

Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter - Hallie Cantor

"A masterful synthesis. . . . This study provides a much-needed panoramic view in a field that has produced mostly regional and microstudies in the past two decades. . . . Arad's remarkable tome has both an encyclopedic as well as broad-brush quality to it that makes it required reading in Holocaust Studies."—Bradley D. Woodworth, Russian Review

Russian Review - Bradley D. Woodworth

"Arad's book constitutes a welcome and valuable contribution to Holocaust scholarship."—Šarūnas Liekis, Journal of Baltic Studies

Journal of Baltic Studies - Sarunas Liekis