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Summary
Summary
Peter Hayes has been teaching Holocaust studies for decades and Why? grows out of the questions he's encountered from his students. Despite the outpouring of books, films, memorials, museums and courses devoted to the subject, a coherent explanation of why such carnage erupted still eludes people. Numerous myths have sprouted, many to console us that things could have gone differently if only some person or entity had acted more bravely or wisely; others cast new blame on favourite or surprising villains or even on historians.
Why? dispels many legends and debunks the most prevalent ones, including the claim that the Holocaust never happened. Hayes brings scholarly wisdom to bear on popular views of the history, challenging some of the most prominent interpretations and arguing that the convergence of multiple forces at a particular moment resulted in this catastrophe.
Author Notes
Peter Hayes is professor of history and German and Theodore Zev Weiss Holocaust Educational Foundation Professor of Holocaust Studies Emeritus at Northwestern University, and chair of the Academic Committee of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Hayes (How Was It Possible?), professor emeritus of Holocaust studies at Northwestern University, answers eight questions relating to the Shoah in order to show that it is "no less historically explicable than any other human experience." Particular themes frame the chapters, which have subtitles such as "Why the Germans?," "Why Didn't More Jews Fight Back More Often?," and "Why Such Limited Help from Outside?" An economic historian by training, Hayes delves into the day-to-day functioning of the Nazi slave-labor system. He also examines the fraught nature of the relationship between Polish Jews and gentiles during the Holocaust. His analysis of Jewish leaders' diverse survival strategies shows that none had much effect against the relentless Nazi murder machinery. In Minsk, for example, the two heads of the ghetto actively supported armed resistance, yet "that availed them little as the ghetto's population dropped from 100,000, in October 1941, to 12,000, in August 1942." In his concluding chapter on legacies and lessons, Hayes sturdily debunks a number of Holocaust myths. But it's also the book's weakest section; his lessons there focus on prevention of the Holocaust's recurrence and are stated vaguely: e.g. "Be self-reliant but not isolationist." Hayes reveals the virtues of dealing with this overwhelming subject in a topical rather than a chronological way. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Choice Review
This most recent book by historian Hayes (Northwestern Univ.) is the culmination of over three decades of research, writing, and lecturing on the Holocaust. Organized around eight central questions, Why? synthesizes current knowledge in accessible prose. After a brief introduction justifying yet another book on the Holocaust, Hayes sets to work examining the central questions: Why did perpetrators target the Jews? Why did Germans become perpetrators? Why did the perpetrators eventually choose to murder their victims? Why did the development from persecution to murder occur so quickly and over such a sweeping area? Why didn't more Jews fight back? Why did survival rates vary so greatly? Why did onlookers provide such limited assistance to Jews? And what are the lessons and legacies of the Holocaust? A short review cannot do justice to the breadth and depth of the scholarship exhibited in each chapter. This authoritative volume is mandatory for scholars and armchair historians interested in the origins, course, and outcomes of the Holocaust. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. --Mark A. Mengerink, Lamar University
Library Journal Review
Few other historical events are as frequently analyzed as the Holocaust, yet too often these investigations present information that is not unique. Hayes (history, German, Northwestern Univ.) offers a refreshing examination of this World War II atrocity and why it was allowed to happen. As the chair of the academic committee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Hayes expertly answers commonly fielded but complex questions in chapter topics such as "Why the Jews?," which details the events leading up to Hitler's rise in power; "Why Murder?," which explains the factors that led up to mass extermination, and "Why Such Limited Help from Outside?," a thorough examination of the influences that spurred complicity among outside -countries. Throughout, Hayes dispels prevailing myths that negatively impact Holocaust scholarship, such as the misconception that anti-Semitism brought Hitler to power. The work concludes with legacies and lessons of the Holocaust while emphasizing the importance of abolishing indifference. -VERDICT In a narrative brimming with historical sources, Hayes's work is required reading for history scholars, amateur history buffs, and anyone interested in answering necessary questions surrounding this tragedy.-Marian Mays, -Washington Talking Book & Braille Lib., Seattle © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction: Why Another Book on the Holocaust? | p. xiii |
| 1 Targets: Why the Jews? | p. 3 |
| Antisemitism | p. 3 |
| Emancipation and Backlash | p. 20 |
| 2 Attackers: Why the Germans? | p. 36 |
| Nation and Volk | p. 36 |
| Hitler's Opportunity | p. 55 |
| 3 Escalation: Why Murder? | p. 73 |
| From Aryanization to Atrocity | p. 75 |
| Gentile and Jewish Responses | p. 91 |
| 4 Annihilation: Why This Swift and Sweeping? | p. 114 |
| From Bullets to Gas | p. 116 |
| Perpetrators: the "generation without limits" | p. 137 |
| Enslavement | p. 160 |
| 5 Victims: Why Didn't More Jews Fight Back More Often? | p. 176 |
| Compliance and Resistance | p. 177 |
| The World of the Camps | p. 202 |
| 6 Homelands: Why Did Survival Rates Diverge? | p. 218 |
| Varieties of Behavior | p. 219 |
| The Case of Poland | p. 240 |
| 7 Onlookers: Why Such Limited Help from Outside? | p. 259 |
| Prewar Evasions | p. 260 |
| Wartime Priorities | p. 278 |
| 8 Aftermath: What Legacies, What Lessons? | p. 300 |
| Return, Resettlement, Retribution, and Restitution | p. 300 |
| Memory, Myths, and Meanings | p. 324 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 345 |
| Notes | p. 347 |
| Selected Bibliography | p. 367 |
| Index | p. 391 |