Gilbert Martin the Holocaust

¶ … Holocaust: A History of the Jews of Europe During the Second World War by Martin Gilbert. Specifically, it will contain an analysis of the book's main arguments, and the issues they raise, along with an opinion on these arguments. The strengths and weaknesses of these points will be the focus of the analysis. Gilbert's book on the Holocaust is a massive volume dedicated to the suffering of the Jews at the hands of the Nazis during World War II.

The book is set up almost like a journal, with nearly a day-by-day description of the brutalities and horrors heaped on Jews all over Europe. Gilbert states his thesis early in the Preface: "This book is an attempt to draw on the nearest of the witnesses, those closest to the destruction, and through their testimony to tell something of the suffering of those who perished, and are forever silent" (Gilbert 18).

Gilbert uses numerous interviews and written records to retell some of the most horrific stories of viciousness and terror so the reader will come away with a deeper understanding of what the Jews suffered, and just what a miracle it is that any survived. The author employs a vast number of sources in order to make his book more complete, and to illustrate the suffering going on all over Europe in Jewish communities.

He interviews hundreds of Holocaust survivors, who tell compelling and unbelievable stories of violence, hatred, and viciousness so appalling, they tend to run together into a vast cauldron of denial. It is quite clear the author used any avenue available to him to complete his research and find sources for his book. The most compelling sources are those survivors who recount the unspeakable horrors that continued around them until the Jews' liberation in mid-1945. The book is crammed with horrible testimony to the cruelty and inhumanity of the Nazis.

This is just one example: "the Germans undermined the wall of ravine and buried the people under the thick layers of earth. But the earth was moving long after, because wounded and still alive Jews were still moving. One girl was crying: 'Mammy, why do they pour the sand into my eyes?'" (Gilbert 203).

The author's intent is clear, he wanted to include the most valid witnesses he could so the book would continually remind the reader of the horrors of the concentration and labor camps, and how the Jews faced death every day. The sources the author uses are authentic and their stories come from the heart, which makes the book even more disturbing and difficult to read.

There are so many dreadful stories of torture and despair, that it is quite difficult to continue reading the nearly 900 pages, yet, the book is the most complete and factual history of the Holocaust ever written that includes so many first-hand accounts of just what went on. Certainly, the main idea of this book the author incorporates throughout the pages is the dreadfulness of the Holocaust, and the frightful toll it took on European Jews under the iron hands of the Nazis.

The arguments in this book are persuasive and difficult to miss, because nearly every page contains some kind of atrocity the Jews faced, and every page underlines the cruelty and heartlessness of the Nazis, who thought nothing of murdering women and children as part of their rampage against anyone remotely Jewish. Probably the most forceful idea in the book is the utter helplessness of the Jewish people in the face of such cruelty.

There are many times where it seems that the Jews could have overpowered their captors simply by their sheer numbers, but the author does delve into that in the book, and explains, "You may also wonder why eight thousand people did not fight the Nazis. But a hundred men armed with machine guns are more powerful than an unarmed crowd. The young ones would have tried to escape, but refused to abandon their parents..." (Gilbert 484).

Gilbert shows that the Jews were at the mercy of the Nazis, partly because of their own naivite at first, and partly because the Nazis made sure they had sufficient control, both mental and physical, to continually overpower the Jews. The first Jews believed they were simply being relocated, and by the time they knew differently, there was simply no other choice open to them, they could not escape the areas under Nazi control in any real numbers.

The other ideas expressed in the book, from some Nazi soldiers who clearly did not agree with their mission, to the continual rounding up of Jews from newly conquered areas, are secondary to the main idea of the suffering the Jews faced, and their helplessness in doing anything about it. This book is a massive attempt to place the history of the Holocaust in one complete volume, and the author does a commendable job of doing just that.

The book is probably the most complete book on the Holocaust ever published, and it covers every facet of the event, from the history that led up to it, to the aftermath throughout the world. The book is so large, it is difficult to wade through, and there are so many.