¶ … 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...

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…