The Destruction of the European Jews: Third Edition [Hardcover]

A considerable amount of time is spent discussing how the Germans had gradually perfected the technology of genocide. Mass shootings gave way to mass gassings using the carbon monoxide from the burning of fuel by large engines. This was replaced with Zyklon, a pelleted form of hydrogen cyanide. It was found that the burning of bodies in large pyres disposed of them quicker than the crematory ovens. To hasten the disposal of the murder victims, their bodies were not usually burned completely to ashes. Some death camps pulverized the bones of the victims with special bone-crushing machines, while other camps just used slaves bearing hammers to do the gruesome job.

The Jewish death toll at Auschwitz-Birkenau is currently estimated as fewer than 1 million. This contrasts with earlier estimates of 1.5 million, 1.2 million, etc. This should be of no comfort to Holocaust deniers, as the present estimate, and overall Jewish death toll, is unlikely to be reduced any further, at least to a substantial extent. However, it does ask for an explanation for the discrepancies with earlier estimates, and none is provided.

Although a full examination of the Jewish relationship with Poles in German-occupied Poland is beyond the scope of this volume, Hilberg presents some information that sheds light on this relationship. He cites a German document wherein its author complains about the fact that Jews avoiding the roundups (leading to the death camps of Sobibor and Belzec) are hiding with Polish and Ukrainian families. He acknowledges the fact that the death penalty was imposed in Poland for aiding Jews (p. 520). He also points out (p. 1122) the extreme housing density of gentile Poles (4 per apartment in prewar Poland; no doubt greater during the German occupation) and its role in the disinclination of Poles to hide fugitive Jews.

Recurrent charges of Poles turning in or killing fugitive Jews, commonly encountered in Holocaust materials, neglect a number of factors, one of which is the latter's significant involvement in the plunder (and sometimes murder) of Polish villagers. Hilberg is one of the few non-Polish authors who acknowledge the fact (p. 1126) that bands of fugitive Jews would rob Polish peasants. The reader can visualize all of German-occupied Poland as one giant concentration camp where its inmates often fought, and sometimes killed each other, over food and other essentials.

It is unfortunate that a Holocaust scholar of Hilberg's stature accepts a shoddy account of the Jedwabne massacre in a totally uncritical manner (pp.320-321). The evidence does not support Gross' storytelling. There were 200-400 Jewish victims, not 1,600. Most definitely, the Germans were not spectators who were just filming what the Poles were doing. Very likely, it was the Germans who orchestrated this atrocity. The Poles were actually relegated to a compelled subsidiary role (perhaps 40 Poles, certainly not "half the town"). The Poles were forced to round up and guard the Jews. Whether the Poles were involved in the actual torching of the Jew-filled barn, consensually or not, has not been established by convincing evidence.

Hilberg moves beyond Jewish deaths to encompass the Sinti and Roma (Gypsies), German male homosexuals, etc. He also discusses the planned partial genocide of the Polish population, wherein a fraction of it would be Germanized or kept alive as a reservoir of slave labor, and the rest put to death. He is also perceptive in pointing out that massive Polish guerrilla action in the Lublin region, in the face of draconian German colonization with concomitant deportation and murder of the local Poles, had been one of the earlier phases of this planned genocide.

Hilberg's work contains a wealth of information. There are also numerous footnotes that enable the reader to do further research.