Europa gegen die Juden

In his comprehensive overview of European antisemitism from 1880 to 1945, the renowned historian Götz Aly demonstrates that the Holocaust cannot be explained solely through German history. Since 1880, antisemitism and hostility towards Jews had surged in both Western and Eastern Europe, fueled by nationalism and social crises. For the first time, Götz Aly presents modern antisemitism as a cross-border phenomenon. Without diminishing the guilt of the German perpetrators, he illustrates how rivalry and envy, discrimination and pogroms contributed in many places since the late 19th century to creating the conditions for deportations and genocide. During World War II, the Nazi occupiers ultimately murdered six million Jews, most of them in Eastern Europe, partly with the assistance of local police and authorities. With his pan-European perspective, Götz Aly enables a new, comprehensive understanding of the Holocaust. Awarded the Geschwister-Scholl Prize in 2018.