The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism

This compelling and meticulously researched investigation engages with one of the most controversial of questions regarding Hitler′s Final Solution: namely, to what degree did the German public actively assent to the genocidal policies of the Nazi regime? David Bankier address this question with regard to the German public as a whole, drawing upon a wide range of documents and sources, including the extensive files of the Nazi security services, diplomatic and Allied intelligence materials, the reports of government and party authorities, and eyewitness accounts. Much of this material has never previously been brought to the light of day. The Germans and the Final Solution stand as the fullest assessment to date of the attitudes of the German public to the Nazi policy of antisemitism and its genocidal conclusion. David Bankier′s pathbreaking work will be widely read by scholars and students of contemporary European Jewish history and the history of Nazi Germany.

Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Image and Reality in the Third Reich. 2. Institutionalization and Radicalization. 3. International Crises and Foreign Policy. 4. Public Responses to Anti–semitism 1933–1938. 5. Workers, Peasants and Businessmen. 6. The Awareness of the Holocaust. 7. Public Responses to Anti–semitism 1939–1943. 8. Image and Reality – The End. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography.

David Bankier is Lady Davis Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been Visiting Lecturer at University College, London, the University of Capetown and the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He is editor of The Holocaust: Perpetrators, Witnesses and Bystanders (1986).

"This is a subtle and well–documented argument that notably advances our understanding of German popular opinion towards the Nazis′ anti–Semitic policies." Inside Out "A well written and important book that deserves to be widely read and to be placed in every public library." Times Higher Education Supplement "Bankier′s book will be welcomed by anyone teaching German history, Nazism, or the Holocaust, because it is the first book to answer comprehensively the most common student question in any discussion of the Holocaust: What did average Germans know and how did they feel about Hitler′s antisemitic propaganda and mass murder?" Choice