Astounding! - Rated 
I really cannot recommend this three volume scholarly masterpiece enough.
Overall, it has about 1400 pages, with about 400-500 pages per volume.
The first volume mainly deals with the Jews' fate pre-Holocaust, so in other words, from 1933-1939, although there is a small section towards the end which mentions the Einsatzgruppen, etc. The first volume primarily concerns itself with expropriation of Jewish property, liquidation of property, 'Aryanization' of property, the setting up of ghettos in major Polish cities, food distribution in the ghettos, etc.
The second volume explains the fate of the Jews in all areas of Europe, from Norway to Greece and all the countries in between. The sheer amount of detail is quite astonishing and the footnotes themselves sometimes take up more of the page than the actual text.
The final volume deals with the death camps in more detail, with detailed diagrams and lists of all major and relatively minor Nazis who controlled the camps, discussion about the post-war trials of Nazis, etc. There is even a massive list of nearly 400 Nazis and foreign collaborators and their post-war fates, which I found particularly illuminating. Not only the 'major' players but also far smaller 'cogs' in the wheel of death.
Just the other day, I was curious to find out the fate of two Nazis who were in Treblinka and sure enough, there they were, in the footnotes!
This brilliant achievement surpasses even Martin Gilbert's great "The Holocaust" and William Shirer's monumental "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
Is it worth it? It sure is! Particularly when you see the years of research that Dr. Hilberg put into this book (or books, rather). The binding quality of the books is top-notch and the paper and ink used are high-quality, long-lasting, and non-smudge, unlike many mass produced Penguin paperbacks, for example.
An in-depth study, thoroughly researched. - Rated
Historical revisionists of the Holocaust often attempt to use material and information from the period in a way that focuses upon the minutiae of an occurrence, or piece of evidence, in an attempt to disprove a much larger issue. This was spectacularly demonstrated in the libel case brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt. A case that Irving lost and which left him branded an anti-semite by the Judge.
An important contribution to the rebuttal of revisionism of this period is delivered by Raul Hilberg in his 3 volume study. He has spent a considerable number of years researching every aspect of the events from identification to the destruction of the Jews in Europe, by the National Socialist government of Germany between 1933 and 1945. The reader is led, painstakingly, through a level of detail not evidenced in any other work on the subject. In some cases, the footnotes alone take up the bulk of the text on the page. The minutiae of detail is astounding and compelling, to the extent that it is cross-referenced with documents produced from National Socialist official documents, in the overwhelming majority of cases.
Dr. Hilberg presents this wealth of detail to substantiate and document one of the most heinous crimes in history. There is much use of the word `genocide' in modern day society and clearly the act of killing large numbers of people from a particular cultural or identified group persists, outrageously, in our world to this day. The destruction of the Jews in Europe still stands alone as being an event which was documented, photographed, classified, identified as part of political dogma, an aim of going to war, legislated for: across all areas of law and the life of a society, economically structured, internationally co-ordinated and carried out specifically for the purposes of exterminating (`special treatment') a group of people based upon their religious identity and cultural norms. Other acts of genocide clearly bear aspects of the above; it is the Holocaust alone which carries all of these features.
These volumes are essential reference tools for any serious student and one can only marvel at Hilberg's tenacity, competence and scholarship.
The seminal work on the Holocaust. - Rated
This work is an outstanding achievement. Brilliantly written in three volumes, the history of the destruction of European Jewry between 1933 and 1945 is clinically set out. If anybody wants to learn about 'how' and 'why' the holocaust happened, one only has to read this book.
The definitive academic Holocaust book. - Rated
This book is the benchmark upon which all that follows will be measured. Thouroughly researched and well written, this is a must read for anyone seeking the decisions, mechanics, and dynamics of the Holocaust. END
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