Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust

Every German and Austrian should definitely read this book, to know what their grandparents did or helped to do to the Jews in the pre-Nazi and Nazi Germany. We all must learn from History. A strong and cruel book, as cruel as the killing of 6 millions innocent Jews. Look at your hands, German and Austrian: they are full of blood. Never forget the Holocaust.
Antonia Tejeda (Spain).

i very much enjoyed (if that is appropriate) this book. it was very well researched and i think covered every point of view as to why these ordinary germans did all that killing and mistreatment of human beings. an it all came down to choice their choice to do so. i really wanted to know what made the german people think that this was the right thing to do and this answered that. i also read the book battalion 101. which came to the same conclusions it was choice on these peoples part. how sad that people could choose to kill other humans and treat them as they were treated. all the people that died and survived must be remembered.

A convincing premise (that ordinary Germans were culturally programmed to see all Jews as threatening subhumans worthy of torture and execution), well-supported by testimony and documentation. I'm not an academic, but I think Goldhagen makes a very strong case. Whether he was the first to confirm this premise or did most of the legwork in this area, I have no idea. To dismiss this work as somehow unimportant or lacking in academic rigor, however, seems to me ridiculous. That German historians would dismiss his work is disappointing, but not surprising. The same situation exists in Japan where prominent figures deny or rationalize the atrocities committed by the Japanese during World War II. The book itself, while making a very persuasive argument, is overly long and repetitive. It would have been much more effective at half its current length.

Revisiting a question that history recently comes to treat as "settled", Daniel Jonah Goldhagen has compiled a work of the "utmost originality and importance, [which] racially transforms our understanding of the Holocaust and of Germany during its Nazi period". His response has been quoted as a new exploration of those who carried out the Holocaust and of German Society and its ingrained anti-Semitism. His compilation of material has thereby demanded a fundamental revision of our thinking about the years 1933-1945. Throughout his literature, he has drawn principally on materials that have either been unexplored, or simply neglected by previous scholars. Interestingly enough, Goldhagen touches base on the motives of each one of the persecutors, stating that they did not do so because they were following orders, not because of any tremendous social-psychological, or peer pressure to conform to the behavior of their comrades. He claims that they did this because of a widespread, profound and unquestioned, virulent anti-Semitism that had led them to regard the Jews as a demonic enemy. Those who felt this way also believed that their extermination was not only necessary but also just. The Holocaust was a result of an already deep-rooted and pervasive anti-Semitism that had existed in the German society long before Hitler came to power. In order to perform this immense task, he had ultimately chose mass extermination as the only "final solution". Thus, he had been able to enlist the vast numbers of Germans to carry it out. Illustrating the events of the German history, and its involvement in the holocaust, Goldhagen articulates precisely "how the Nazis came to power, how they suppressed the left, how they revived the economy, how the state was structured and functioned, [and] how the waged war". Daniel Jonah Goldhagen supports his point of view, stating that the real reason for the Holocaust was simply the ideals towards Jews that had been pervasive in Germany, and intertwined its historical background for decades. With his remarkable anthology of firsthand accounts from the perpetrators of the Holocaust, Goldhagen has been able to produce an astonishing piece of literature that has revolutionized our previous interpretation of the Holocaust and how it all began.
Daniel Goldhagen believes that it is "not economic hardship, not the coercive means of a totalitarian state, not social psychological pressure, not invariable psychological propensities, but ideas about Jews that were [omnipresent] in Germany, and had been for decades, induced ordinary Germans to kill unarmed, defenseless Jewish men, women, and children by the thousands, systematically and without pity". His view of the Holocaust and those that performed this horrible extermination is quite unique, as it represents a different view of this event in history, furthermore adding an incredible nuance that we can now add to our collection of knowledge on this topic. Both stating and heavily supporting his viewpoint on this subject, Goldhagen continues to pick apart who was truly at fault during the Holocaust, and if or why they had believed that they were doing something just. He claims that a "perpetrator is anyone who knowingly contributed in some intimate way to the mass slaughter of Jews, generally anyone who worked in an institution of genocidal killing". This statement brings new light to the meaning of the "true persecutors" during the Holocaust. It hadn't been just Hitler who had carried forth this act, although differing from popular opinion, but rather it had been those who had gathered the Jews for deportation, completely aware of the fact that they were participating in the massive annihilation of millions of Jews. As history has told us, the holocaust has been a term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during WWII, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by none other than Adolf Hitler himself. Supported by the NAZI party, his insane acts also affected other groups during this era, that had also been persecuted and killed, including the soviet's civilians, soviet POW's, ethnic poles, the disabled, and homosexual men. However, throughout his work, Daniel Goldhagen mainly focuses on the acts of the German people towards the Holocaust of the Jews and the extreme anti-Semitism that had existed during this time. Goldhagen's viewpoint on this matter is very beneficial to all historians as well as the common individual, as it allows the reader to relate to the events that have taken place during the Holocaust. He has provided strong evidence as to the fact that the ordinary Germans did not need to be coerced to carry out the Holocaust for themselves; rather it seemed to have already been a part of their nature.
In order to support his position in this matter, Daniel Goldhagen has provided a multitude of detailed data representing the numbers of Jews killed on a specific day, and exactly how they had been killed. Tying in to all of this, he explains those who had conducted these massive annihilations, and the reason why they had been put in this position to do so. Recalling many different facts from multiple scholars and previous researchers, Daniel Goldhagen has truly come up with an incredible collection of information that helps him answer the question as to "why the Holocaust actually happened". He comes to the conclusion multiple times throughout his work that it is not only the psychological aspect that forces "Hitler's Willing Executioners" to be a part of this Jewish extinguishing, but it is an unknown deeply, rooted anti-Semitism that has existed in Germany for centuries. Even though, the majority of the people targeted in the Holocaust in Germany were the Jews, many other religious backgrounds also suffered as well. Therefore the only fault perhaps in Daniel Goldhagen's work would be the simple fact that he scrutinizes over only one particular race, leaving many others to be unrepresented. Besides this minor controversy in his work, Goldhagen has further proved himself to be a well developed, and revolutionary scholar in his field.
The authenticity of his work is quite extraordinary, and Goldhagen takes the utmost precision in the way that he portays the information to the reader. Down to every last detail, Daniel Goldhagen illustrates the hardships during this period of time, and the many difficulties faced by the Jewish people of this era. Accurately representing the numerous casualties during the Holocaust in his work, it allows the reader to connect to the story which exemplifies the reasoning behind the atrocious torture and cruelty placed upon the Jews in Germany. He has been able to add a new color to the history of the Holocaust, and he does so by uprooting many stories and first had accounts from the actually people that had been a part of this genocide. He states that, "...not surprisingly, and individual's personality influenced the substance and style of the cruelty that he visited upon the Jews, though almost all could be counted upon consistently to produce a substantial amount of Jewish pain". Goldhagen repeatedly acknowledges the fact that even though the NAZI party leaders had tried to convince the German community to partake in this genocidal act, the extent to which they had put forth the effort to do so, utterly depended upon the nature of that individual. Even so however, Daniel Goldhagen explains how the social pressure of the Germans to reform was indeed great, and many survivors will account to this. In fact, Goldhagen describes one guard as having been particularly decent to the Jews, yet he nevertheless beat them when under the watchful eyes of the superiors.
Overall, Goldhagen has been able to produce a very powerfully argued book, which deserves the utmost recognition for his work that he has put into it. Revealing the many perplexing and troubling truths about the Holocaust, Daniel Goldhagen has enlightened many scholars, and every individual who has read his book. Supported by his intense research and factual evidence that he has discovered, Hitler's Willing Executioners has become, and will continue to be a monumental achievement, changing the history of the Holocaust indefinitely. Allowing for the reader to connect to the underlying message that he is trying to instill, the individual is immediately provided a new wave of information that has generated a new gradation to previous illustrations of this historical event. Therefore, it is completely evident that Goldhagen has stepped upon new grounds, leading the way for other revolutionary scholars in the future, who hope to reveal what truly instigated the notorious Holocaust.

"Hitler's Willing Executioners" is without doubt a highly important work that no one wishing to understand 20th-century history can afford to ignore. In this review, however, I will focus on the Kindle version.

The Kindle version has significant problems. First, the footnotes are not linked (i.e., you can't click on a footnote number and be taken to it from the main text). Every serious non-fiction book really should have linked footnotes. Second, the conversion to ebook form is one of the worst I've ever seen. It appears that somebody scanned the book and then just put it on the market without even glancing at the text. Numerals are sometimes in superscript, sometimes in subscript; frequently the number 1 is a capital I; almost every occurrence of footnote 11 is a quotation mark. Sometimes superscript and in-line digits appear within the same number (such as years). This may sound like a small matter, but believe me, it becomes extremely distracting after about 200 pages without a let-up.

Even so, I'm very glad that this book is available in a Kindle version (especially considering that it's over 10 years old). I just hope that the publisher will clean it up soon.