Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949

Cesarani, David

David Cesarani’s Final Solution is a magisterial work of history that chronicles the fate of Europe’s Jews during and directly after World War II. Based on decades of scholarship, documentation newly available from the opening of Soviet archives, declassification of Western intelligence service records, as well as diaries and reports written in the camps, Cesarani provides a sweeping reappraisal that challenges accepted explanations for the anti-Jewish politics of Nazi Germany and the inevitability of the “final solution.” 

The persecution of the Jews, as Cesarani demonstrates, was not always the Nazis’ central preoccupation, nor was it inevitable. Instead, it unfolded erratically in German-occupied countries, often due to local initiatives. Military failures created a crisis of resources that led to the starvation of the ghettos and intensified anti-Jewish measures.

Cesarani also disputes the iconic role of railways and deportation trains and exposes the extent of sexual violence and abuse of Jewish women. In bracingly vivid prose, Final Solution captures the experience of a heroic people caught in the hell that was Hitler’s Germany.