Dan Stone

The Holocaust is much discussed, much memorialized, and much portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning the entirety of the Holocaust, this sweeping history deepens our understanding. Dan Stone—Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London—reveals how the idea of “industrial murder” is incomplete: Many were killed where they lived in the most brutal of ways. He outlines the depth of collaboration across Europe, arguing persuasively that we need to stop thinking of the Holocaust as an exclusively German project. He also considers the nature of trauma the Holocaust engendered, and why Jewish suffering has yet to be fully reckoned with. And he makes clear that the kernel to understanding Nazi thinking and action is genocidal ideology, providing a deep analysis of its origins.

Drawing on decades of research, The Holocaust: An Unfinished History upends much of what we think we know about the Holocaust. Stone draws on Nazi documents, diaries, post-war testimonies, and even fiction, arguing that, in our age of increasing nationalism and xenophobia, understanding the true history of the Holocaust is vital.

The Holocaust: An Unfinished History

Rick Powell

"Tears may flow, but the truly destructive nature of the Holocaust for its victims – and for the societies they came from – and the radical implications of the Holocaust for our modern world are passed over in silence." (Dan Stone, The Holocaust)

"The Holocaust was not only a German affair – even if it undoubtedly emanated from Germany and was led by the Germans – and it is no coincidence that the return of the radical right has come at the same time as these revelations about pan-European involvement. Commemorating with ceremonies whose template involves heads of state, a few victim testimonies and children’s poems is insufficient to change the ways in which fascism is interwoven into the deep memory of Western culture. The challenge remains: will the Holocaust be understood?" (Dan Stone, The Holocaust)

"It would be ironic if Holocaust memory were to be siloed as somehow ‘Eurocentric’, when in fact it provides one of the clearest examples of where race thinking or ‘security paranoia’ can lead under conditions of crisis.46" (Dan Stone, The Holocaust)

The Holocaust: An Unfinished History quotes

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