Before the Holocaust

5* review: "...It is a book all students of the Nazi regime should read..." * Paul Donnelley, Daily Express *
Relentlessly concise and nigh monumental within its outstanding sphere of research...nothing less than an astonishing achievement. * David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews *
an important book... a major contribution to readers' understanding of the beginnings of the Third Reich. * R. Spickermann, Choice Reviews *
The initiation of Hitler's violence against the Jews has long been neglected in the massive literature on the Holocaust. Hermann Beck's Before the Holocaust fills this lacuna with a monumental study of its very first months. The book fully contextualizes and also describes in thorough detail the initial phase of what became a policy of "cumulative radicalization," as well as the very muted reaction to it. An indispensable preliminary to Holocaust studies. * Stanley G. Payne, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of A History of Fascism 1914-1945 *
Based on extensive archival research, Beck's outstanding book accomplishes something that surprisingly has never been done before: a great piece of erudite and original research, Before the Holocaust charts out anti-Semitic violence and other acts of Jew-hatred in the months following Hitler's takeover of power in 1933. In doing so, the book investigates the transition of pre-Nazi German anti-Semitism to National Socialist persecution of the Jews in Germany. Beck accomplishes something extraordinary, namely, to say something genuinely new about the origins and the emergence of the Shoah. * Thomas Weber, Chair in History and International Affairs & Director, Centre for Global Security and Governance, University of Aberdeen *
Hermann Beck's Before the Holocaust is a powerful book. Using extensive new research, the study throws a glaring light on the extent and murderous brutality of antisemitic persecution from the very outset of Hitler's accession to power. Moreover, it demonstrates how the Protestant and Catholic churches, as well as the conservative elites, united in their enthusiastic support for the "national revolution", abstained from immediate protest, whatever initial or later misgivings there may have been. For any student of Nazi Germany, Beck's study is a must. * Saul Friedländer, Emeritus Professor of History, UCLA; author of Nazi Germany and the Jews: vol I: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939 *
Hermann Beck has painstakingly uncovered a whole range of antisemitic violence that began during the first weeks of Hitler's dictatorship. He discovered these events by working through over a dozen national and regional archives in Germany, as well as numerous collections of published documentary material and newspapers. The appalling terror he reveals often occurred in full public view in cities and towns across the country - horrendous attacks that have been overlooked, ignored, or neglected by generations of historians. In what is sure to become the standard work on the topic, Beck shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nazi-led violence rained down on the Jews during the Nazi takeover. Without question, this early and vicious brutality signaled the beginning of the inhumane process that would culminate in the Holocaust. * Robert Gellately, Earl Ray Beck Professor of History, Florida State University; author of Hitler's True Believers: How Ordinary People Became Nazis *
This is an important book...This book is a major contribution to readers' understanding of the beginnings of the Third Reich. * Choice *
Before the Holocaust is a smart, important, deftly constructed book that pushes a rethinking of 1933, the Nazi consolidation of power, and the role of groups such as the DNVP, the churches, and the judiciary in allowing for the stigmatization and brutal assault of Jews in Germany. * German Studies Review *
This book would be a great resource for future historians as well as graduate students in other humanities and social sciences because it provides a good model for how to present an effective argument. * Amy Carney, War in History 31 *