The Cambridge History of the Holocaust offers a comprehensive and innovative overview of the complex field of Holocaust history from a variety of interpretive perspectives. The first volume begins with essays outlining the evolution of Holocaust historiography and the central conceptual and methodological questions facing historians. Further chapters provide insights into the longer-term causes and contexts of the Holocaust, before focusing on its immediate pre-history. The volume examines Holocaust archives, race-thinking and eugenics, violence in Weimar Germany, Hitler and Nazi ideology, and the implementation of antisemitic policies in the run up to the Second World War. Its ambitious coverage provides an unparalleled overview of the development of the policies that created the conditions necessary for the Holocaust to take place.

The aftermath of the Holocaust has been long and wide-reaching. Any act of mass murder and genocide leaves powerful traces: the trauma of the survivors, the challenge of punishment for the perpetrators and justice for the victims, the questions of how to properly commemorate and memorialize the loss and how to rebuild and restore. This is all the more true for the Holocaust, which has come to serve as a global cultural touchstone for evaluating mass violence. The legacy of the Holocaust has impacted every area of political and cultural life in many different countries since 1945. What is the state of “aftermath” studies for the Holocaust? How do we periodize the post-Holocaust landscape? Where are there continuities and where are there changes? How, when and where has the Holocaust been globalized? In what areas did the Holocaust generate a fundamental rethinking of human relations and state institutions? And where did it not? This volume offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the impact and legacy of the Holocaust around the world and demonstrates its enduring significance, from the postwar period to the present day.

Ordinary victims' voices from the Holocaust are still far less recognized than those of the perpetrators, Volume III of The Cambridge History of the Holocaust centers upon victims' perspectives, examining their experiences, responses, and fates. Chapters encompass the ordeals of a range of persecuted groups: Jews, Roma and Sinti, and homosexuals, as well as those with physical and mental challenges, Slavs, and Soviet Prisoners of War. Covering a wide geographical scope, contributors underscore the differences between victim experiences in eastern and western Europe while highlighting national and regional complexities. Through a breadth of primary sources including diaries, letters, memoirs and interviews, readers gain insight into the diverse reactions and behaviors of victims as well as those who helped or hurt them. This volume offers an overview of Holocaust scholarship through victims' voices, while highlighting areas for further research.