In 1998, Peter Longerich published Politik der Vernichtung (Politics of Destruction), a stunning re-examination of the Holocaust. The book received universal acclaim, and is now generally recognized by historians as the standard account of this horrific chapter in human history.
Now finally available in English, this masterful history uses an unrivalled range of sources to lay out in clear detail the steps taken by the Nazis that would lead ultimately to the Final Solution. Focusing closely on the perpetrators and exploring the process of decision making, (fonte: Google Books)

Illuminating scholarly account of the Holocaust

This book is not for everyone interested in understanding the Holocaust. There are no pictures and no maps. The author makes no attempt to convey the horror of Nazi actions through vivid descriptions or language (beyond using the word "murder" a thousand times or so). He assumes a lot of background knowledge in the reader about the basic story of the Holocaust: the primary methods, locales, and perpetrators. The translation from the original German is pretty good but a little stilted. The text was originally the author's "Habilitation" thesis in Germany. It has lots of footnotes and a big bibliography.

There are pop history books, history textbooks, and scholarly historical works. This book is clearly in the latter category. If you don't like scholarly historical works, this book is not for you. That doesn't make you bad or the book bad; there's just going to be a mismatch between what you want and what this book provides.

What this book provides is a remarkably detailed and insightful look at the evolution of Nazi policy towards the Jews from the time the Nazis took over Germany to the time that the Third Reich collapsed. The author provides ample evidence that the policy evolved substantially throughout this time period, and he gives well-reasoned explanations of why it changed the way it did. Maybe this book ought to have seemed very dry, with the myriad Polish place names and the body counts eventually just becoming a blur in the mind of the reader. Yet I had trouble putting it down, and I feel much better informed for having read it. ( )