The manner of presentation is so objective that you will finish the book almost without realizing that it is perhaps the most effective indictment of how unkosher the Holocaust story is.

Raul Hilbeg's Sources Of Holocaust Research provides the evidence itself and the history it contains. His scholarly survey of the sources used in the writing of Holocaust history analyzes the types of materials and content of Holocaust source material. Excellent supplemental reading for college-level students.

This is the daily diary of the man who was the head of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation and most of the ghetto period. Czerniakow was misunderstood by a lot of people, and to avoid this I suggest some background reading about the ghetto first (Emanuel Ringelblum's Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, Bogdan Wojdowski's Bread for the Departed, John Hersey's The Wall (fiction)). This is because Czerniakow does not give a lot of detail about life in the ghetto (and occupied Warsaw before the ghetto) for the ordinary person. It does not at all mean he was unaware of conditions; he was trying to do an impossible job and please everyone at the same time: the ghetto residents, the other council members, the profiteers, the Polish city administration, the German army, and the SS. That he accomplished any positive goals at all is remarkable and his story must be looked at from that perspective. It comes across clearly that he acted according to his conscience and put his personal concerns last. Without the introductions and the supplementary notes the diary might be difficult to understand, as Czerniakow did not always put down full names or explanations and kept entries brief. It was suggested he may have been afraid of it falling into the wrong hands with good reason. Therefore, I would say it takes a reader with some knowledge of the ghetto period and the Nazi occupation of Poland to get the fullest understanding from this book. I do on that basis give it the highest recommendation.

Most of my hobbyist reading involves WWII European history. I was aware of this book since circa 1978, but never got around to reading it until recently. I was disappointed in the book as a whole. Hilberg definitely deserves kudos for his intense and in-depth look at how the Holocaust could occur. However, I would not recommend this book to the casual reader. Its style reminds me more of a law book or a research book with its dry tables and facts. I would use this book to cite facts and figures, but I wouldn't read it again. After the first 100 pages, I found myself looking forward to see how long is the chapter. If I do that, I know I can't get "into" the book.

In my honours year, I chose to write a thesis on the Holocaust, but was unsure which area I should focus on, or base my thesis on. One of the first books I was told to read was Raul Hilberg's "Destruction of the Holocaust". Though the one I read was the condensed version and therefore lacked some of the details of the expanded version, it was a good read and gave me alot of different angles of looking at the Holocaust. Hilberg's book is definitely recommended for someone who is interested in the Holocaust and wants to know more about it, as his book offers alot of other references for students and casual readers alike. I shall be looking into reading the 3 volume version soon. Hilberg's book is the definitive account of the Holocaust as it beings together many aspects of the tragedy. Well written and readable, Hilberg's book will remain an accessible text to turn to for information on the Holocaust.

More than any other book, this one answers the question, "How did it happen?"

Mr. Hilberg provides the reader with the historical foundations for the Holocaust, and then relates in great detail the entire administrative process, without which the holocaust could not have occurred. I have read the book several times and never cease to be impressed with the thorough understanding and objectivity that Mr. Hilberg lends to the subject.

If you are seeking emotion and high drama, this book is definitely not what you are looking for. But if you want to know how such a horrible thing could have occurred, and the full extent participation by bureaucrats and ordinary citizens, this book is the best by far.

The memoir is a much needed supplement for the scholarly works of undoubtedly peerless Holocaust researcher. All the process of transforming of Holocaust studies from metaphysical reflections into a scholarly discipline is revealed before our eyes, with almost tragic touch of author's own fate as "controversial"(for some) and plagiated scholar. And also a personal note: Gauleiter Kube, a much maligned Hitler's boss of Belorussia, got in Hillberg's magnum opus Destruction of European Jews some flesh and blood which made me understand better the Holocaust reality in my native land.

Hilberg's works are surely uneasy reading for those who perceive the Holocaust through a comforting model reduced to "... a more familiar picture of a struggle-- however unequal--between combatants" (p.135).

The language of the book is unusual and its laconism , though sometimes veiling the sense, is accompanied by inner dramatic beauty and power.

In general, Hilberg's memoir is a mind-nourishing and thought-provoking book, a must for anyone with an interest in history of the 20th century.

Hillberg wrote this as a Phd thesis, and therefore it is a carefully researched book. I have an original copy signed by the author, and it came at a time to be my first major purchase on the subject. I had a chance to hear him speak a couple of years ago and brought my copy along. He was amazed that any still existed. Because of the purpose, it is not a "story," but a well done place for any one serious in learning could well start. His beginning statement of the eras of Jewish history is still the best I've ever hear in the 45 yrs. of collecting--read it and see.