The best books on the Holocaust and the Nazi Occupation of Eastern Europe

I am recommending this book because it is a thorough investigation into the Nazi Eastern policies and their effects in the East. And also because Dr. Reitlinger was a renowned scholar.

I personally loved this book because, even though the topic is serious as it is sad, Dr. Reitlinger managed to write an authentic account of the topic with eloquence and solemnity. The book actually got me interested in the topic.

Published in 1960, I read the book in the late 1970s, and it is one of the books that made me interested in the topic – so much so that it set me on an academic path, which led me to research Nazi Germany’s occupation of eastern Europe, culminating in a work on the subject, to be published in November 2023. The book I have written is the culmination of twenty-plus years of research.

Reading Reitlinger’s work, I realized, as a young man, that we can learn much from the mistakes of the past, if only we can remember that past and not repeat past mistakes.

This book is a must-read for all people, to never forget what occurred.

Although the topic is serious and sad, Dr. Reitlinger managed to write a concise work on ha Shoah, which is itself a huge undertaking. What I loved about the book is that, here in one volume, one has a complete and thorough coverage of the Holocaust. It is long, but it can be digested given a few weeks of reading.

Again, with all of Reitlinger’s work, the reader is thoroughly immersed in the subject, while not getting tied down by minutia that some authors have a habit of doing. The book taught me that the Holocaust could have possibly been avoided, if men of goodwill had simply acted before Hitler became powerful enough to unleash World War Two.

Edmund Burke, the Irish-born British statesman was right when he said “All Tyranny needs to gain a foothold, is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”

There are far fewer studies in English on the Nazi occupation of Poland and the suffering and depredations that Poles faced during those more than five years of occupation.

This academic study does not merely cover the Holocaust in Poland but how the occupation affected millions of non-Jewish Poles as well. It also covers the intricate relationship that existed between Poles and Ukrainians, Lithuanians and Belorussians, and how those ethnic differences turned into conflicts that affected the war and the occupation. It is a one-volume work that covers it all.

This is required reading to understand the Russo-German War.

This two-volume masterpiece was written by Paul Schmidt, who was actually Hitler’s Press Secretary during the war. Schmidt used the nom de plume of “Paul Carrell”, and although one would, at first glance, imagine that this author might write a biased and pro-Nazi apologetic study, that could not be further from the truth.

Carrell/Schmidt actually wrote a very truthful account of the war, pulling no punches and even criticizing Hitler’s leadership and his ideology throughout the study.

Carrell/Schmidt also happens to be an eloquent storyteller. He is the type of author who can manage to place the reader in the middle of the story, as if he/she is witnessing the events live. Very few authors can do this.

Professor Theo J. Schulte has written a well-documented, well researched study of the Ostheer (German Army in the East) covering the Russian campaign.

I loved this book because, like almost all of the recommendations that I have listed, it is a single volume with a concise yet thorough enough study of the German Army and its connection to the Genocide and Democide in the Soviet Union.

The book taught me that there was a reason why, during the war, out of the approximately twenty-five million Soviet citizens who died in the war, thirteen million were civilians. The reason, Schulte points to, is the purposeful targeting of the civilian population for murder (Democide).

The book made me realize that the study of Nazi policies in the East should not only include the Holocaust, but should also cover the “other” deaths that occurred as well.