Offers an account of the events leading up to the Holocaust and the early days of that period of persecution.

Follows the Nazis' attempts at a large-scale deportation system after its invasion of Poland in 1939 as it sought to reclaim territory and repatriate that space with an ever-expanding population of ethnic Germans. Standing in the way, however, were millions of ethnic Poles. Rutherford recounts the strenuous efforts and unexpected obstacles to the deportations, which in many ways were a dress rehearsal for the Final Solution.

"This book is the result of 20 years of painstaking research by the author. Its contents are based on documentation—supported by more than 800 footnotes—from the 16th century to the community’s tragic end in 1942. The history of the Jewish community under Ottoman rule, Serbia, Yugoslavia and finally the German occupation and the “Final Solution” is told in great detail, always based on documentary evidence. In addition, the book contains specific sections dealing with aspects of the Jewish life: rabbis, synagogues, cemeteries and funeral ceremonies, educational institutions, Jewish life in general, and a complete list of all Jewish institutions. There is an extensive bibliography and an index of names. The book makes optimal use of primary sources and combines archive documents, literary and religious sources with field work consisting of questions and interviews. The fact that the author was a member of the community enabled her to interview a wide range of persons and to reach primary sources that are vanishing. Belgrade was the first major European city to become “Judenrein”—free of Jews. It started in December 1941, before the Wannsee Conference where the Final Solution was formally adopted, and, by May, 1942, there were no more Jews left in Serbia."--Publisher description.

The first ever study to combine a detailed re-appraisal of the development of the genocide of Europe's Jews with full consideration of Nazi policies against other population groups and a comparative analysis of other genocides from the twentieth century.

In the early hours of November 10, 1938, Nazi storm troopers and Hitler Youth rampaged through Jewish neighborhoods across Germany, leaving behind them a horrifying trail of terror and destruction. More than a thousand synagogues and many thousands of Jewish shops were destroyed, while thirty thousand Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Kristallnacht—the Night of Broken Glass—was a decisive stage in the systematic eradication of a people who traced their origins in Germany to Roman times and was a sinister forewarning of the Holocaust. With rare insight and acumen, Martin Gilbert examines this night and day of terror, presenting readers with a meticulously researched, masterfully written, and eye-opening study of one of the darkest chapters in human history.