The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy toward German Jews, 1933-39

by Karl A. Schleunes

"There is no single phenomenon in our time so important for us to understand as the one which identified itself in Germany during the 1920's, 30's and 40's as National Socialism. By the time this movement was swept from the stage it had destroyed the lives of at least thirty million and perhaps as many as forty million people. . . . The realization that some men will construct a factory in which to kill other men raises the gravest questions about man himself. We have entered an age which we cannot avoid labeling ‘After Auschwitz.' If we are to begin to understand ourselves we must somehow come to to grips with the reality of Auschwitz. The study which follows is an attempt to come to grips with a part of that reality. . . . an examination of the period which immediately precedes Auschwitz, the period from 1933, when Hitler came to power, until late 1938 and early 1939, when the machinery which eventually administered a Final Solution was established."--From the introduction
 

Genres: History, Holocaust, European History

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1971

Reviews

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the first books to put the persecution of Jews by the Nazis into a sequential narrative context, and it is still valuable today even after many other works have added information not available to Schleunes.

The Nazi efforts to achieve the Jew-free Germany demanded by Hitler are described as a series of vicious programs which failed, from 1933 to 1938, to accomplish Hitler's goal. Boycotts, legislation, emigration and pogroms all caused incredible hardship but still failed to eliminate Jews from Germany or even from the German economy. Finally, after Kristallknacht in November 1938, Hitler turned the Jewish problem over to Goering, Heydrich and Eichmann, which led to Auschwitz.

Schleunes argues that Nazi policy until late 1938 was implemented by various underlings acting without consistent direction from Hitler. From what I have so far read, I think this was true but not a complete analysis. Hitler's fanatical Jew-hatred never wavered, from the moment he came to public attention in the early 1920s until his last statement before he died in 1945. But Hitler was patient, and his career is marked by a willingness to wait for the right opportunity and to defer action on one priority - ridding Germany of Jews - while focusing on the then-higher priorities of economic recovery and rearmament. When those goals had been achieved, and Germany no longer needed to be concerned with international opinion, Hitler turned to the Jews.

One aspect of the Nazi Jew-hatred that Schleunes does not address is why Hitler hated and feared Jews as he did, and why so many (most?) Germans had no problem accepting that hatred as valid and acquiescing in Hitler's policies, even to the point of mass murder. Why were Jews hated? Where did Hitler acquire that hatred? Why was persecution of Jews so acceptable to so many Germans? These are issues I am dealing with in the almost completed A FLOOD OF EVIL (1923-1933) and the sequel which is now taking focus.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a detailed study of Nazi policies and practices as regards Jews in the years from their ascension to power in 1933 to the beginning of the European war in 1939. The impression left is of no coherent policy whatsoever but rather a host of ever-changing practices ranging from the outlawry of the SA to the schemes of the SS, with Hitler himself mostly in the background.

The irony of Nazi policy was that there were very few Jews in the country to begin with, many of them thoroughly assimilated. Of course this made them convenient scapegoats, politically speaking. One consistent theme in Hitler's propaganda was that Jews exercised pernicious power in German business and in the professions and that this should cease. However, when it came to practicalities the few areas in which there was a significant Jewish presence, department stores being a prime example, it usually turned out that it was intermixed with Gentile interests. Thus a Jewish-identified department store would, upon analysis, be found to (a) employ many Gentiles and (b) be owned by a variety of interests--i.e. banks and other lenders/investors. Closing the such a shop down would not serve German interests--though that often did not stop the hotheads of the SA.

The final irony, of course, was how German expansionism, beginning with Austria, vastly increased the Jewish population of the Reich...

[David Withun · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important component of one of the most important historiographical debates of the modern era.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Twisted Road to Auschwitz remains a must-read to understand the chaotic and contradictory policies the Nazi Party created to target its Jewish population from 1933 to early 1939. With its publication in 1970, Karl Schleunes helped create the functionalist argument that the Holocaust was not a grand design by Adolf Hitler. Rather, power-hungry officials such as Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebels, Julius Streicher, and others suggested and created policies they felt best fit the Nazi Party’s racial ideology. Schleunes argues that Hitler rarely provided guidance, and only when these policies created diplomatic or economic crises did he feel compelled to step in. The importance of Schleunes’s work can’t be overstated and should be read by all with an interest in Holocaust study.

[Paulatics · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a great deal of information that was new to me. No matter how old I get or how much Holocaust history I read, there is more to know. And, still, it does not really explain how people could be so anti-Semitic. This is an important addition to my knowledge.

[Louis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into the development of Jewish Policy in Nazi Germany and the various factions vying for control over the coveted position.
It also explores the unique factors of 19th Century Germany that lead to the development of the unique brand of Nazi antisemitism in the 20th Century.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Twisted Road To Auschwitz: Nazi Policy toward German Jews, 1933-1939 by Karl A. Schleunes was a great reference book for my History of the Holocaust class that I am currently taking at the college level. However, it was poorly organized and the only way I was able to find anything relevant to what I needed was looking in the index that is, thankfully, provided at the back of the book. Great resource book if you are interested in the Holocaust or in a class that brings up the Holocaust. Other than that I wouldn't recommend it just to read, due to the bad organization and all over the place writing narrative.