Dimensions of the Holocaust in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XXII

Dimensions of the Holocaust: Remarks on Two Studies

This research review presents Friedlaender’s review of two recent Holocaust books — the 1990 German edition of Raul Hilberg’s The Destruction of the European Jews and Wolfgang Benz, ed., Dimension des Voelkermords: Die Zahl der juedischen Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (1991). Agreeing in general with Hilberg’s work, Friedlaender adds complementary details, and comments that the author concentrated on the implementation of the destruction of European Jewry but not on its reasons. The difficulties of Benz’s volume are found in the details given about the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust, which could amount — according to his research — to more than six million.