Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust, Third Edition

Among events that should never be forgotten lest they be repeated in another form is the Holocaust. Yet, more than half a century later, there is a tendency to forget—if not to relativize—the Nazi extermination campaign against the Jews. More insidiously, a vicious effort is being made in limited circles to deny the Holocaust. This third edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Holocaust is another reminder of what happened to Jews and other victims of Nazi Germany’s genocidal policies. Even a straightforward account makes for grisly and painful reading, although this book’s purpose is to objectively inform.

This is not the only reference work on the Holocaust, but it has many useful features. The progression of the Holocaust is shown in the chronology, and the background is presented in an extensive introduction. Detailed information on people, places, events, and organizations is contained in the dictionary entries, and a comprehensive bibliography provides an extensive number of additional sources. This third edition builds on an already impressive and well-received first two. The introduction and chronology are up to date, and there are many new entries in the dictionary section: some make the wartime events more explicit, if not comprehensible, while others demonstrate clearly that the issue cannot simply be relegated to the past. The bibliography includes more titles and useful resources on the internet and in cinematic form.

All three editions of this book have been written by Jack Fischel, who draws on decades of experience as a teacher, lecturer, writer, editor, and organizer of conferences relating to the Holocaust. He is professor of history and director of an annual conference on the Holocaust at Millersville University. He has written The Holocaust and The Holocaust and Its Religious Impact, edited The Encyclopedia of Jewish American Popular Culture, and coedited Jewish American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia and several