The Holocaust

byLaurence Rees, Jonathan Keeble (Read by)

A New History

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of The Holocaust by Laurence Rees, read by Jonathan Keeble.

This landmark work answers two of the most fundamental questions in history - how, and why, did the Holocaust happen?

Laurence Rees has spent twenty-five years meeting survivors and perpetrators of the Holocaust. Now, in his magnum opus, he combines their enthralling eyewitness testimony, a large amount of which has never been published before, with the latest academic research to create the first accessible and authoritative account of the Holocaust in more than three decades.

This is a new history of the Holocaust in three ways. First, and most importantly, Rees has created a gripping narrative that that contains a large amount of testimony that has never been published before. Second, he places this powerful interview material in the context of an examination of the decision making process of the Nazi state, and in the process reveals the series of escalations that cumulatively created the horror. Third, Rees covers all those across Europe who participated in the deaths, and he argues that whilst hatred of the Jews was always at the epicentre of Nazi thinking, what happened cannot be fully understood without considering the murder of the Jews alongside plans to kill millions of non-Jews, including homosexuals, 'Gypsies' and the disabled.

Through a chronological, intensely readable narrative, featuring enthralling eyewitness testimony and the latest academic research, this is a compelling new account of the worst crime in history.

Anyone wanting a compelling, highly readable explanation of how and why the Holocaust happened, drawing on recent scholarship and impressively incorporating moving and harrowing interviews need look no further than Laurence Rees's brilliant book

Professor Ian Kershaw

About Laurence Rees

Laurence Rees is the author of The Holocaust: A New History, a Sunday Times bestseller that was described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘the finest single volume on the Holocaust ever written’, by the Times as an ‘exemplary account of how the greatest crime in modern history came about’ and by the Mail on Sunday as ‘groundbreaking.’


A former Head of BBC TV History programmes, he has written nine books focusing on the Nazis and the Second World War. Many of them, including The Nazis: A Warning from History, Auschwitz: The Nazis and the ‘Final Solution’, World War II: Behind Closed Doors and The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler, were also documentary TV series, which he wrote and produced.


Educated at Oxford University, for several years he was a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Sheffield and the Open University.


His many awards include a British Book award, a BAFTA, a George Foster Peabody award, a Broadcasting Press Guild award, a Grierson award, a Broadcast award, two International Documentary awards and two Emmys.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780241980729
  • Length: 1174 minutes
  • Price: £12.00
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