The number of books and articles dealing with various aspects of World
War II has increased at a phenomenal rate since the end of the
hostilities. Perhaps no other chapter in this bloodiest of all wars has
received as much attention as the Holo- caust. The Nazis' program for
the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" - this ideologically
conceived, diabolical plan for the physicalliquidation of European
Jewry - has emerged as a subject of agonizing and intense interest to
laypersons and scholars alike. The centrality of the Holocaust in the
study of the Third Reich and the Nazi phenomenon is almost universally
recognized. The source materials for many of the books published during
the immediate postwar period were the notes and diaries kept by many
camp and ghetto dwellers, who were sustained during their unbelievable
ordeal by the unusual drive to bear witness. These were supplemented
after the liberation by a large number of personal narratives collected
from survivors alI over Europe. Understandably, the books published
shortly after the war ended were mainly martyrological and
lachrymological, reflecting the trauma of the Holocaust at the personal,
individual level. These were soon followed by a considerable number of
books dealing with the moral and religious questions revolving around
the role ofthe lay and spiritual leaders of the doomed Jewish
communities, especially those involved in the Jewish Councils, as well
as God' s responsibility toward the "chosen people.
