About the Book

With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Years of Extermination, Saul Friedländer completes a masterful historical work that began with Nazi Germany and the Jews, Volume I: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939. Drawing from a vast array of historical documents, diaries, letters, and memoirs, Friedländer gives voice to the victims, the Nazis, and witnesses of these horrific events. In this work, the history of the Holocaust has found its definitive representation.

The Years of Extermination examines the persecution and murder of Jewish people throughout occupied Europe, placing the Holocaust in a historic, political and social context. Friedländer recounts the ways in which Germany’s extermination policies were implemented, with the cooperation of local authorities and police forces, as well as the passivity or fear of local citizens. The reaction of foreign countries to the ongoing Holocaust is also considered in this unforgettable exploration of one of humanity’s darkest hours.

Born in Prague, Saul Friedländer spent his boyhood in Nazi-occupied France. He is a professor of history at UCLA, and has written numerous books on Nazi Germany and World War II. In 2008, Friedländer won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for the second volume of his influential work The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945.

Establishes itself as the standard historical work on Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Europe’s Jews ... An account of unparalleled vividness and power that reads like a novel ... Friedländer succeeds in binding together the many different strands of his story with a sure touch. He has written a masterpiece that will endure. — New York Times Book Review

Critical Praise

“One of the most important works of historical writing in recent years, and deserves to live in the company of works by Raul Hilberg, Lucy Dawidowicz, and Leni Yahil as one of the finest comprehensive studies of this darkest subject of all.” — New Republic

"Establishes itself as the standard historical work on Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Europe’s Jews. . An account of unparalleled vividness and power that reads like a novel. . . . A masterpiece that will endure." — New York Times Book Review

“Saul Friedlander’s massive history of the Holocaust is a judicious, authoritative and restrained study. But it’s also a stark reminder that lunacy may have been as much a part of Nazism as cruelty.” — Newsweek

"A masterful synthesis that draws on a lifetime of learning and research." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In this second compelling volume of Friedländer’s history of the Holocaust (see its predecessor, Nazi Germany and the Jews: Volume 1: The Years of Persecution, 1933–1939), the author takes into account recent scholarship on the Holocaust but avoids bogging down in the intentionalist/functionalist historiographic debate.” — Library Journal

“The second volume, like the first, lends the impression that ‘you are there,’ a witness with a kaleidoscopic panorama of history that juxtaposes the cries and whispers of ordinary men, women and children against the sadistic bombast of Hitler, his henchmen and their many helpers eager to indulge villainous appetites and vicious prejudices. These stories are woven together in a tapestry that comes to life (and death) by the vivid recall of eyewitnesses to what they otherwise could not have believed.” — Washington Times

“THE YEARS OF EXTERMINATION: Nazi Germany and the Jews 1939-1945 by Saul Friedlander is a follow-up to his early work… which together provide a remarkable comprehensive history.” — Jewish Week

“Friedlander’s book offers a useful, updated panorama of the events of the Holocaust.” — Washington Post Book World

"A monumental triumph. . . . I have no hesitation in ranking Friedlander’s two volumes as among the very best that we have so far." — Matt Nesvisky, Jerusalem Report

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780060930486
• ISBN 10: 0060930489
• Imprint: Harper Perennial
• On Sale: 04/01/2008
• Trimsize: 6.000 in (w) x 9.000 in (h) x 1.790 in (d)
• Pages: 896
• List Price: $23.99
• BISAC1 : HISTORY / General
• BISAC2 : HISTORY / Jewish
• BISAC3 : HISTORY / Military / World War II
• BISAC4 : HISTORY / Holocaust