This was so incredible to read. The atrocities of the Holocaust are ones that will never be forgotten but in this book they seemed so much more real for someone who didn't live through it.

REVIEW
It’s going to be difficult to review this book as how can a book that covers such an awful era in history be “good” and how do I explain why I wanted to read it without it offending anyone? Well I am going to try my best, first of all, World War 2 is an era I have always felt drawn to learn about that I find interesting. I totally agree that the Holocaust was a horrific time in history, but I am of the opinion it should never be forgotten. This is the sort of history that should be taught in school. I don’t want to go down a political route with my review but I believe this era and what happened should never be forgotten. After the coverage of the Holocaust Memorial Day I have learnt there are some people that seem to believe the Holocaust either didn’t happen or was over exaggerated! I don’t understand how they can suggest it didn’t happen when there are survivors that were there that went through and saw atrocities happening around them.

I guess I should get back to this specific book before I go on rambling. The cover is striking and depicts the content of the book. The symbol of the Nazis army and swastika feature on the book along with many prisoners in uniforms and what looks like new arrivals to a camp in their travelling clothes or Sunday best as they thought they were heading to a new life and wanted to impress those they would be working with. I think the cover is all the more powerful when you have read the book and the scene on the cover retold many times within the book. The information in this book is historical and factual. It has been collected from official data.

I’ll be totally truthful I have watched many films based on true stories but I have also read real survivors stories such as Eva Korr’s Surviving The Angel Of Death, where she tells what happened to herself, her sister and others around her that were selected for experiments being carried out by Dr Mengele. I also recently watched the documentaries about the different concentration camps and the Windermere children. I have also read even more fictional stories and fictionalised stories that are based on the true events. So, I guess the point I am trying to make is that I would have said that I knew quite a lot about this era. That I knew about certain people of the time such as Hitler, Dr Mengele, Eva Braun, as well as those with notorious nicknames the “the beast of” “the bitch of” etc.

I won’t lie, at times particularly at the beginning of the book I found it quite hard going, and did occasionally wonder what and why I had committed myself to reading this book of horrors. Then I thought about those survivors that had been there and seen all this happening in person, who carried it all around with them in their heads and hearts every day of their lives. I continued reading as these people deserve to be heard, their stories must be told and read. I almost feel I owe it to those who died to read and learn about what happened to them.

The book cover how Hitler rolled out his beliefs that the Jewish race were a problem. Though I must add that Roma people, the ill and disabled were also sent to concentration camps and into gas chambers. Hitler managed to encourage, coerce, (whatever you want to call it), thousands of men, women and young people that the a certain section of the community, the Jewish race were responsible for everything that was wrong in Germany and the world. The book explains how the Nazi party rose in strength and power in a country that was still in the process of recovering from a previous war. Some Jewish people saw the unrest and worse coming and managed to flee the country. But though some fled many more could not flee or did not flee.

The book explains how the Nazis began by painting the star of David on their shop windows, it covers the night of glass, when shops and synagogues were smashed up and/or set on fire. There’s the ghetto’s that came first before eventually been sent onto one of the many concentration camps.

This book has taught me a lot, though I may not remember or perhaps subconsciously prefer not to remember the exact statistics of those that died in gas chambers, were shot in front of mass graves or worked to the point they dropped dead. I would say I have learnt a lot more than I already knew. I honestly didn’t realise there were so many concentrations camps.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were that the book dealt with a very
difficult subject presented with fact, figures & statistics about a horrendous time in history.

To sum up, to say I “enjoyed” reading the book seems odd and wrong but it is a very captivating, shocking, informative, educational and yes in places heart breaking book. It is a book that enables to easily create imagery in your mind of the vile acts committed and I will say I think this is a book that will stay with me for a very long time. I went through a whole range of emotions whilst reading, from sympathy with those being persecuted, to anger at those in charge of the atrocities, to tears at all the lives lost. I think this book would be a good tool for schools to use. I also think it would be a great aid to any one writing a fictional book about the era.

Sadly this book was not what I was expecting. It would be great for middle/high school aged pupils if they had no knowledge of the Holocaust but as an adult with an interest in the subject this wasn’t the well researched and referenced book I assumed it would be. Maybe my fault for assuming!
I would market this as for the teen/young adult market. It would be great to use in schools.
Star rating given as reflecting my thoughts of it as an adult historical work.

Holocaust: The Nazi’s Wartime Jewish Atrocities by Stephen Wynn is a comprehensive pocket book of the leading events, camps and figures in the worst crime against humanity. It is horrific reading but we need to know what happened in memory of the innocents who perished.
Stephen Wynn has clearly done significant research as there were figures I had heard of and those I hadn’t. Many of the perpetrators were captured, tried and executed but some were not. A leading figure, Dr Mengele escaped justice.
There were also leading Jewish figures mentioned including the most famous of all, Anne Frank.
Man’s inhumanity to man had no boundaries. The innocents suffered and died. Many we never forget them.
I received this book for free. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

Holocaust is one of world's most atrocious and tragic events during the WWII. Million of Jews were persecuted, incarcerated and ultimately sent to gas chambers in these concentrations camps in Auschwitz-Birkenau, Belzec, Treblinka, Sobibor and Ravensbruck. However, even before the genocide of European Jews during WWII, many events, operations and laws were already in place to systematically persecute them. This is what this book is about, where it discusses all these events and operations leading up to The Final Solution.

This is an eye-opening book for me for sure as I have no idea about all these persecutions which the Jews gone through even before their deaths at the notorious death camps. This book is a well-researched one filled with a lot of historical facts and harrowing pics of the Holocaust. It is heartbreaking and emotional. There are also information on Nazi officers and doctors who were responsible for these deaths at the camps where they were eventually arrested and sentenced to death.

This is an important book to read. I highly recommend this as there are a lot of other lesser-known yet imperative historical information about Holocaust that you may not have read before.

Pub. date: 30 Jan 2020

***I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from Pen & Sword through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All views expressed in this review are my own and was not influenced by the author, publisher or any third party.***

Holocaust by Stephen Wynn is an encyclopedic listing of every known Nazi and what part they played in the Holocaust. I was surprised to learn some of the backgrounds of various guards. It was clear that some were just pure evil and elevated to a position where they could basically do any demented thought that had ever crossed their minds.

Sadly, if we do not learn and REMEMBER our history... we are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, there are so many that just don't understand that concept. I fear that this vicious cycle can and will raise its ugly head somewhere in the forthcoming future of mankind.

This is a relatively short and easy to read book with a general history of the Holocaust, what the idealism behind it was, and what occurred during the more well-documented periods of the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime.

As a general introduction to the Holocaust, this book serves its purpose nicely. There is not a terrible lot of depth to be found here about the causation of antisemitism, nor about the experiences of Hitler that lead him to his conclusions about the Jewish people, but as a basic history, it is a good one.

I would recommend this book to those who are just beginning to research this subject, as it is an excellent introduction to the time period. For more advanced readers, that already have a collection of books about the Shoah under their belt, this may be a bit too familiar.

Overall, I thought it was a good book and was happy for the chance to read it.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

The book is so moving. Very overwhelming. Very harrowing to read. But interesting all the same. You cannot begin to imagine what they went through. If only it wasn’t a true story being told.

I have read several fictional books about the Holocaust but this is the first non-fiction i have read on the subject.

I found the book informative and interesting and i learnt a lot. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of the Holocaust in an easy timeline format.

Holocaust by Stephen Wynn is a very basic, brief overview of some of the main points of the Holocaust. The most interesting aspect was the expanded explanation of the Wannsee Conference. Otherwise, the majority of information could be found anywhere. The main criticism I have with this work is the extreme lack of citation of sources. He provides a minimal list of five sources in the back which is woefully insufficient.
This book is perfect for a preliminary introduction to,the Holocaust.

I'm hesitant to give this book a five-star rating since the subject has been so well covered over the years. In this case, however, Holocaust really deserves a good rating for the book that it is. the Holocaust has been painted with such broad strokes, but this book really does tell the story of the madness in far greater detail than many others. It's good to know what happened to a lot of the monsters that participated in the madness. Read and get educated.

Such an important read! If you are learning, reading or interested in the happenings of the Holocaust you must pick this up! Wynn brings a great understanding to the timeline and elements of the atrocities committed by the Nazis in WWII. This non-fiction read recounts some of the important facts, timelines, perpetrators, victims, and locations from the very beginning of Hitler's rule to the Ghettos to the Camps (Labor & Extermination) to liberation by the Allies and finally to the trials that brought Nazis and their accomplices to justice, in most cases but sadly, not at all in others. Crammed with in-depth information on the inner runnings of the Holocaust and some of those that were involved, victims included. Mostly written with a matter-of-fact tone, it is different than the multiple works of literature that I have previously read regarding the Holocaust, but despite that fact it has become an immediate favorite on the topic and this will definitely serve as a great reference guide as I continue to learn more about this terrible time in the world's history

I thought this was a powerful and thought provoking read.

I have read many books on World War II and the Holocaust both fiction and non-fiction and this book really was excellent. I found the book to be a totally compelling read and I read it in just over a day dipping in and out of the different sections that the author has used to split the book. The subject matter was a bit heavy going for me to sit and read in one sitting and I did genuinely feel really sad and a great sense of loss when I read some of the chapters, particularly that on the Warsaw Ghetto.

The only thing that did surprise me was the amount of photos and that is in a good way, they really helped bring everything to life, and yes, they are distressing but this is a story we still need to tell and I preferred that the author was upfront and did not try to disguise what happened and how awful and despicable these acts really were.

This book also remembers the other persecuted minorities that were selected by the Nazis and suffered at their hands. The book has facts and figures which show just how many people were affected.

It is 5 stars from me without a doubt, I thought it was a superb book and the author has dealt with these atrocious crimes against humanity in a thorough and well-developed way. It for me is a must read to anyone interested in this period of history.