How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust by Dan McMillan (New York: Basic Books, 2014. 288 pp. $27.99 ISBN 978-0-465-08024-3).

Authors

Sondra Perl, City University of New YorkFollow

Abstract

Eighty-two years after Hitler became Reich Chancellor of Germany, seventy-seven years after Kristallnacht, seventy years after the liberation of Auschwitz: time makes no difference. The Holocaust remains an inexplicable phenomenon, the catastrophe of catastrophes, an omnipresent stain on the soul of humanity. In his thoughtful book, Dan McMillan attempts, with remarkable success, to demystify the Shoah, to explain how it happened and why. In doing so, McMillan is well aware of the pitfalls: to explain means to understand; to understand, to render the incomprehensible comprehensible, is to challenge the special status of the Holocaust as unique.

Recommended Citation

Perl, Sondra (2016) "How Could This Happen: Explaining the Holocaust by Dan McMillan (New York: Basic Books, 2014. 288 pp. $27.99 ISBN 978-0-465-08024-3).," Journal of Hate Studies: Vol. 13: Iss. 1, Article 10.
DOI: 10.33972/jhs.139
Available at: https://repository.gonzaga.edu/jhs/vol13/iss1/10

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