Foreword, Preface, and Introduction Summary and Analysis

The foreword by Lord Dacre of Glanton presents the English-language translation of the book and discusses its historical significance. It briefly provides a historical background for the materials presented but also assumes the reader is familiar with the basic history of the holocaust and the Nazi occupation of Eastern Europe. Some of the bizarre inconsistencies of German life during the Nazi era are considered and the question of how mass murder could consistently be carried on in public view without opposition is posed. The foreword and preponderance of the book deal with the early period of genocide, before mass evacuations, gassings, and cremations were carried out. The material starts with mass execution by shooting, moves on to mass execution by gas van, and then ends in the extermination camps during c. 1942. The foreword points out...