John Weiss

In his 1995 work, Ideology of Death, Weiss again breaks with tradition by suggesting that the Holocaust did not depend upon the unique character of Adolph Hitler for its inspiration. The culture of post-World War I Germany—which had its political roots in the anti-Semitic sentiment encouraged by several Lutheran and Catholic clergymen during the nineteenth century—contained numerous social groups "with hundreds of thousands of followers whose ideas were no different from those of the Nazis," according to the author. Anti-Semitism was only a part of the "kaleidoscope of hatreds" that characterized German society at the time, explained New York Times Book Review critic Michael S. Sherry, and it "overlapped, in bewildering and contradictory ways, other hatreds," including those against Czechs, Slavs, Catholics, and others. Such prejudices crystallized under Hitler, but were not inspired by him. While noting that by "ascrib[ing] consistency, power, even perverse sincerity, to ideas" such as anti-Semitism, Weiss is writing "old-fashioned history," Sherry praised Ideology of Death for its ability to "invite … other historians to grasp the full scale of modern Europe's hatreds." (Source: [encyclopedia.com](

"The historical record of fascism numbs the imagination," Mr. Weiss writes. "The Nazis shot, gassed or buried alive some six million Jews. Three or four million other passive or potential opponents of the regime were slaughtered. Perhaps as many as two million prisoners of war were shot or starved to death. Entire populations of hundreds of villages in Eastern Europe were destroyed by fire or bullet, often down to the last woman and child. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians were enslaved, tortured, and otherwise abused to further the economic aims of the Third Reich. In this moving survey of that fateful period, Mr. Weiss has relied on the writings of many of those who were on the scene. His selection of articles from the New York Times explores the reasons behind the history. The book begins by illuminating the political situation that allowed the Nazis and fascists to seize power. It then analyzes the political and social policies of totalitarianism in practice; the development of fascism in Europe outside Germany and Italy; and finally the experience of war. - Jacket flap.