The Death of the Shtetl Yehuda Bauer

In this book Yehuda Bauer, an internationally-acclaimed Holocaust historian, recounts the destruction of the shtetls, small Jewish towns in Poland and Russia, at the hands of the Nazis in 1941-1942. Bauer brings together all available documents, testimonies, and scholarship, including previously unpublished material from the Yad Vashem archives, pertaining to nine representative shtetls. In line with his belief that 'history is the story of real people in real situations', Bauer tells the moving stories of individual people and communities. Over a million people, approximately a quarter of all victims of the Holocaust came from the shtetls. Bauer writes of the relations between Jews and non-Jews throughout the period (including the actions of rescuers); he describes attempts to create underground resistance groups, escapes to the forests, and Jewish participation in the Soviet partisan movement. Bauer's book is a definitive examination of the demise of the shtetls, a topic of vast importance to the history of the Holocaust.

Yehuda Bauer is the Academic Adviser of Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, and Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies, Hebrew University. He is the author of many books, including Rethinking the Holocaust published by Yale University Press.

"'A masterful new study of the shtetl.' Adam Kirsch, Tablet 'Yehuda Bauer is a towering and commanding figure among the historians of the Holocaust... What makes The Death of the Shtetl so important is his insistence on adhering to the highest and strictest standards of scholarship.' Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal"