Book Review: Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders the Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945 by Raul Hilberg

The problem of Holocaust, its basic causes and shocking consequences have always been of a primary concern of many historians researching this process during the pre-war and the World War II period. Probably the answer to the questions: who is guilty in the Holocaust, whether it could be prevented, and how many victims of it, can hardly be found since even now it is practically impossible to fully realize the disastrous effect of the Holocaust and find those who are really guilty in this catastrophe, which should be in fact treated not as a catastrophe of Jewish people only but as one of the greatest and the most notorious tragedies of humanity.
One of the authors, who attempts to find the answer to the questions asked above concerning the Holocaust, is Raul Hilberg. He is considered to be one of the most outstanding specialists researching the Holocaust. Among numerous books written by this author, “Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders the Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945” is probably one of the most effective, informative and simply interesting to analyze since it treats the problem of the Holocaust in complex, i.e. Raul Hilberg attempts to answer the main question concerning the causes and consequences of the catastrophe.
In fact the entity of the book is very skillfully revealed by the author in the title since it is very symbolic and informative in the same time. So, judging by the title it is obvious that Raul Hilberg is basically concerned with the problem of finding out what are perpetrators, or in other words who is really responsible for the Holocaust, who are its victims, and finally and obviously one of the most interesting and original question the author poses, is who are those bystanders and what is their role in the catastrophe of Jewish people of 1933-1945.
According to the title the whole book may be divided into three thematically different sections. Firstly, it would be logical to dwell upon the perpetrators who are directly responsible for the Holocaust. Probably it is the less arguable question that the author discusses in his book. Obviously that it was Nazi Germany that was the main initiator of the Holocaust since its national policy was based on national and racial discrimination and the elimination of Jewish people was one of the main goals of the Nazi regime. But the Nazi regime is a bit abstract notion and the author rather tends to personify it. As a result he blames the leaders of the Nazi party in the organization of the Holocaust and their silent executers who actually committed the crimes against Jewish people and humanity at large.
However, it is necessary to underline that Raul Hilberg stands on the ground that it was Adolph Hitler who is an evil genius and the main ideologue of the Holocaust and it is him who should be treated as the primary cause of all evils that occurred to Jewish people within a period analyzed.
Furthermore, what is probably, to a certain extent, new view on the Holocaust is the fact that the author also blames the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union and accuses it in this catastrophe as well as Nazis in Germany, in such a way he extends the borders of the Holocaust, or to put it more precisely, the number of its perpetrators.
Also, according to the author, it is possible to treat the Nazis’ Slavic helpers during the World War II as perpetrators though they also may be referred to bystanders as well depending on their ‘contribution’ to the Holocaust.
As for victims, it is always the most difficult problem to speak about all the victims of the Holocaust and the author underlines that despite the fact that victims are seldom seen it is necessary to remember about all of them. It is really overwhelming how the author manages to depict the victims with their personal differences in resources, perception and the extent of their vulnerabilities.
Finally, the bystanders is probably the most provocative and the least discussible category. Raul Hilberg accuses all the countries, which ignored or remained passive when the Holocaust had been growing in power. But what is probably more important the author changes traditional stereotypes to allies that took part in the war against fascism and consequently the Holocaust, namely the USA and the UK as well as other European countries which did not prevent the tragedy of Jewish people.
The author emphasizes that passiveness of the allies was absolutely unacceptable and according to him European countries and the US could not remain inactive while Nazi regime has got the power in Germany and started to spread its influence on neighboring countries and promoted the policy of national inequality and intolerance.
Equally the author projects the notion of bystanders on the individual level. He indicates that it was absolutely unacceptable for individuals either to take advantage of the victims of the Holocaust or to give less help than was possible to give.
Thus, in conclusion it should be said that the book “Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders the Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945” by Raul Hilberg is very significant contribution in people’s understanding of the Holocaust. Obviously the author has managed to have a different and original view on the problem, especially in his interpretation of bystanders who were probably not less guilty in the spread of the Holocaust than its direct perpetrators. In such a way the author warns humanity against the repetition of such mistakes in the future and in all probability he claims for all people and countries to have an active and distinct position in international policy in the question of national and racial equality. On reading this book, it is really possible to realize what a catastrophe the Holocaust was for Jewish people and what is its danger for the whole humanity. In general the book should be treated as a warn for future generations and as a recommendations to ways of prevention of such tragedies through minimizing the number of bystanders that would lead to isolation of perpetrators and deceasing of number of possible victims.

Bibliography:
1. Hilberg, Raul. Perpetrators, Victims, Bystanders the Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945. NY: Harper Collins, 1992.