History of an Obsession: German Judeophobia and the Holocaust

"In his follow-up to Nazi Germany: A New History, Fischer traces the long history of Judeophobia in German culture from the Middle Ages to the present, including its Christian, xenophobic, social, and biological-racial strains. . . . Fischer writes with a clear mastery of both primary and secondary sources, synthesizing a wide spectrum of literature into a fine, scholarly work. Highly recommended."-Library Journal "Truly a significant work, for Fischer gives a balanced account of a complex subject, making it painfully clear just how Germany became capable of genocide."-Booklist "Fischer is fair, balanced and well informed, having read widely and proving able to synthesize a broad array of secondary sources. . . . [A] stimulating and intelligent book."-Jewish Studies "A detailed, well-written, sober and analytical study that deserves the widest possible circulation. . . . Although the rise of Nazism has been told many times, Fischer makes a clearly reasoned, well-researched attempt to put a horrible crime and a horrible epoch into an appropriately complex historical context. . . . [A]n indispensable guide."-Publishers Weekly

Klaus Fischer charts the tortured history of German-Jewish relations over a millennium, from migration and ghettoization in the Middle Ages to enlightenment and emancipation in the eighteenth century to varieties of anti-Jewish prejudices in the Second Reich to the rise of pathological Judeophobia in the years 1918 to 1933. The aim of the book is to provide a historical explanation for this change in consciousness that began with a religious prejudice, moved to social and political discrimination, and ended up in annihilatory rage.