vestal (04/02/83)
Try William Schirer's (sp?) book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". This isn't specifically a book about the holocaust, but it does give some factual discussions about the death camps (which invariably include political dissidents/homosexuals/ etc.) The earlier note about the Soviet losses during WWII are also evidenced in the book (though I'm not sure the full extent of the Stalinist purges are mentioned). 6,000,000 is, of course, an approximation, but it doesn't seem to be some propaganda claim; I'm willing to go with it as an order-of-magnitude estimate of Jewish losses during WWII. As an indication of European Jewish culture in the early parts of this century, and the rise of Zionism as a political movement, and Zionism's overall change of course during WWII, I think the book might serve as a good, impartial background. After all, Begin (sp?) is a Polish refugee of WWII.