Book excerpt: Described as an "application of historical sociology, not a work of conventional history", the work assesses why the destruction of the Jews was not uniformly effective throughout Europe. Three factors determined Nazi success - the extent of German control, the activity of national resistance movements, and the extent of antisemitism in the prewar period. Pt. 1 (p. 3-194) discusses the will of the Germans to annihilate the Jews, and its origins; the role of the Allies, the European neutrals, and the Church in failing to prevent the Holocaust; and conditions in the occupied countries. Pt. 2 deals mainly with the responses of the Jews.