This section details the Nazi rise to power, the legislative stripping of Jewish rights, and the bureaucratic machinery of the state that facilitated mass murder.
Upon its release, the book was praised for its exhaustive research and its ability to synthesize complex political history with deeply personal narratives. While later "Functionalist" historians argued that the Holocaust evolved through bureaucratic momentum, Dawidowicz’s work remains the definitive defense of the idea that the genocide was a deliberate, planned "war" against a specific people. The War Against the Jews: 1933-1945
She describes how the Nazi state transformed into a "dual state," where traditional legal structures existed alongside a "Prerogative State" that operated outside the law to carry out the genocide. This section details the Nazi rise to power,
The book is divided into two distinct parts to provide a comprehensive view of the era: She describes how the Nazi state transformed into
Dawidowicz highlights how the Nazis prioritized the transport of Jews to death camps even when those resources (trains and personnel) were desperately needed for the German war effort on the Eastern Front.