Yitzhak Arad served as the director of Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Authority, from 1972 to 1993. He is now retired but continues to research and write about the Holocaust. He is the author or editor of several books, including Documents on the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union, 8th edition (Nebraska 1999); Ponary Diary, 1941–1943: A Bystander's Account of a Mass Murder; and Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps.

"A significant contribution to the continuous effort of scholars to fathom the phenomenon known as 'The Holocaust.'"—Jewish Book World|""[The Holocaust in the Soviet Union] is a magisterial work of great significance. Particularly for readers more familiar with the Holocaust in western Europe and occupied Poland, there is a great deal to learn from it.""—Maarten Pereboom, Shofar |""This book is a supreme achievement and an essential work for all Holocaust libraries.""—Hallie Cantor, Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter |""A masterful synthesis. . . . This study provides a much-needed panoramic view in a field that has produced mostly regional and microstudies in the past two decades. . . . Arad's remarkable tome has both an encyclopedic as well as broad-brush quality to it that makes it required reading in Holocaust Studies.""—Bradley D. Woodworth, Russian Review |""Arad's book constitutes a welcome and valuable contribution to Holocaust scholarship.""—Šarūnas Liekis, Journal of Baltic Studies |""Yitzhak Arad has produced a notable work that is particularly valuable for its comprehensive documentation of Nazi crimes over a large geographic area.""—Waitman W. Beorn, Holocaust and Genocide Studies

• Contents List of Tables Preface Part 1. The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union before World War II 1. Jews in Czarist Russia 2. Jews in the USSR and in the Annexed Territories between the Two World Wars Part 2. The Impact of Political and Military Developments on the Jews of Eastern Europe, September 1, 1939, to June 22, 1941 3. German-Soviet Relations and Geopolitical Changes in Eastern Europe 4. The Jews in the Soviet Annexed Territories 5. Preparations in Germany for the Attack on the Soviet Union and the Annihilation of the Jews Part 3. The German Attack on the Soviet Union 6. Invasion under the Slogan "War on Judeo-Bolshevism" 7. Evacuation of the Soviet Population: Jews in Organized and Individual Evacuation 8. Anti-Jewish Pogroms during the Early Days of Occupation 9. The German Administration in the Occupied Territories and Its Anti-Jewish Policy Part 4. Mass Murder, First Stage: June 22, 1941, to Winter 194142 10. Einsatzgruppen Routes of Advance and Method of Extermination 11. Reichskommissariat Ostland: Ghettos and Extermination 12. Reichskommissariat Ukraine: Ghettos and Extermination 13. Military Administration Areas: Ghettos and Extermination 14. Extermination of the Jews of Crimea 15. The German Army from "Freedom of Action" for the Einsatzgruppen to Active Collaboration in the Murders 16. Persecution of the Jews in District Galicia 17. Romania and Transnistria: Expulsion and Mass Murder Part 5. Mass Murder, Second Stage: From Spring to Late 1942 18. The Killing Actions in Ostland and the Grodno-Volkovysk Region (Generalbezirk Bialystok) 19. Annihilation in Reichskommissariat Ukraine 20. Mass Murder in District Galicia: Operation Reinhard 21. Annihilation in Areas under Military Administration 22. Transnistria: Life in the Shadow of Death Part 6. Mass Murder, Third Stage: From Early 1943 until the End of German Occupation 23. Liquidation of the Last Ghettos in Reichskommissariat Ostland 24. Liquidation of the Last Ghettos in Reichskommissariat Ukraine 25. Survival in Transnistria 26. Action 1005 Part 7. The Murder of Specific Jewish Groups 27. The Murder of Mixed Marriages, Their Offspring, and Jewish Children in Boardinghouses 28. The Murder of Jewish Prisoners of War 29. Extermination in Ostland of Jews from the Third Reich Part 8. The Robbery of Jewish Property and Cultural Values 30. Confiscation and Plunder 31. The Pillage of Cultural Assets Part 9. Non-Jewish Society and Its Reaction to the Genocide of the Jews 32. The Local Population 33. The Righteous among the Nations 34. Attitudes of the Churches and Clergy toward the German Administration and Its Anti-Jewish Policy Part 10. The Jews in Their Struggle for Life and in Armed Resistance 35. The Individual, the Public, and Jewish Councils in a Battle for Survival 36. The Jewish Armed Underground in the Ghettos 37. The Jews in Forests and the Partisan Movement 38. Blood Account: Casualties and Survivors Conclusion Epilogue: The Holocaust and Soviet Governing Authorities Notes Bibliography Index