"THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE STUDY ON THE SUBJECT AVAILABLE": FIRST EDITION OF THE FINAL SOLUTION, 1953

REITLINGER, Gerald. The Final Solution: The Attempt to Exterminate the Jews of Europe 1939-1945. London: Valentine, Mitchell, (1953). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket. $1800.

First edition of one of the earliest in-depth historical examinations of the Holocaust, "the most comprehensive study on the subject available… It has not been sufficiently read. It cannot be sufficiently read" (Grossman, Antioch Review, 15:1).

Reitlinger meticulously assembled his account of the Third Reich's "Final Solution to the Jewish Question" using all verifiable resources and documentation then available, including testimony from the Nuremberg trials. While later histories were able to draw on additional information, this early, foundational study—the first to appear in English—is still one of the most coherent and authoritative assessments of "the most systematic extermination of a race in human history" (p. 489). Bookplate of Ralph M. Chait, eminent specialist in Chinese art.

Book with slight wear to edges and extremities; dust jacket lightly rubbed, with minor toning to spine. An extremely good copy of the scarce fist edition.