The author tries to show that although Turks deny the Armenian genocide ever happened there is more than enough evidence to prove them guilty of annihilating a whole race. The book seems to be a write-up of primary research in which Akcam states facts in a chronological fashion. The author is a well established sociologist and historian who currently works at the University of Minnesota's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The Armenian genocide was undoubtedly caused by the Turks which resurfaces throughout the content of this book. Although I have never before discussed or even heard of the Armenian genocide before this book the Turks who were behind these series of massacres seem even more heinous because they tried to hide such a staggering crime.

The book's content is linear and clarifies on some subjects, but the information can be easy to get lost in because the paragraphs seem to introduce a new character or event if not several which sometimes didn't seem to have any ties to the paragraph before it. Akcam achieved his goal by accurately revealing facts that might have been oblivious to many people because of where they came from, such as Turkish/Ottoman documents found in archives. Akcam made several points to show how a nation could comply with such brutal actions. He also showed that the Turks managed to cover up a large amount of their operations by using the World War as something to keep Europe preoccupied with their own problems rather than those of the Armenians.

The author writes about how the social class kept a sort of traditional role from the medieval period to the modern era, where Turkish citizens were considered of higher class and served in the army while other races such as Armenians, Greeks and so on were just the working class or slaves. In the modernized world the merchant class (Armenians, etc.) began to gain more power and live longer, luxurious lives than their so called Turkish masters who were mostly just soldiers. The government which was still run by Turks began to rally the Empire into a nationalistic state and target the Armenians as the enemy. Akcam writes about how one of the leaders in the Armenian genocide operation would make promises to stop killing to European ambassadors one moment and then send a message to continue, just to get them off his back. Events that the book left out and how it would compare to others on the subject I have no basis of comparison to refer to since I haven't read any other books or heard anything about the Armenian genocide until this book. I found it intriguing how the Turks avoided being caught for a while and still deny that the genocide ever took place. I disliked how the book seemed to drag on and on which made it hard for me to get into because I have trouble reading just a list of facts.

I found several key events interesting such as moving the Armenians and other non-Turk races into the center of the empire in order to control them better. The idea of a Turkish historian writing about something that's considered taboo in his country also gave this book a slight twist from the beginning. I would not recommend this book to most people due to how the information is presented and that I doubt they could get much out of it unless they seriously outlined each chapter after reading it or spent some time thinking over the facts before moving on.

An enormous amount of Holocaust literature is available for those who desire to comprehend the dimensions of the Holocaust. Some are left behind by victims in the form of journals, letters and diaries, while others were written by Holocaust survivors. There are also accounts of resistance and stories of heroic rescues. The most important goal of learning about the Holocaust is to prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.

Here are six classic holocaust-themed books:

1. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

   
   
   A book comprising of excerpts from diaries written by Anne Frank, beginning from her thirteenth birthday in June 1942 which was a mere three weeks before she and her family went into hiding from the Gestapo in a building's tiny room in Amsterdam until their eventual betrayal in August 1944 when they were transported to Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died of typhus in 1945. It provides a glimpse of daily life under the Nazis and her expression of faith in human goodness in the hope of living in a world without hate.

2. Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

   
   
   Originally titled "Se Questo e un Uomo" (Italian for "If This Is a Man"). This memoir recounts the author's two agonizing years at Auschwitz with his life spared mainly because of his scientific expertise being a chemist by profession, making him valuable to the Nazis. It was written to expose the atrocities perpetrated by the German Nazi regime.

3. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

   
   
   Initially published in 1946 under the title "Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager"(literally "A Psychologist Experiences the Concentration Camp" in German). Viktor Frankl chronicled his three torturous years of experience in Nazi death camps where he lost his wife and parents; and discussed logotherapy, a new psychotherapeutic method developed to assist people find a reason for living, even in the most painful circumstances including suffering and death.

4. Night by Elie Wiesel

   
   
   Originally published in Yiddish in 1956 entitled "Un di Velt Hot Geshvign" ("And the World Remain Silent"). Elie Wiesel, after having endured through four concentration camps, vowed never to speak of his holocaust experience but decided after a decade to finally break his silence when Nobel laureate Francois Mauriac encouraged him to write a memoir about it; and had since written more than 30 works dealing with Judaism, Holocaust and the moral responsibility to battle racism and genocide. It somehow enabled people to understand the horrors of the Holocaust.

5. They Fought Back by Yuri Suhl
   
   

   A book featuring a collection of more than 30 amazing stories, detailing accounts of women including teenagers, wives and widows; and of many Jewish people of diverse political beliefs who courageously conducted anti-Nazi operations in Berlin at the height of the war. It was written to in an effort to dispel the Holocaust myth that Jews did not resist their tormentors, because the truth is, many did.

6. Their Brothers' Keepers by Philip Friedman

   
   
   A scholarly work by the "Father of Holocaust History" for the purpose of keeping the memory of the Holocaust alive after more than a decade of extensive research through interviews, eyewitness accounts and official documents. It features objective accounts of many ordinary individuals, who, at great personal risks, displayed great compassion and courage in aiding Jews during the Nazi occupation.

Other Holocaust themed series

·        Famous Holocaust Survivors

·        Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 1

·        Heroes of the Holocaust & Their Stories of Courage 2

Elie Wiesel is a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust. In his book, Night, he gives detailed accounts of his tragic life in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. This book is filled with horrific accounts of horrible, horrible happenings which took place in the concentration camps.

Hearing about the horrors which took place in the concentration camps is tough to hear about. Reading Night, written from a first-hand point of view, sheds a new light on how the Jews themselves felt while experiencing the suffering which they endured in the 1940s. There are so many different stories in this book that are simply heart breaking. After reading certain parts I would have to set down the book and stop to contemplate.

Night is intriguing and well-written but moreover, it will open your eyes, make you stop, think, and be grateful for what you have. It is a short book and I hope after hearing about it you will go pick it up and take the time to read it. Books like these enrich our lives and in truth, make us better people.