The Holocaust: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection. Edited by Paul R. Bartrop and Michael Dickerman. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 4 vols. Acid-free $435 (ISBN 978-1-4408-4083-8). Ebook Available (978-1-4408-4084-5), call for pricing.

This is perhaps one of the more sizeable and useful Holocaust reference titles this reviewer has come across. Complete with two volumes of A–Z entries and two volumes of supplementary primary source material (“Testimonies” and “Documents”), editors Bartrop and Dickerman have assembled a noteworthy resource for beginning research on a wide range of Holocaust-related topics.

Volume 1 begins with a preface, historical introduction, and three maps to acquaint the reader with the size and scope of the reference set. Next comes a section of essays, which really reads more like a single essay divided into sections, addressing subtopics such as “Causes,” “Perpetrators,” “Victims,” and “International Reactions.” The main reference entries that follow cover an extensive span of people, places, key events, groups and organizations, laws, etc., pertaining to the Holocaust. Entries are cross referenced (“see also”) and contain further reading suggestions. Volume 2 concludes with a chronology of events, glossary, and comprehensive bibliography.

Volume 3 opens with a list of testimony entries (110 in total), first alphabetically, then clustered by topic (i.e., “Before the War,” “Concentration Camps and Prisons,” “Evading Persecution,” etc.). Testimonies are excerpted from larger autobiographical works or other primary sources. They are each set up with the original source citation and contextualized with a brief introduction. Finally, volume 4 contains documents of the Holocaust (177 in total) organized chronologically under topic headings (i.e., “The Othering of Jews,” “Genocide,” and “Responses and Other Victims,” etc.). While some of these are excerpts taken from larger works, most of the documents such as laws/decrees, telegrams, and other correspondence are reproduced in their entirety.

More and more reference sets are being published in this format (A–Z entries, followed by substantial sections of primary sources), which this reviewer sees as a great thing. Two other Holocaust encyclopedias come to mind when reviewing this title: The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (Macmillan, 1990) and The Holocaust Encyclopedia (Yale University Press, 2001). Both are fine sources with similar content and scope in terms of reference entries, but lacking the additional documents.

This set would be a welcome addition to any academic library serving students at the undergraduate level. It would be great for generating research topic ideas and equipping students with primary sources that are requisite of most any history paper at the college level.—Todd J. Wiebe, Head of Research and Instruction, Van Wylen Library, Hope College, Holland, Michigan