Non­fic­tion

The Killing Trap: Geno­cide in the 20th Century

Manus L. Midlarsky
  • Review
By – October 18, 2011
Manus Mid­larsky, a lead­ing schol­ar on war who was raised as an Ortho­dox Jew,avoided study­ing the Holo­caust for many years, shun­ning the pain he knew it would bring. When he final­ly did bring him­self to face the sub­ject, this excel­lent book was the result. The Killing Trap recounts not only the hor­rors of the Holo­caust, but pro­vides a com­par­a­tive analy­sis of all the geno­cides of the 20th cen­tu­ry, which also includes those affect­ing Arme­ni­ans, Tut­sis, Cam­bo­di­ans, Rwan­dans and Roma­ni­ans. These killings are esti­mat­ed to have tak­en more than 40 mil­lion lives. 


Midlarsky’s abil­i­ty to exam­ine such a dif­fi­cult and painful sub­ject with clar­i­ty of thought and depth of feel­ing is remark­able. This well researched, well-writ­ten book is a major con­tri­bu­tion to the study of genocide.

Bar­bara S. Cohen is a tri­al attor­ney in Los Ange­les who spe­cial­izes in child abuse cas­es. She is a mem­ber of NAMI and a sup­port­er of NARSAD, and is an advo­cate for those who suf­fer from men­tal illness.

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