This work investigates the political, social, and institutional conditions in Germany that facilitated the rise of the Nazi regime and the subsequent implementation of the Holocaust. Hermann Beck, a scholar of modern German history, utilizes archival records and primary source documentation to analyze the erosion of democratic norms and the complicity of various state institutions. The text argues that the transition to totalitarianism was not an inevitable event but the result of specific systemic failures and deliberate political choices.

Experts identify this text as a rigorous academic contribution to the study of the Third Reich's origins. Readers frequently note the dense, scholarly nature of the prose, which is intended for students and researchers of European history.