This book investigates the British government's restrictive policies toward Jewish refugees and its failure to intervene effectively during the Holocaust between 1939 and 1945. Bernard Wasserstein, a historian specializing in modern Jewish history, utilizes extensive archival research from Britain, the United States, and Israel to reconstruct the decision-making processes of the British administration. He argues that bureaucratic inertia, systemic prejudice, and a lack of political will resulted in a policy of exclusion that exacerbated the plight of European Jews during the war.

Historians recognize this work as a foundational study in the field of British wartime policy and its failures regarding the Jewish catastrophe. Readers frequently note the rigorous use of primary source documentation and the sobering, clinical tone of the author's analysis.