With this book, Michael Alberti fills a research gap in the overall history of the Holocaust. Based on German, Polish, and Israeli archival materials, he reconstructs the persecution and extermination of the Jewish minority in the Warthegau and provides a detailed account of the development of Nazi "Jewish policy," which ultimately culminated in mass murder in September 1941. The Warthegau, occupied by the Nazis, holds a central significance in the history of the Holocaust. It was here that, starting in 1940, ghettos were established on a large scale for the first time. The Łódź ghetto economy grew to become the largest of its kind in German-occupied Europe and existed due to its economic importance until late summer 1944. The Nazis also established the first extermination camp in the Warthegau, specifically in Chełmno (Kulmhof).