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An important concern in understanding the "machinery" of the Holocaust is the timing of the decision to put into effect the Final Solution, the systematic murder of the European Jews. This book explores the crucial first steps in implementing the mass murder, including Hitler's role in the decision-making process. The participation of middle and lower middle echelon Germans, and the development of the technology of destruction, in particular, the gas van for use in the death camps. Looking at events from summer 1941 to Spring 1942, Christopher Browning sheds important new light on the historians' debate about how the policy of systematic mass murder emerged.