Lucy Davidowicz wrote the book, The War Against the Jews. The book's premise is that one of Hitler's main purposes was to eliminate Jewish populations throughout Europe. Hitler pursued this policy even to the detriment of pragmatic wartime actions such as moving troops and securing supply lines. (e.g. he delayed railcars providing supplies to front line troops in Russia so that Jews could be deported by rail from Russia to death camps.)

The book also provides detailed listings by country of the number of Jews killed in World War II. She researched birth and death records in many cities of prewar Europe to come up with a death toll of 5.85 million Jews. Many consider this number an underestimate since many records were lost during the war, and since many births and deaths were not recorded in small towns and villages.