A Polish prisoner carefully checks there are no guards around before he enters one of the SS cloakrooms in Auschwitz. He takes out a hidden vial and quickly sprinkles its contents on the collars of those hated uniforms, before slipping out again. Within two weeks some of the Germans had come down with the typhoid that was wiping out so many of the prisoners.

Although undermined by its structure, and debatable points presented as unchallenged truths, Deborah Lipstadt’s book exposing bigotry and hate suffered by Jews is an essential read, writes Ronan Breathnach.

What possessed seemingly cultured men to implement a policy of barbarism against the Jews of Europe? Laurence Rees seeks the answer in what JP O’Malley considers to be a magisterial undertaking of research.

Following a ground-breaking case in Germany last week, in which a former Auschwitz guard apologised for his crimes, Andrew Nagorski looks at the refusal of many former Nazis to say sorry.

Maurice Papon, a former Cabinet minister who became a symbol of France's collaboration with the Nazis for his role in deporting Jews during the Second World War, has died. He was 96.