Kiril Feferman has written a definitive biography of the Holocaust in the southwestern parts of the USSR—in Crimea and the North Caucasus. The book begins with a clear narrative treatment of the period, laying the groundwork for a subsequent discussion. We see how the government approached the evacuation question after the German attack on the USSR. The Soviet authorities did not prioritize the civilian population over valuable materials, and poorly organized their evacuation. Because of this, the author considers that no more than 20% of all Jews from the Crimean peninsula managed to escape, or approximately 25,000–30,000 people, which he posits was 38–46% of the prewar Jewish population. Feferman estimates that only 40–50% of Jews managed to escape to the east from the North Caucasus, which was occupied almost half a year after Crimea. It is not clear if the author includes Jews who fled to the North Caucasus from other regions in his estimation. In both cases, the proposed figures do not contain statistical justification or explanation.

This is followed by two chapters devoted to the destruction of the Jewish population in Crimea and the North Caucasus. His numbers of Jewish victims are presented with more in-depth argumentation. Referring to a killing operation, the author argues that it is plausible that regular German Army units participated in the genocide of the Jews to some extent. Regarding the Crimea, he concludes that the local police, especially in the Tatar-dominated towns, and, to a lesser extent, in Russian localities, assisted in the logistical organization of the actions (145). His research benefited from discussing particular issues: internal organization of Jewish life in ghettos, the medical domain, the fate of Jewish prisoners of war, and mixed couples.

One chapter is committed to the German attitude towards Crimean Karaites, Krymchaks, and Mountain Jews. These so-called Mizrahi (Oriental) Jewish ethnic groups had lived in these places since the Middle Ages. Their language, mindset, and traditions were similar to the surrounding Muslim majority. It is not surprising that after many centuries of living together they had developed economic and neighborly ties. All this puzzled the Nazis, and presented them with a question: who are these Judaic groups and what should be done with them?

Feferman argues that the Nazis followed a racist approach regarding these Mizrahi Jews. Without paying much attention to religion, they tried to find out the origin of these three groups. Crimean Karaites were more fortunate due to common belief concerning their Khazar origin, as well as having special status in Czarist Russia (the anti-Jewish legislation didn't extend to them). As for the Mountain Jews, their situation was more complicated. Opinions are divided about them—are they Turks or Jews? Because of the delay in any clarification from Berlin, punitive commanders sometimes made decisions on their own. The most miserable of these three groups were the Krymchaks. They shared the fate of Ashkenazi Jews living in those areas a long time before the war, together with those Ashkenazi refugees who arrived after the German attack upon USSR.

The next two chapters deal with Jewish responses to the Holocaust in both Crimea and the North Caucuses. Opportunities to hide from the Nazis or to manage armed resistance were strongly dependent on location, relationship with the local community, the neighbors, and the presence of a resistance movement in the area. A much longer period of occupation in Crimea greatly reduced the chances of survival, in comparison with the North Caucasus.

In the last chapters, Feferman analyzes the local population's responses to the Holocaust. On the one hand, he gives examples of how individual Jews were saved by representatives of various ethnic groups (both Christians and Muslims), while on the other hand—examples of their collaboration with the Germans in the annihilation of the Jews. He suggests that the local population's approach to the Jewish question strongly depended on the attitude to the Soviet regime, with which the Jews were often associated. This dependence could be observed particularly among the Cossacks.

The author has researched the major and minor sources (mostly in Russian and German), while paying attention to detail. The big picture is never lost. This well-written book gives us a much better understanding of the nature of the Holocaust on Soviet territory.