In June 1996 Martin Gilbert took his University of London MA group on a two-week journey across middle-Europe which encompassed all the major places in the Holocaust - from Wannsee where the extermination of the Jews was decreed, to the camps themselves, via deserted Jewish communities and synagogues as well as the sites of the ghettos and deportation. The book is based on the diary he kept - of the trip and individuals' reactions, set against the facts (expertly marshalled by Martin Gilbert, foremost historian on this subject) and readers of other texts.