The Holocaust by Bullets is a memoir and investigation written by Father Patrick Desbois, a French priest who uncovered the truth behind the murder of 1.5 million Jews in the occupied Soviet Union by Nazi and Nazi-aligned forces.

[2] The book features some of the hundreds of testimonies of witnesses or requisitioned villagers who were present at mass executions that Desbois collected with the help of translators, historians, and archival scholars.

[1] Prior to writing his book, between 1992 and 1999, Fr Patrick Desbois was the Secretary of Jewish Relations for Cardinals Albert Decourtray, Jean Balland and Louis-Marie Billé.

[5] Desbois' interest in the Holocaust was inspired by his grandfather, who was deported to a Nazi prison camp in Ukraine named Rawa Ruska in July 1942.

[3] After several visits to Rawa Ruska that began in 2002,[6] and meeting close to a hundred villagers who witnessed mass executions in Ukraine, Desbois decided to commit his career to "search for the Jewish people".

[3] By the time he began writing the book, his team of translators, ballistic experts, historians, archival staff, photographers and drivers had conducted over 800 interviews in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and Poland.

Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.[1] This book has been described by Major Travis W. Elms, a Judge Advocate of the US Army, as a "methodical piece"[9] that "guides the reader through a complex period in World War II history".

[9] The memoir includes pictures of mass graves, villagers, the team and the investigation, as well as maps that detail the Nazi's invasion of the Soviet Union.

[3] His first visit to Poland in December 1990 reminded him of his grandfather's experience of being a prisoner of war in Rava-Ruska in modern-day Ukraine, and prompted a deep desire to uncover the story behind the murder of thousands of Jews.

[3] Debois then explains that during the next few years, he began to learn Hebrew, take classes about Judaism in Israel and about the mistreatment of Jews during WWII with Yad Vashem.

[3] It is during this period, explains Desbois, that he was connected to Dr. Charles Favre, an expert on Jewish-Catholic relations, public opinion and geopolitics, who served as his spiritual and academic mentor.

[3] In another case, Adolf Wislovski – a witness from Lviv – recalls how Jews were murdered outside his house; he had counted 59 pits dug as mass graves over the six-month-long execution.

[3] A villager of Voskresenkoye, Olga Bitiouk, remembers the days she had hidden in a friend's attic to watch the killing of Jews, whose bodies were later dug up and burnt.

[3] Other roles fulfilled by neighbors are outlined in Chapter X, including Ternivka, the "presser" – who had to walk on bodies of the Jews who were shot; Zobolottia, the seamstress – who had to patch up Jewish clothing so they could be sent to Germany, and Hanna Senikova, the girl whose aunt had been requisitioned as a cook by the Germans.

[3] Desbois describes Operation 1005 in Chapter XVI, a plan ordered by Heinrich Himmler in 1942 to dig up the mass-graves and burn the victims' bodies in furnaces.

Major Travis W. Elms argues that Desbois' work should be widely read as it details the "personal account of how one Catholic became radically sensitized to the experience of Jews during the Holocaust.

[9] Similarly, the Library Journal mentions Desbois' evident passion for the subject, and how he has been successful in making an "outstanding contribution to Holocaust literature, uncovering new dimensions of the tragedy.

[12] Deborah E Lipstadt, author of History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier, describes the importance of Desbois' work from a Jewish perspective.

She continues, saying: "Father Patrick Desbois has performed this act of loving kindness not for one person but for hundreds of thousands of people who were murdered in cold blood.

Archbishop of Chicago, describes how Desbois' "Catholic faith, experiences of his own family, the support of the French bishops and the research capacities of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are enabling him to carry out a work of discovery, of healing and reconciliation.

"[1] Similarly, the Christian Science Monitor describes Desbois as a "human bridge between the modern Jewish world and the Catholic Church"[1] who has shaped the way the Holocaust will be remembered.