Collected Memories: Holocaust History and Post-War Testimony (George L. Mosse Series in Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History)

119 Pages·2003·0.32 MB·English

by  Christopher R. Browning

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Collected Memories
george l. mosse series
in modern european cultural and
intellectual history
Advisory Board
Steven E. Aschheim
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Annette Becker
Université Paris X–Nanterre
Christopher Browning
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Natalie Zemon Davis
University of Toronto
Saul Friedländer
University of California, Los Angeles
Emilio Gentile
Università di Roma “La Sapienza”
Gert Hekma
University of Amsterdam
Stanley G. Payne
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Anson Rabinbach
Princeton University
David J. Sorkin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
John S. Tortorice
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Joan Wallach Scott
Institute for Advanced Study
Jay Winter
Princeton University
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Collected Memories
Holocaust History and
Postwar Testimony
Christopher R. Browning
th e universit y of w iscons in pres s
The University ofWisconsin Press
1930 Monroe Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53711
www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 2003
The Board ofRegents ofthe University ofWisconsin System
All rights reserved
1 3 5 4 2
Printed in the United States ofAmerica
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Browning, Christopher R.
Collected memories : Holocaust history and postwar testimony /
Christopher R. Browning.
p. cm.
(George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-18980-5 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN 0-299-18984-8 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Historiography.
2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Personal narratives. 3. Memory.
4. Eichmann, Adolf, 1906–1962. I. Title. II. Series.
D804.348.B77 2004
940.53´18—dc21 2003007237
For those colleagues of George L. Mosse in the Department of History at
the University of Wisconsin–Madison with whom I had the honor and
privilege of pursuing my graduate studies
Robert Koehl
Edward Gargan
Theodore Hamerow
Maurice Meisner
John Dower

Contents
Preface ix
1. Perpetrator Testimony: Another Look at
Adolf Eichmann 3
2. Survivor Testimonies from Starachowice: Writing
the History of a Factory Slave Labor Camp 37
3. Survivor Testimonies from Starachowice:
The Final Days 60
Notes 87
vii

Preface
It is a tremendous honor to have been asked to return to the
University of Wisconsin campus in Madison to deliver the first
George L. Mosse Lectures. But I am also awed by the responsibil-
ity, for we all hope and expect that this biennial event will become
an appropriate expression of our affection, respect, and gratitude
for George and for all that he meant to his students, friends, and
colleagues; to both the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his
second academic home, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and
to the historical profession at large.
George’s friendship as well as his constant encouragement and
support for my work from the very earliest stages of my career
were to me a source of immense gratification. He was of course
an overwhelmingly generous person in such matters, and there
are countless others who are similarly indebted to him. But I had
always been aware, and I became even more so after being invited
to deliver these lectures, that the kinds of history that we wrote
could not have been more different. George’s scholarship spanned
centuries as well as such enormous topics as nationalism, racism,
and sexuality, to name but a few. In contrast, I have carried out
microhistorical examinations of selected aspects of the Holo-
caust, confined to the brief span of a few years.
In regard to this anomaly, it is only fitting to relate a “George
story” that I heard just recently. When the history department of
a major university was conducting a search, George encouraged
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