The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation and Aftermath (Re-Writing Histories.)

311 Pages·2000·1.49 MB·English

by  Omer Bartov

THE HOLOCAUST
The Holocaust: Origins, Implementation, Aftermath presents a critical and
important study of the Holocaust. Complete with an introduction that summarises
the state of the field, this book contains major reinterpretations by leading
Holocaust authors along with key texts on testimony, memory, and justice after
the catastrophe.
Many of the pieces challenge conventional interpretations and preconceived
notions about the Holocaust, whether they have to do with the centrality of anti-
Semitism, the importance of economic calculations, or the timing of the decision
on the ‘Final Solution’. Starting with the background of the Holocaust by focusing
on anti-Semitism and scientific racism as being at the root of the ‘Final Solution’,
the book goes on to examine the context of the decision to unleash the genocide
of the Jews. Three powerful texts then provide readers with a close look at the
psychology of a perpetrator, the attitude of the bystanders, and the fate of the
victims. Finally, there is an analysis of survivors’ oral testimonies, a deeply
revealing discussion on the limits of transmitting the experience of the camps to
posterity, and a powerful plea for the prosecution of crimes against humanity.
Omer Bartov is Professor of European History at Rutgers University and has
written on the Holocaust, Nazi Germany and modern France. His books include
Mirrors of Destruction: War, Genocide and Modern Identity (2000); Murder in
Our Midst: The Holocaust, Industrial Killing, and Representation (1996); and
Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis and War in the Third Reich (1991).
Series editor Jack R. Censer is Professor of History at George Mason University
REWRITING HISTORIES
Series editor: Jack R. Censer
Already published
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AND WORK IN
NINETEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE
Edited by Lenard R. Berlanstein
SOCIETY AND CULTURE IN THE SLAVE SOUTH
Edited by J. William Harris
ATLANTIC AMERICAN SOCIETIES
From Columbus through Abolition
Edited by J.R. McNeill and Alan Karras
GENDER AND AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE 1890
Edited by Barbara Melosh
DIVERSITY AND UNITY IN EARLY NORTH AMERICA
Edited by Philip D. Morgan
NAZISM AND GERMAN SOCIETY 1933–1945
Edited by David Crew
THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1989
Edited by Vladimir Tismaneanu
THE ISRAEL/PALESTINE QUESTION
Edited by Ilan Pappé
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
Recent debates and new controversies
Edited by Gary Kates
STALINISM
Edited by Sheila Fitzpatrick
THE HOLOCAUST
Origins, Implementation, Aftermath
Edited by
Omer Bartov
London and New York
First published 2000
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
© 2000 Selection and editorial material Omer Bartov; individual chapters to their authors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Holocaust: origins, implementation, aftermath / [edited by] Omer Bartov.
p. cm. — (Rewriting histories)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945) 2. Holocaust, Jewish (1939–1945)—Causes. I. Bartov,
Omer II. Re-writing histories.
D804.3.H6478 2000
940.53´18—dc21 99-044232
ISBN 0-415-15035-3 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-15036-1 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-01197-X Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-17327-9 (Glassbook Format)
CONTENTS
Series editor’s preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
OMER BARTOV
PART I
Origins: antisemitism and scientific racism 19
1 The destruction of the European Jews: precedents 21
RAUL HILBERG
2 Psychiatry, German society and the Nazi “euthanasia”
programme 43
MICHAEL BURLEIGH
3 Step by step: the expansion of murder, 1939–1941 63
HENRY FRIEDLANDER
PART II
Implementation: beyond intentionalism and
functionalism 77
4 The extermination of the European Jews in historiography:
fifty years later 79
SAUL FRIEDLÄNDER
5 The planning intelligentsia and the “Final Solution” 92
GÖTZ ALY
v
CONTENTS
6 The Wannsee Conference, the fate of German Jews, and
Hitler’s decision in principle to exterminate all
European Jews 106
CHRISTIAN GERLACH
7 German soldiers and the Holocaust: historiography,
research and implications 162
OMER BARTOV
8 “Once again I’ve got to play general to the Jews”: from
the war diary of Blutordensträger Felix Landau 185
ERNST KLEE, WILLI DRESSEN AND VOLKER RIESS (EDS)
9 Places far away, places very near: Mauthausen, the camps
of the Shoah, and the bystanders 204
GORDON J. HORWITZ
10 Under a cruel star: a life in Prague 1941–1968 219
HEDA MARGOLIUS KOVÁLY

PART III
Aftermath: testimony, justice, and denial 233
11 Redefining heroic behavior: the impromptu self and the
Holocaust experience 235
LAWRENCE LANGER
12The gray zone 251
PRIMO LEVI
13 Remembering in vain: the Klaus Barbie trial and crimes
against humanity 273
ALAIN FINKIELKRAUT
Index 292
vi
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
Rewriting history, or revisionism, has always followed closely in the wake of history
writing. In their efforts to re-evaluate the past, professional as well as amateur
scholars have followed many approaches, most commanly as empiricists,
uncovering new information to challenge earlier accounts. Historians have also
revised previous versions by adopting new perspectives, usually fortified by new
research, which overturn received views.
Even though rewriting is constantly taking place, historians’ attitudes towards
using new interpretations have been anything but settled. For most, the validity
of revisionism lies in providing a stronger, more convincing account that better
captures the objective truth of the matter. Although such historians might agree
that we never finally arrive at the “truth,” they believe it exists and over time may
be better approximated. At the other extreme stand scholars who believe that each
generation or even each cultural group or subgroup necessarily regards the past
differently, each creating for itself a more usable history. Although these latter
scholars do not reject the possibility of demonstrating empirically that some
contentions are better than others, they focus upon generating new views based
upon different life experiences. Different truths exist for different groups. Surely
such an understanding, by emphasizing subjectivity, further encourages rewriting
history. Between these two groups are those historians who wish to borrow from
both sides. This third group, while accepting that every congeries of individuals
sees matters differently, still wishes somewhat contradictorily to fashion a broader
history that incorporates both of these particular visions. Revisionists who stress
empiricism fall into the first of the three camps, while others spread out across the
board.
Today the rewriting of history seems to have accelerated to a blinding speed
as a consequence of the evolution of revisionism. A variety of approaches has
emerged. A major factor in this process has been the enormous increase in the
number of researchers. This explosion has reinforced and enabled the retesting of
many assertions. Significant ideological shifts have also played a major part in
the growth of revisionism. First, the crisis of Marxism, culminating in the events in
Eastern Europe in 1989, has given rise to doubts about explicitly Marxist accounts.
Such doubts have spilled over into the entire field of social history which has
vii
SERIES EDITOR’S PREFACE
been a dominant subfield of the discipline for several decades. Focusing on society
and its class divisions implied that these are the most important elements in
historical analysis. Because Marxism was built on the same claim, the whole basis
of social history has been questioned, despite the very many studies that directly
had little to do with Marxism. Disillusionment with social history, simultaneously
opened the door to cultural and linguistic approaches largely developed in
anthropology and literature. Multi-culturalism and feminism further generated
revisionism. By claiming that scholars had, wittingly or not, operated from a white
European/American male point of view, newer researchers argued that other
approaches had been neglected or misunderstood. Not surprisingly, these last
historians are the most likely to envision each subgroup rewriting its own usable
history, while other scholars incline towards revisionism as part of the search for
some stable truth.
Rewriting Histories will make these new approaches available to the student
population. Often new scholarly debates take place in the scattered issues of
journals which are sometimes difficult to find. Furthermore, in these first
interactions, historians tend to address one another, leaving out the evidence
that would make their arguments more accessible to the uninitiated. This series of
books will collect in one place a strong group of the major articles in selected
fields, adding notes and introductions conducive to improved understanding.
Editors will select articles containing substantial historical data, so that students
– at least those who approach the subject as an objective phenomenon – can
advance not only their comprehension of debated points but also their grasp of
substantive aspects of the subject
As an area of study, the Holocaust has experienced virtually unrivaled
controversy and excitement. Our relative proximity to this horrific event, continued
incidents of attacks on beleaguered ethnic groups, and the complicated political
stakes that still relate to this subject are only a few of the reasons that have attracted
so many scholars and created interpretative differences. This edited work contrasts
the two most common explanations (anti-Semitism and bureaucratic momentum)
and provides several articles that make use of both views. In addition, the editor
provides us with valuable studies on the aftermath, a subject that has not received
as much attention as it deserves. Here are the complexities of how this event was
perceived and understood by perpetrators and victims. These essays, like the
others in this collection, show a richness and sophistication of interpretation that
only recently have emerged in this field.
viii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All articles and extracts in this volume (except the Introduction) have already been
published. We should like to thank the following copyright holders for permission
to reproduce their work.
Introduction Written for this volume by Omer Bartov
Chapter 1 Reprinted from The Destruction of the European Jews, Student
Edition (New York and London: Holmes & Meier, 1985), pp. 5–
24. Copyright © Raul Hilberg. Reprinted with the permission of
the publisher.
Chapter 2 Reprinted from Ethics and Extermination: Reflections on Nazi
Genocide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp.
113–29 (text), 243–7 (notes). Copyright © Michael Burleigh.
Reprinted with permission of Cambridge University Press.
Chapter 3 Reprinted from German Studies Review, vol. 17 no. 3 (October
1994), pp. 495–507.
Chapter 4 Reprinted from Alvin H. Rosenfeld (ed.), Thinking about the
Holocaust: After Half a Century (Bloomington and Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 3–17.
Chapter 5 Reprinted from Michael Burleigh (ed.), Confronting the Nazi
Past: New Debates on Modern German History (London:
Collins & Brown, 1996), pp. 140–53.
Chapter 6 Reprinted from The Journal of Modern History, vol. 70 no. 4
(December 1998), pp. 759–812. Copyright © Christian Gerlach.
Translation copyright © Stephen Duffy. Reprinted with the
permission of University of Chicago Press.
Chapter 7 Reprinted from History & Memory, vol. 9 no. 1/2 (Fall 1997), pp.
162–88. Reprinted with the permission of Indiana University Press.
ix