Language:
German
Year of publication:
2007
Titel der Quelle:
Nachdenken über den Holocaust
Angaben zur Quelle:
(2007) 154-167
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
Calls for an integrated history of the Holocaust, as opposed to the "historicization of Nazism", a view which strives to situate the crimes of the Nazis in a more differentiated context where the Jews no longer occupy a central position. This view has gained increasing popularity in Germany since the mid-1980s. Argues that an integrated history of the Holocaust, which narrates the events from the point of view of the perpetrators, other social groups and institutions, and the victims is necessary for a number of reasons. The Holocaust cannot be limited to the German Reich, but must include occupied Europe and the satellite states. The study of Jewish perceptions and reactions forms an inseparable part of Holocaust history. Only an integrated approach can give a picture of the scope and complexity of the innumerable components that make up Holocaust history. A historicizing approach which reduces the extermination of the Jews to a secondary aspect of measures which were aimed at other, primary goals, is unable to explain a number of ungainful results of the extermination of the Jews for the Nazi state. Addresses, also, two debated issues: the use of witness testimony, and the choices that guided him in constructing the historical narrative of his two-volume work on Nazi Germany and the Jews (1997-2007).
Note:
Appeared previously in "Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte" 14-15 (2007) 7-14.
URL:
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