Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
German History
Angaben zur Quelle:
15,2 (1997) 240-250
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
Discusses the reception of Daniel Goldhagen's "Hitler's Willing Executioners" - which was positive amongst the German, Anglo-Saxon, and Jewish public and extremely negative amongst German, Anglo-Saxon, and Jewish/Israeli Holocaust scholars. Suggests that the popularity of Goldhagen's book among the German public is due to its granting a sense of relief by saying that post-1945 Germans have purged themselves of murderous antisemitism. Suggests that Goldhagen's work is part of an ongoing postwar German-Jewish dialogue in which communications between German and Jewish (especially Israeli) intellectuals studying the Holocaust involve a certain "eros, a mutual attraction." Thus, Goldhagen ardently desires that Germans (including scholars) listen to his message, as indicated by the publication of his book in German, the accompanying publicity, and his personal appearances in Germany. Suggests that the clash and interplay of contrasting interpretive positions and explanatory archetypes (of which Goldhagen's is one) stimulates vigorous scholarly enterprise and the "German-Jewish dialogue."
Note:
Appeared also in his "In Times of Crisis" (2001) 93-102. Appeared in German as "Archetypen und der deutsch-jüdischen Dialog; Erwägungen zur Goldhagen-Kontroverse" in "Geschichtswissenschaft und Öffentlichkeit" (1998) 184-201.
,
In Hebrew:
,
"האנטישמיות הגרמנית" (תשס) 52-62
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink
