Language:
English
Year of publication:
2005
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Genocide Research
Angaben zur Quelle:
7,4 (2005) 539-550
Keywords:
Lemkin, Raphael,
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Genocide Historiography
Abstract:
Discusses Lemkin, the coiner of the term "genocide", as a historian of the Holocaust, based on his book "Axis Rule in Occupied Europe" (1944) as well as his postwar writings. His insights into Nazi persecution of the Jews were largely accurate. Traces some lapses - e.g. an overemphasis on the significance of the Wannsee Conference, and of the role of the lawyer and governor of Poland, Hans Frank - to Lemkin's dependence on documents from the Nuremberg Trials. Lemkin focused on the legal framework of the German occupation regime. He noted issues, such as the role of the Wehrmacht and the plunder of Jewish property, that were taken up by historians only decades later. However, he underestimated the role of racist ideology in Nazi antisemitism. He saw the murder of the Jews as part of a broader Nazi policy of reshaping the demography of Europe. He did not view the genocide of the Jews as unique, but rather saw it as a prime example of genocide, which had a long and ignoble history. He also believed that genocide did not have to mean mass annihilation but could also refer to cultural extinction.
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