Language:
English
Year of publication:
2001
Titel der Quelle:
Human Rights Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
2,4 (2001) 77-87
Keywords:
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Study and teaching
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Historiography
Abstract:
Contends that the field of Holocaust and genocide studies needs to move from macroscopic to microscopic analysis. Understanding of the specific elements that led to the Holocaust, and a human rights perspective that indicates when "life-taking" regimes are about to embark on genocidal actions, may help us act to thwart them. Holocaust denial is a problem in two respects: with survivors dying off, details are needed to refute deniers, and attempts to diminish the Holocaust by minimizing the number of victims or drawing comparisons with other genocides have to be opposed. The latter, however, can be done without minimizing the Holocaust. Scholars should employ political psychology and political sociology to study both objective and subjective factors. Oversimplified conclusions, e.g. regarding the Church and the Holocaust, need to be reexamined. Accepted views, including about resistance, also need to be reexamined, as do questions about specifics of a particular regime, or collaboration in occupied countries. Additionally, exact analysis of a single event (e.g. a death march at the end of the war) may illuminate major aspects of Nazi ideology.
URL:
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