Holocaust and Genocide Studies - recent issues

Service Above Self? Rotary Clubs, National Socialism, and Transnational Memory in the 1960s and 1970s

Wiesen, S. J. — 2009-03-30

In the 1960s and 1970s two controversies forced Rotary clubs to address the issue of complicity during the Holocaust. One emerged from a West German Rotarian's attempts to publish an honest account of his organization's concessions to National Socialism in the 1930s. The second ensued upon the nomination of an Austrian former Nazi to the Rotary International presidency. Both events unleashed intense discussions in the United States and elsewhere, pitting those who felt that the Holocaust must never be forgotten against those who saw camaraderie and forgiveness as more important than historical memory. These debates revealed "transnational" memory at work. Rotarians' and the wider public's response to these controversies transcended geographical boundaried, bringing Americans, Europeans, and others together to contemplate the moral legacies of Nazism and the Holocaust.

Were the "Chingene" Victims of the Holocaust? Nazi Policy toward the Crimean Roma, 1941-1944

Tyaglyy, M. — 2009-03-30

Much has been written about the persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated central Europe, but less attention has been devoted to anti-Roma policy in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union. Using a variety of sources, including testimonies, this study sheds new light on how specific features of the culture of the Chingené—the Roma in the Crimea—as well as German political and military considerations affected German practice on the peninsula. The author compares and contrasts the Nazis' treatment of the Crimea's Jews to their treatment of the Roma, providing an answer to the question: "Were the Chingené also victims of genocide?"

Building and Breaching the Ghetto Boundary: A Brief History of the Ghetto Fence in Kormend, Hungary, 1944

Cole, T. — 2009-03-30

Local authorities in Hungary placed a high priority on continuing economic relationships between Jews and non-Jews after ghettoization. An examination of local decision-making, as well as of the "leakiness" of the boundaries of a supposedly closed ghetto, deepens our knowledge of the Holocaust in Hungary and contributes to more general scholarship on Holocaust ghettoization. Taking Körmend, Hungary, as a case study, the author of this article focuses on contestations of ghetto boundaries. In response to specific needs, officials sanctioned both the re-routing and the breaching of the ghetto fence. Analysis of the permeability of this boundary thus provides insight into local authorities' thinking and offers an example of the under-studied phenomenon of territoriality in the ghettos.

The Rescue of Jewish Physicians in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), 1941-1945

Gitman, E. — 2009-03-30

Despite the murder of three-fourths of Croatia's Jews, Croatian doctors, representatives of the Ministry of Health, and other government figures saved 142 Jewish physicians by mobilizing them for a mission to alleviate endemic syphilis in Bosnia. Twenty-seven others were recruited into the Home Guard. Along with members of their families, these Jews were granted "Aryan rights." In 1942 some began defecting to the partisans; others followed after the capitulation of Italy in 1943. Many died in battle, succumbed to typhus, or were murdered by the Nazis, the Croatian fascist Ustase, or the Serbian nationalist Cetniks. But the story recounted below shows how much better they fared than the Jewish population generally: sixty-two percent survived, thanks to courageous efforts by Croatian civilians and officials. Their rescue demonstrates both that popular attitudes influenced events in Yugoslavia, and that common stereotypes of Croatia during the war should be reconsidered.

Claude Lanzmann's Shoah: Key Essays, Stuart Liebman, ed. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), xi + 253 pp. + 20 halftones, cloth $99.00, pbk. $30.00.

Stier, O. B. — 2009-03-30

Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust, Kevin P. Spicer, ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007), xxi + 329 pp., cloth $29.95.

Diephouse, D. J. — 2009-03-30

Transnationale Vergangenheitspolitik: Der Umgang mit deutschen Kriegsverbrechern in Europa nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, Norbert Frei, ed. (Gottingen: Wallstein, 2006), 656 pp., cloth {euro}44.00.

Pendas, D. O. — 2009-03-30

Every Day Lasts a Year: A Jewish Family's Correspondence from Poland, Christopher R. Browning, Richard S. Hollander, and Nechama Tec, eds. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), xi + 285 pp., $28.00.

Levitsky, H. — 2009-03-30

Diary of a Witness, 1940-1943, Raymond-Raoul Lambert, edited by Richard I. Cohen (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2007), lxvi + 221 pp., cloth $27.50.

Brenner, R. F. — 2009-03-30

Das war Dachau, Stanislav Zamecnik (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, 2007), 435 pp., {euro}10.95.

Black, P. — 2009-03-30

Prelude to the Final Solution: The Nazi Program for Deporting Ethnic Poles, 1939-1941, Phillip T. Rutherford (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2007), xv + 328 pp., cloth $34.95.

Browder, G. C. — 2009-03-30

Raub, Recht und Restitution: Die Ruckerstattung judischen Eigentums in der fruhen Bundesrepublik, Jurgen Lillteicher (Gottingen: Wallstein, 2007), 559 pp., cloth {euro}49.00.

Waite, R. G. — 2009-03-30

The Hitler Book: The Secret Dossier Prepared for Stalin from the Interrogations of Hitler's Personal Aides, Henrik Eberle and Matthias Uhl, eds. (New York: PublicAffairs, 2005), xxx + 370 pp., cloth $27.50, pbk. (2006) $14.95.

Goda, N. J.W. — 2009-03-30

Traumatic Verses: On Poetry in German from the Concentration Camps, 1933-1945, Andres Nader (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2007), x + 258 pp., cloth $80.00.

Guyer, S. — 2009-03-30

Open Wounds: The Crisis of Jewish Thought in the Aftermath of the Holocaust, David Patterson (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006), xiii + 338 pp., cloth $50.00. * Wrestling with the Angel: Toward a Jewish Understanding of the Nazi Assault on the Name, David Patterson (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2006), xxv + 251 pp., pbk. $19.95.

Parker, T. K. — 2009-03-30

Recently Published Works in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

2009-03-30

In Memoriam: Dan Bar-On

2009-03-30

Narratives of Innocence and Victimhood: The Reception of the Miniseries Holocaust in Italy

Perra, E. — 2008-11-25

In Italy, the heavy politicization of public discourse, together with dominant cultural narratives positing the country as a "victim" nation in the Second World War, influenced the reception of NBC's miniseries Holocaust. These influences revealed themselves in three main trends: the discussion of the country's involvement in the Holocaust in highly self-acquitting terms that perpetuated a variant of the "good Italian" stereotype; the peculiar domestication of the debate on the "Americanization of the Holocaust"; and the substantially uncontested circulation of various universalizations in the discussion of the program's "meanings."

The Citizen as Perpetrator: Kurt Blanke and Aryanization in France, 1940-1944

Jungius, M., Seibel, W. — 2008-11-25

The question of how "ordinary men" became killers has long exercised the scholarly imagination, but much recent scholarship has focused on mass killing in the "East." The present study returns our gaze to Western Europe to ask how a middle-class professional with little earlier antisemitic animus could turn into a "desk perpetrator" who worked conscientiously to destroy the Jews' livelihood and thereby contributed to the realization of the "Final Solution."¹

Initiatives, Actors, and Environment: The Munster City Council and "Jewish Policy" in the National Socialist State

Mecking, S. — 2008-11-25

German local government showed great continuity from before 1933 to well after 1945, but its leaders have been considered responsible for National Socialism only rarely: city councils did not initiate the Holocaust. Nevertheless, local authorities formed part of the National Socialist system of discrimination, oppression, and terror. This article examines the government of Münster to explain its role in the persecution of the Jews, focusing on the expropriation of property. The author demonstrates that although the Münster City Council was less Nazified than others, it not only carried out central initiatives but also undertook acts of plunder on its own. Her analysis shows that local authorities often determined the day-to-day persecution of Jews more than did legal provisions emanating from the highest levels of government.

Subverting Satire: Edgar Hilsenrath's Novel Der Nazi und der Friseur and Charlie Chaplin's Film The Great Dictator

Klocke, A. — 2008-11-25

Charlie Chaplin's film The Great Dictator, a straightforward satire of Hitler and the Nazi movement, serves as a point of departure for Edgar Hilsenrath's Holocaust novel Der Nazi und der Friseur (The Nazi and the Barber). A comparison of their satiric elements and strategies demonstrates that the novel subverts the film's humanitarian appeal by ridiculing both perpetrators and victims of the Nazi atrocities. The novel's pervasive black humor undermines the satirical impulse and instead questions the validity of absolute categories in the representation of evil. For this reason, Hilsenrath's work occupies a special place within the tradition of Holocaust literature.

Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany, Alan E. Steinweis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), xi + 203 pp., cloth $31.50, pbk. (2008) $17.95.

Lower, W. — 2008-11-25

Jews, Germans, and Allies: Close Encounters in Occupied Germany, Atina Grossmann (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), xv + 393 pp., cloth $35.00.

Rapaport, L. — 2008-11-25

Pius XII, the Holocaust, and the Cold War, Michael Phayer (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), xvi + 333 pp., $29.95.

Spicer, K. P. — 2008-11-25

Tales from Spandau: Nazi Criminals and the Cold War, Norman J.W. Goda (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), xiv + 390 pp., cloth $32.00, pbk. (2007) $23.99

Moeller, R. G. — 2008-11-25

Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder: Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940-1941, Alex J. Kay (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006), xiii + 242 pp., $75.00

Rutherford, P. T. — 2008-11-25

The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution, Eric Ehrenreich (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), xx + 234 pp., $34.95

Tent, J. F. — 2008-11-25

Contested Rituals: Circumcision, Kosher Butchering, and Jewish Political Life in Germany, 1843-1933, Robin Judd (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), xiv + 283 pp., cloth $45.00.

Geller, J. — 2008-11-25

Jewish Resistance in Wartime Greece, Steven Bowman (London and Portland, OR: Vallentine Mitchell, 2006), xxiv + 145 pp., cloth $65.00, pbk. $27.50

Hondros, J. L. — 2008-11-25

Hitler's Bandit Hunters: The SS and the Nazi Occupation of Europe, Philip W. Blood (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), xxii + 401 pp., cloth $29.95, pbk. $19.95

Smelser, R. — 2008-11-25

Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust, Konrad Kwiet and Jurgen Matthaus, eds. (Westport, CT and London: Praeger, 2004), xix + 287 pp., $105.00

Diefendorf, J. M. — 2008-11-25

Massacres, Resistance, Protectors: Muslim-Christian Relations in Eastern Anatolia During World War I, David Gaunt (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2006), xvii + 535 pp., pbk. $63.00 * Turkey's Modernization: Refugees from Nazism and Ataturk's Vision, Arnold Reisman (Washington, DC: New Academia Publishing, 2006), xxvii + 604 pp., pbk. $28.00

Gingeras, R. — 2008-11-25

Recently Published Works in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

2008-11-25

Research Archives with an Emphasis on the Holocaust

2008-11-25

Obituary

2008-11-25

Biographies of Contributors

2008-11-25

Organized Mass Murder: Structure, Participation, and Motivation in Comparative Perspective

Bloxham, D. — 2008-08-06

Organizational structures have played a key role in modern state-sponsored mass murder. The author of this article criticizes and synthesizes the existing scholarship, focusing first on historiographical debates surrounding the Holocaust. He then considers the Stalinist purges, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Armenian Genocide in the light of this and other theoretical literature. The article sheds light on the ways organizational norms have interacted with other motivational factors to shape the behavior of mass murderers in distinct historical episodes.

"Blood for Blood, Death for Death": The Soviet Military Tribunal in Krasnodar, 1943

Bourtman, I. — 2008-08-06

Although much has been written about the Nuremberg Trials of the 1940s, relatively little research has been done on the Soviet military tribunals that took place during and after World War II. The Soviet government conducted thousands of open and closed tribunals through the 1980s, trying tens of thousands of Germans and Soviet collaborators for crimes committed on Soviet territory. The 1943 Krasnodar trial was the first open military tribunal to take place during the war. Eleven Soviet citizens accused of betraying their country and collaborating with the Nazis were found guilty; eight were hanged in front of tens of thousands of cheering Soviet citizens. In light of recently declassified Soviet archival materials, and with the help of recent scholarship, it is now possible to reconstruct the roles of the major actors as well as to assess the social impact of the publicity that the military tribunals received. Finally, a close analysis of the Krasnodar tribunal brings to light the authorities' motivations—political, economic, and ideological—for conducting such trials.*

"Consider If This Is a Person": Primo Levi, Hannah Arendt, and the Political Significance of Auschwitz

Howes, D. E. — 2008-08-06

Primo Levi asks his readers to consider whether those who live comfortable lives have some meaningful connection to those who suffered in Auschwitz. He suggests that discovering such a connection is, paradoxically, both improbable and imperative. Alternatively, Hannah Arendt argues that the thoughtlessness of the perpetrators and the suffering of the victims in the camps amount to meaningless banalities. For her, totalitarianism is an attack on humanness as such and the best response to it is to practice a different, more human type of politics. However, Levi's paradox shows us that thoughtlessness is an insufficient diagnosis of the Nazi bureaucrat and that our relationship to those who suffer cannot be separated from politics or the question of what it means to be human. Instead, the essential political question after Auschwitz is whether or not those who suffer are part of the human community.

Father Wilhelm Senn and the Legacy of Brown Priests

Spicer, K. P. — 2008-08-06

How did Nazism attract some of those German Catholic clergy whose political sympathies lay with the right? The following biographical study documents how Father Wilhelm Maria Senn was drawn into the orbit of National Socialism; how this fact caused discomfort for many of Senn's parishioners, fellow clergymen, and Church superiors; and how Nazi nationalism, anti-liberalism, and antisemitism continued to pose temptations for other Catholic clergymen.*

Voices from Destruction: Two Eyewitness Testimonies from the Stanislawow Ghetto

Brenner, R. F. — 2008-08-06

This research note explores the influence of prewar cultural experiences on two eyewitnesses' responses to the Holocaust. While differences of gender, age, and social position affected the emotional responses of the two writers, the historical-cultural prewar context informed their ideological responses. Elisheva Binder, a young woman of twenty-one, was influenced by her literary self-education and her faith in the universality of humanistic ethics. In contrast, the writings of war veteran and Judenrat member Juliusz Feuerman reflect his Zionist convictions. That two such different testimonies demonstrate the strength of prewar ideological influences teaches us that in order to rescue the individuality of the victim from the dehumanizing anonymity of the Holocaust, we must consider the writer's ideals, values, and ideological background.

The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, Saul Friedlander (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), xxvi + 870 pp., cloth $39.95, pbk. $19.95

Schleunes, K. A. — 2008-08-06

The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria, David Art (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006) 232 pp., cloth $69.00, pbk. $24.99, Adobe e-book $20.00

Baranowski, S. — 2008-08-06

German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past, A. Dirk Moses (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), ix + 293 pp., cloth $80.00. * After Hitler: Recivilizing Germans, 1945-1995, Konrad H. Jarausch (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), xiii + 379 pp., cloth $35.00

Gunlicks, A. B. — 2008-08-06

In Pursuit of German Memory: History, Television, and Politics after Auschwitz, Wulf Kansteiner (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2006), x + 438 pp., cloth $69.95, pbk. $26.95

Langenbacher, E. — 2008-08-06

The Holocaust on Post-War Battlefields: Genocide as Historical Culture, Klas-Goran Karlsson and Ulf Zander, eds. (Malmo: Sekel Bokforlag, 2006), 389 pp., cloth SEK 280

Kuhne, T. — 2008-08-06

Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine, Wendy Lower (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2005), xviii + 307 pp., cloth $49.95, pbk. (2007) $21.95

Westermann, E. B. — 2008-08-06

"Silent No More": Saving the Jews of Russia, The American Jewish Effort, 1967-1989, Henry L. Feingold (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2006), xv + 400 pp., cloth, $45.00

Jaher, F. C. — 2008-08-06

A Magyarorszagi Holokauszt Foldrajzi Enciklopediaja, Randolph L. Braham, ed. (Budapest: Park Konyvkiado, 2007), 3 vols., xix + 1,590 pp., hardcover (boxed set), 19,500 Ft.

Cole, T. — 2008-08-06

Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question: Anti-Antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual, Jonathan Judaken (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006), xi + 390 pp., $45.00

Benedix, B. H. — 2008-08-06

Terrible Fate: Ethnic Cleansing in the Making of Modern Europe, Benjamin Lieberman (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2006), vxi + 396 pp., $27.50 cloth

Weitz, E. D. — 2008-08-06

Recently Published Works in Holocaust and Genocide Studies

2008-08-06

Biographies of Contributors

2008-08-06