Historian presents views on Holocaust

Rarely do scholarly works clinch top spots on best-seller lists in the United States and worldwide. But that's what Harvard political science associate Prof. Daniel Goldhagen managed to achieve with his footnote-laden book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust."

Goldhagen

Goldhagen, whose book was hailed as "one of those rare new works that merit the appellation landmark" by The New York Times, will speak at Rackham Auditorium tonight at 8 as part of Hillel's 19th annual Conference on the Holocaust.

Goldhagen, who will deliver the conference's keynote lecture, said he plans to speak about the dangers associated with prejudice in politics.

"My speech will focus on the argument that the book presents and the evidence supports, and (it) will explain how we should understand the perpetrators of the Holocaust and the perpetration of the Holocaust and how it came to occur," Goldhagen said.

The thesis of Goldhagen's book is that many everyday Germans were willing executioners of Jews during World War II - not because they were deceived or unaware of their role in the genocide, but because anti-Semitism was a national characteristic that made Germans view the killing of Jews as morally acceptable.

Goldhagen said his book aims to fill the gap in Holocaust literature that deals with the role of ordinary Germans.

"I started the project in the mid '80s when I realized that, at that point, you could have read the entire literature on the Holocaust and you would have learned almost nothing about the people who were the killers," Goldhagen said.

"Until you know a great deal about these people, who they were, how they understood what they were doing, what motivated them, until you know these sorts of things, you can't possibly explain why and how the Holocaust happened," he said.

When the book was translated into German and released in 1996, the work was an instant best-seller. Goldhagen visited Germany to defend the premise of his book against the onslaught of German skepticism.

"The book puts forth all kinds of new evidence, new perspectives, new conclusions about the Holocaust that challenge many of the perceived notions, and many people have found the information in the book and the conclusion to be ones with which they either agree with, or at least it gets them to rethink the positions they once accepted to be true," Goldhagen said.

But not everyone sees Goldhagen's work as monumental. Some scholars have argued that the assumptions made by Goldhagen are false, and that his generalizations are based on incidents that are taken out of context.

History Prof. Geoff Eley wrote in the Michigan Quarterly Review that "the scale of the publicity is in inverse proportion to the modesty of the scholarly contribution."

Hillel Program Associate Rachel Bendit said Goldhagen's work has impacted some University courses, and his presence will encourage dialogue on the Holocaust.

"His work has generated extraordinary controversy," Bendit said. "His book is taught in many classes here. We thought it was important to bring him here, so the University community could engage with him in a discussion about his work."

04-01-98