Goldhagen speaks at 'U'

"Why would a very large number of ordinary Germans choose to kill Jews?"

That's the provocative question Harvard University Prof. Daniel Goldhagen asked an audience of more than 1,000 people at Rackham Auditorium last night.

Goldhagen is the author of the much-discussed book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust," which argues that Germans were culturally and historically anti-Semitic and viewed the killing of Jews as morally acceptable.

"We would have to conclude that Germans were motivated by anti-Semitism and by their feeling that what they were doing was right," Goldhagen said. "The perpetrators were inwardly assenting mass executioners."

Goldhagen emphasized that a large number of non-Nazi Germans were involved in the massacre of Jews contrary to the commonly held view that the Holocaust was carried out by a few Nazis.

Goldhagen also attacked the widely disseminated belief that Germans were forced to follow orders despite their moral objections to the murders. He added that ordinary Germans understood they could disobey at any time or choose not to participate in the killings.

"Many of the men knew that they did not have to do it," Goldhagen said. "Their commanders offered them a way out."

Goldhagen also pointed to the zeal with which the Germans carried out slaughters as further evidence of accepting their deeds. Many Germans, Goldhagen said, disobeyed orders from higher authorities and took photographs of their victims as they would of trophies.

"Frequently, the Germans would take photographs of themselves posing, degrading their victims," Goldhagen said. "They put them in photo albums. They sent them to loved ones."

Goldhagen's book has received unusual critical and commercial success for a scholarly work. In addition to being a best-seller in the United States and worldwide, "Hitler's Willing Executioners" was hailed as "one of those rare new works that merit the appellation landmark" by The New York Times.

But scholars at the University and across the world have not been so receptive to Goldhagen's work.

Chair of the German department Frederick Amrine, siding with other detractors, said the research behind the book is flawed and that he takes exception to the conclusions drawn by Goldhagen.

"It's a bold thesis, but I think the scholarship is not as careful as it ought to be," Amrine said. "He sensationalizes the topic. Fundamentally, I disagree with him about the causes of the Holocaust."

Some Goldhagen critics were in the audience last night and during the Q&A period questioned the work's validity. One individual denounced Goldhagen for implying that Germans were genetically predisposed to hate Jews.

But Goldhagen parried the audience's criticism adeptly, much as he did in 1996 during a tour of Germany when he participated in numerous debates with his German critics.

Jerry White, a representative from the Students for Social Equality, an offshoot of the Socialist Party, said Goldhagen completely ignored the role of fascism in the Holocaust.

"We're saying that the argument that this great crime can be understood as a national cultural trait absolves fascism as a political tendency form the murder of the Jews," White said. "Fascism was used to rally those who were ruined by the economic crisis."

Goldhagen summarized his book and his speech best when he stated, "No Germans, no Holocaust."

04-02-98