The Holocaust, religion, and the politics of collective memory : beyond sociology / Ronald J. Berger.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berger, Ronald J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Historiography.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Historiography.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Influence.

Physical Description:

xi, 281 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick : Transaction Publishers, [2012]

Summary:

Fathoming the Holocaust represents the culmination of a singular effort to attempt to explain the Final Solution to the "Jewish Problem" in terms of a general theory of social problems construction. The book is comprehensive in scope, covering the origins and emergence of the Final Solution, wartime reaction to it, and the postwar memory of the genocide. It does so within the framework of a social problems construction, a perspective that treats social problems not as a condition but as an activity that identifies and defines problems, persuades others that something must be done about them, and generates practical programs of remedial action.

Berger holds that social problems have a "natural history," that is, they evolve through a sequence of stages that entail the development and unfolding of claims about problems and the formulation and implementation of solutions. Berger offers a distinctly sociological approach that examines how the Holocaust was constructed-first as a social policy designed by the Nazis, implemented by functionaries, and resisted by its victims and opponents; later as several varying layers of historical memory.

The status of the civilian today is that of a calculated casualty, to die immediately or after agonizing suffering. The civilian is also a hostage in the political power struggle, since his continued safety depends upon the decision or even impulse of his leaders. This is true if he is a citizen of a major power, or if he lives elsewhere in unstable social and political environments. Hartigan's book is a unique effort to deal with a massive, but hidden problem: the status of the civilian non-combatant in conditions of armed conflict.

Civilian Victims in War fills the gaps in our knowledge of the origins of civilian immunity, so that a full evaluation of the principle's continued worth may be made. The book reviews the concepts of noncombatants and civilian immunity, focusing on the development of Western tradition, not because civilian immunity was absent in Asia or Africa, but because its present formulation owes its origin and elaboration to European custom, practice, and thought. Book jacket.

Contents:

Sociology and the Holocaust

Why the Jews?

The rise of Nazism and the evolution of anti-Jewish policy

The social structure of the genocidal regime

Jewish responses to the Holocaust

Bystanders and third-party resistance

European collective memories: Germany and Poland

Jewish collective memories: Israel and the United States

Genocide, religion, and social solidarity.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781412843041

1412843049

OCLC:

712591129