The Holocaust and the West German historians : historical interpretation and autobiographical memory / Nicolas Berg ; translated and edited by Joel Golb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berg, Nicolas, author.

Series:

George L. Mosse series in modern European cultural and intellectual history

Standardized Title:

Holocaust und die westdeutschen Historiker. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Historiography--Germany (West).

Historiography.

Historians.

Germany (West).

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

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Historians--Germany (West).

Germany--History--1933-1945--Historiography.

Germany.

History.

Physical Description:

x, 334 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wisconsin : The University of Wisconsin Press, [2015]

Summary:

This Landmark Book was first published in Germany, provoking both acclaim and controversy. In this "history of historiography," Nicolas Berg addresses the work of German and German-Jewish historians in the first three decades of post-World War II Germany. He examines how they perceived-and failed to perceive-the Holocaust and how they interpreted and misinterpreted that historical fact using an arsenal of terms and concepts, arguments and explanations. This English-language Translation is also a shortened and reorganized edition, which includes a new introduction by Berg reviewing and commenting on the response to the German editions. Notably, in this American edition, discussion of historian Joseph Wulf and his colleague and fellow Holocaust survivor Leon Poliakov has been united in one chapter. And special care has been taken to make the questions raised about German historiographical writing clear to English speakers. Translator Joel Golb comments, "From 1945 to the present, the way historians have approached the Holocaust has posed deep-reaching problems regarding choice of language. ... This book is consequently as much about language as it is about facts." Book jacket.

Contents:

Preface

Editorial Note by Joel Golb

Introduction to the American Edition

1. Tragedy, Fate, and Breach: Friedrich Meinecke's The German Catastrophe (1946) and the Paradoxes of "National-Historical" Interpretation

2. "A Large Dark Stain on the German Shield of Honor": Gerhard Ritter, Hans Rothfels and the Denationalization of National Socialism

3. Herman Heimpel, Reinhard Wittram, and Fritz Ernst: : A "Demonstration of Protestant Penitence" in 1950s Germany

4. "How Difficult It Is Not to Write Powerfully about Auschwitz!": The Early Years of Munich's Institute for Contemporary History

5. "Prehistorical Excavations" and "Absolute Objectivity": On the Travail of the Polish Jewish Historian of the Holocaust Joseph Wulf

Notes

Index

ISBN:

9780299300845

0299300846

OCLC:

881386095