The Holocaust and the Historians

Plot

At the outset of her historiography, Dawidowicz argues that the murder of 6 million Jews is distinctive, not because they suffered more than other peoples during the war, but "because of the differentiative intent of the murderers and the unique effect of the murders" (14). The murder of Jews and the destruction of the European Jewish community were "ends in themselves, ultimate goals of" Nazism (13). Consequently, she takes to task historians and others who deny the uniqueness of the Jewish experience. "By equating the destruction of the European Jews with other events, they succeed in obscuring the role of anti-Semitism in accomplishing that murder" (17). Even good-natured attempts to recognize the potential of terrible evil within every nation or society hide the reality of virulent racism as a causal factor in the case of the Holocaust. For her, the ideal history of the Holocaust would include three components: "(1) an exposition of how and by whom the European Jews were annihilated; (2) an explanation of why they were annihilated, with reference to the history of anti-Semitism; and (3) an appropriate account of their history before the rise of Hitler" (25). Unfortunately, she found few works that did justice to their subject. I recommend this books to students and teachers of the Holocaust. In particular, secondary school teachers may find it helpful in searching for bias within their own lessons and their students' assigned texts.