Holocaust uniqueness debate

Last updated

The assertion that the Holocaust was a unique event in human history was important to the historiography of the Holocaust, but it has come under increasing criticism in the twenty-first century. [1] Related claims include the claim that the Holocaust is external to history, beyond human understanding, [2] a civilizational rupture (German : Zivilisationsbruch), and something that should not be compared to other historical events. [3] [4] Uniqueness approaches to the Holocaust also coincide with the view that antisemitism is not another form of racism and prejudice but is eternal and teleologically culminates in the Holocaust, a frame that is preferred by proponents of Zionist narratives. [5] [6]

Contents

History

The Jerusalem school of Jewish history originated in the 1920s and it sought to document Jewish history from a national, as opposed to a religious or philosophical perspective. It developed the notion that Jewish history itself was unique, a progenitor to the idea of the uniqueness of the Holocaust. [7] The uniqueness of the Holocaust was advanced while it was ongoing by the World Jewish Congress (WJC), but rejected by governments[ which? ] of countries in German-occupied Europe. [8] In the early decades of Holocaust studies, scholars approached the Holocaust as a genocide unique in its reach and specificity. [9] Holocaust uniqueness became a subject for scholars in the 1970s and 1980s, in response to efforts to historicize the Holocaust via such concepts as totalitarianism, fascism, functionalism, modernity, and genocide. [10]

In West Germany, the Historikerstreit ("historians' dispute") erupted in the late 1980s over attempts to challenge the position of the Holocaust in West German historiographical orthodoxy and compare Nazi Germany with the Soviet Union. Critics saw this challenge as an attempt to relativize the Holocaust. [11] In the 1980s and 1990s, a set of scholars, including Emil Fackenheim, Lucy Dawidowicz, Saul Friedländer, Yehuda Bauer, Steven Katz, Deborah Lipstadt, and Daniel Goldhagen—mostly from the field of Jewish studies—authored various studies to prove the Holocaust's uniqueness. [12] They were challenged by another set of scholars from a wide diversity of viewpoints that rejected the uniqueness of the Holocaust and compared it to other events, which was then met with an angry backlash from uniqueness supporters. [13] Around the turn of the twenty-first century, polemical approaches for the debate were exchanged for analytical ones relating to claims of uniqueness in Holocaust memory. [14] By 2021 there were few scholars who were still making the uniqueness argument. [15]

Unlike most Orthodox Jewish rabbis and theologians, the Lubavitcher Rebbe eventually came to the conclusion that the Holocaust was historically and theologically unprecedented and could not be understood with older religious categories such as sin, punishment, or Tikkun. [16]

In the twenty first century, an increasing body of scholarship challenged the claims of uniqueness proponents. While Holocaust scholars have largely moved beyond the uniqueness debate, [17] [18] belief that the Holocaust is unique continues to be entrenched in public consciousness and moral pedagogy in the West. [17] In 2021, A. Dirk Moses initiated the catechism debate, challenging the uniqueness of the Holocaust in German Holocaust memory. The same year, in his book The Problems of Genocide , Moses argued that the development of the concept of genocide based on the Holocaust led to disregard of other forms of mass civilian death that could not be analogized to the Holocaust. [4] [19]

Arguments

Proponents of uniqueness argue that the Holocaust had unique aspects which were not found in other historical events. [20] [21] Historian Daniel Blatman sums up the uniqueness position as arguing it was the "only genocide in which the murderers' goal was the total extermination of the victim, with no rational or pragmatic reason", but Blatman and other scholars say this is not true of the Holocaust, either. [22] For example, historian Dan Stone writes that Bauer's definition of "Holocaust" as "total destruction", unlike all other genocides in history, is mistaken because in the Holocaust destruction was not total. [23] Opponents argue that since every historical event has unique features, [7] uniqueness proponents are in fact making ideological rather than historical claims. [24] [25]

German historian Wolfgang Benz argues that the six million victims alone makes the Holocaust "a unique crime in the history of mankind". [26] On the other hand, historian Annette F. Timm argues that the Holocaust was unique due to the categorical rejection of any single Jewish person from being assimilated. [27]

Critics of the uniqueness concept have argued that it is Eurocentric. [28] [29] Some Holocaust scholars who support the uniqueness concept deny other genocides, such as the Romani Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. [29] Some observers believe that the Jewish Holocaust had roots in the German colonial Herero and Namaqua genocide in Namibia earlier in the 20th century, while others observers reject the comparison. [30] [31] The German historian Jürgen Zimmerer has critiqued both German liberals and German conservatives who do not see "continuities" between the Namibian genocide and the Holocaust, claiming that conservatives have an unwillingness to examine German colonial history and that liberals have a "fear of challenging the dogma of Holocaust uniqueness". [32]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Holocaust Industry</i> 2000 book by Norman Finkelstein

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering is a book by Norman Finkelstein arguing that the American Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for political and financial gain and to further Israeli interests. According to Finkelstein, this "Holocaust industry" has corrupted Jewish culture and the authentic memory of the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nazi concentration camps</span> Concentration camps operated by Nazi Germany

From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps, including subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herero and Nama genocide</span> 1904–1908 genocide by the German Empire against Herero and Nama people

The Herero and Nama genocide or Namibian genocide, formerly known also as the Herero and Namaqua genocide, was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment which was waged against the Herero (Ovaherero) and the Nama in German South West Africa by the German Empire. It was the first genocide to begin in the 20th century, occurring between 1904 and 1908. In January 1904, the Herero people, who were led by Samuel Maharero, and the Nama people, who were led by Captain Hendrik Witbooi, rebelled against German colonial rule. On 12 January 1904, they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja.

<i>The Destruction of the European Jews</i> 1961 historical book by Raul Hilberg

The Destruction of the European Jews is a 1961 book by historian Raul Hilberg. Hilberg revised his work in 1985, and it appeared in a new three-volume edition. It is largely held to be the first comprehensive historical study of the Holocaust. According to Holocaust historian, Michael R. Marrus, until the book appeared, little information about the genocide of the Jews by Nazi Germany had "reached the wider public" in both the West and the East, and even in pertinent scholarly studies it was "scarcely mentioned or only mentioned in passing as one more atrocity in a particularly cruel war".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust</span> Genocide of European Jews by Nazi Germany

The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. Separate Nazi persecutions killed a similar or larger number of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war (POWs); the term Holocaust is sometimes used to refer to the persecution of these other groups.

Holocaust trivialization refers to any comparison or analogy that diminishes the scale and severity of the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The Wiesel Commission defined trivialization as the abusive use of comparisons with the aim of minimizing the Holocaust and banalizing its atrocities.

Holocaust studies, or sometimes Holocaust research, is a scholarly discipline that encompasses the historical research and study of the Holocaust. Institutions dedicated to Holocaust research investigate the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary aspects of Holocaust methodology, demography, sociology, and psychology. It also covers the study of Nazi Germany, World War II, Jewish history, antisemitism, religion, Christian-Jewish relations, Holocaust theology, ethics, social responsibility, and genocide on a global scale. Exploring trauma, memories, and testimonies of the experiences of Holocaust survivors, human rights, international relations, Jewish life, Judaism, and Jewish identity in the post-Holocaust world are also covered in this type of research.

David Bankier was a Holocaust historian and head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem.

The "double genocide theory" claims that two genocides of equal severity occurred during World War II: it alleges that the Soviet Union committed atrocities against Eastern Europeans that were equivalent in scale and nature to the Holocaust, in which approximately six million Jews were systematically murdered by Nazi Germany. The theory first gained popularity in Lithuania after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, particularly with regard to discussions about the Holocaust in Lithuania. A more extreme version of the theory is antisemitic and vindicates the actions of Nazi collaborators as retaliatory by accusing Jews of complicity in Soviet repression, especially in Lithuania, eastern Poland, and northern Romania. Scholars have criticized the double genocide theory as a form of Holocaust trivialization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust in Belgium</span>

The Holocaust in Belgium was the systematic dispossession, deportation, and murder of Jews and Roma in German-occupied Belgium during World War II. Out of about 66,000 Jews in the country in May 1940, around 28,000 were murdered during the Holocaust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. Dirk Moses</span> Australian historian (born 1967)

Anthony Dirk Moses is an Australian scholar who researches various aspects of genocide. In 2022 he became the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York, after having been the Frank Porter Graham Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a leading scholar of genocide, especially in colonial contexts, as well as of the political development of the concept itself. He is known for coining the term racial century in reference to the period 1850–1950. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Genocide Research.


Daniel Blatman is an Israeli historian, specializing in history of the Holocaust. Blatman is the head of the Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armenian genocide and the Holocaust</span> Comparison of genocides

The relationship between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust has been discussed by scholars. The majority of scholars believe that there is a direct causal relationship between the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, however, some of them do not believe that there is a direct causal relationship between the two genocides.

The International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide was the first major conference in the field of genocide studies, held in Tel Aviv on 20–24 June 1982. It was organized by Israel Charny, Elie Wiesel, Shamai Davidson, and their Institute on the Holocaust and Genocide, founded in 1979. The conference's objective was to further the understanding and prevention of all genocides; it marked the shift from viewing genocide as an irrational phenomenon to one that could be studied and understood.

Prior to joining the Allied Powers late in the war, Turkey was officially neutral in World War II. Despite its neutrality, Turkey maintained strong diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany during the period of the Holocaust. During the war, Turkey denaturalized 3,000 to 5,000 Jews living abroad; between 2,200 and 2,500 Turkish Jews were deported to extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Sobibor; and several hundred confined in Nazi concentration camps. When Nazi Germany encouraged neutral countries to repatriate their Jewish diaspora, Turkish diplomats received instructions to avoid repatriating Jews even if they could prove their Turkish nationality. Turkey was also the only neutral country to implement anti-Jewish laws during the war. Between 1940 and 1944, around 13,000 Jews passed through Turkey from Europe to Mandatory Palestine. According to the research of historian Rıfat Bali, more Turkish Jews suffered as a result of discriminatory policies during the war than were saved by Turkey. Since the war, Turkey and parts of the Turkish Jewish community have promoted exaggerated claims of rescuing Jews, using this myth to promote Armenian genocide denial.

Dan Michman is a Jewish historian. He is the head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust studies.

<i>The Problems of Genocide</i> 2021 book by A. Dirk Moses

The Problems of Genocide: Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression is a 2021 book by Australian historian A. Dirk Moses. The book explores what Moses sees as flaws in the concept of genocide, which he argues allows killings of civilians that do not resemble the Holocaust to be ignored. Moses proposes "permanent security" as an alternative to the concept of genocide. The book was described as important, but his emphasis on security is considered only one factor to be causing mass violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Holocaust and the Nakba</span> Historiography on the two events

The Holocaust and the Nakba have been regarded as interrelated events in discussions of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, both historically and in the way these two tragedies have influenced perceptions of the conflict by both parties. In Israel, all Israeli Jews are considered survivors of the Holocaust who must implement the imperative of never again in regards to being a Jewish victim. The uniqueness of the Holocaust is emphasized and linkage between it and the Nakba is often rejected. The 2018 book The Holocaust and the Nakba argues that "unless we can hold these two moments in our hearts and minds as part of the same story, there can be no moving forward in the seemingly unmovable conflict that is Israel-Palestine".

The Catechism Debate, also known as Historikerstreit 2.0, is a debate about German Holocaust remembrance initiated by Australian historian A. Dirk Moses with his 2021 essay "The German Catechism". In the debate, Moses challenges the uniqueness of the Holocaust. In May through August of 2021, scholars reacted to Moses's thesis in the New Fascism Syllabus in a series of reflections curated by Jennifer V. Evans.

References

  1. ↑ Blatman 2015, p. 21.
  2. ↑ Rosenbaum 2009, p. 1.
  3. ↑ Bomholt Nielsen 2021.
  4. 1 2 Stone, Dan (4 January 2022). "Paranoia and the Perils of Misreading". Fair Observer. Retrieved 22 March 2022.
  5. ↑ MacDonald 2007, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Judaken 2018, pp. 1125, 1130, 1135.
  7. 1 2 Blatman 2015, p. 22.
  8. ↑ Moses 2021, pp. 195, 206.
  9. ↑ Stone 2010, p. 206.
  10. ↑ Rosenfeld 2015, pp. 80–81.
  11. ↑ Stone 2010, p. 207.
  12. ↑ Rosenfeld 2015, p. 81.
  13. ↑ Rosenfeld 2015, pp. 85–86.
  14. ↑ Rosenfeld 2015, pp. 86–87.
  15. ↑ Krondorfer 2021, p. 393.
  16. ↑ Reiser, Daniel (2024). "The Holocaust as an Exceptional Phenomenon: Development and Change in the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Outlook". Modern Judaism: A Journal of Jewish Ideas and Experience . 44 (1): 40–59. doi:10.1093/mj/kjae003.
  17. 1 2 Sutcliffe, Adam (2022). "Whose Feelings Matter? Holocaust Memory, Empathy, and Redemptive Anti-Antisemitism". Journal of Genocide Research . 26 (2): 222–242. doi: 10.1080/14623528.2022.2160533 .
  18. ↑ Rosenfeld 2015, pp. 78–79.
  19. ↑ Moses 2021, p. 236.
  20. ↑ Michman, Dan (2014). "The Jewish Dimension of the Holocaust in Dire Straits? Current Challenges of Interpretation and Scope". In Goda, Norman (ed.). Jewish Histories of the Holocaust. New Transnational Approaches. New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 17–38.
  21. ↑ Michman, Dan (2022). Holocaust Historiography between 1990 to 2021 in Context(s): New Insights, Perceptions, Understandings and Avenues. An Overview and Analysis, Search and Research Series. Vol. 34. Jerusalem: Yad Vashem.
  22. ↑ Blatman 2015, p. 24.
  23. ↑ Stone 2010, p. 210.
  24. ↑ Stone 2004, p. 129.
  25. ↑ Blatman 2015, p. 25.
  26. ↑ Benz, Wolfgang (1999). The Holocaust: A German Historian Examines the Genocide (1st ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 152. ISBN   0-231-11215-7.
  27. ↑ Timm, Annette F. (2022). Graziosi, Andrea; Sysyn, Frank E. (eds.). Genocide: The Power and Problems of a Concept. McGill-Queen's University Press. p. 49. ISBN   978-0-2280-0951-1.
  28. ↑ Kellenbach, Katharina von (2021). "Beyond competitive memory: The preeminence of the Holocaust in religious studies". The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780429317026-44. ISBN   978-0-429-31702-6. S2CID   241287958.
  29. 1 2 Lim, Jie-Hyun (2022). "The Second World War in Global Memory Space". Global Easts: Remembering, Imagining, Mobilizing. Columbia University Press. p. 80. ISBN   978-0-231-55664-4.
  30. ↑ Rozett, Robert; Michman, Dan (3 January 2021). "The Unprecedented Nature of the Holocaust and its Unique Features: Some Reflections - Part I". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 28 July 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  31. ↑ Rausch, Sahra (2022). "'We're equal to the Jews who were destroyed. [. . .] Compensate us, too'. An affective (un)remembering of Germany's colonial past?". Memory Studies. 15 (2). Sage Journals: 418–435. doi: 10.1177/17506980211044083 .
  32. ↑ Adhikari, Mohamed (November 2008). "'Streams of blood and streams of money': New perspectives on the annihilation of the Herero and Nama peoples of Namibia, 1904-1908" (PDF). Kronos. 34. SciELO: 303–320. JSTOR   41056613. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.