by
Peter Longerich, Oxford
University Press, Oxford,
UK; 2010, 645 pp.
Thomas Dalton
If indeed, as USHMM Director
Sara Bloomfield recently
commented, the Holocaust is
still a "relatively new
field of academic study"—now
65 years after the fact—then
it is presumably appropriate
to find new 'milestone'
works still being produced.
Earlier writings were
dominated by the likes of
Reitlinger, Hilberg,
Dawidowicz, Gutman, and Arad.
More recently we've seen
people like Browning and
Kershaw rise to the top. But
now we have a new
standard-bearer, and his
name is Peter Longerich. His
new book, Holocaust, is
"now generally
recognized by historians as
the standard account of this
horrific chapter in human
history"—or so says
his prestigious publisher,
Oxford University Press. As
such, it is worthy of
careful analysis and review,
by traditionalists and
revisionists alike.
Longerich is no newcomer to
the field, having published
important works since the
late 1980s. He is a German
researcher and historian,
currently serving as a
professor in the German
Department at the University
of London. He made his mark
in 1998 with the release of
the book Die Politik der
Vernichtung (The Policy of
Destruction). This work
received widespread acclaim
but its impact was muted by
the fact that it was
published only in German.
Early plans for an English
version were delayed, and by
the time agreement was reach
with Oxford Press, new
developments demanded
numerous changes. Hence, the
present book: a "significantly
reworked" version of
Politik, to the point where
we may treat it as a new
work.
At 645 pages, Holocaust is a
substantial effort, but
nothing like Hilberg's
massive 1300-page,
three-volume epic (cf. his
2003). Still, plenty of
space to address all
relevant and unsettled
aspects of the topic, and (presumably)
shed new light on them—or
else, why even write such a
book? Given that this decade
alone has seen the
publication of nearly 28,000
books on or about the
Holocaust,1 surely the
historians of the world can
be expected to publish only
truly new material,
addressing the many
unanswered questions and
troubling aspects of this
dark era of our past. At
least, this was my initial
hope upon acquiring the book.
Alas, I was disappointed.
But first the basics: The
book is unique, the author
tells us, in a number of
ways. First is its heavy
reliance on primary sources—from
German archives, of course,
but also those of the former
Warsaw Pact states,
particularly Russia.2 Second
is Longerich's focus on the
perpetrators, i.e. Nazi
actions and motivations,
with a notable de-emphasis
on the victims, witnesses,
and survivors—more on this
below. Third is his detailed
look at the build-up and
"decision process"
that led to the
extermination of the Jews.
Longerich has made something
of a specialty in the study
of the "Hitler
order" (or lack thereof)
for the Holocaust, and he
has some interesting
thoughts on this troublesome
issue. |
