Daniel Goldhagen

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Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Born 1959
Occupation Political scientist, author
Notable work(s) Hitler's Willing Executioners
Official website

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born 1959) is an American political scientist and former Associate Professor of Political Science and Social Studies at Harvard University. After having taught political science and social studies at Harvard University for many years,[1] Goldhagen reached international awareness as the author of two controversial books about the Holocaust, Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996) and A Moral Reckoning (2002).

Contents

[edit] Background

Goldhagen is the son of retired Harvard professor Erich Goldhagen, who survived the Holocaust in a Romanian–Jewish ghetto in Czernowitz, and credits his father with creating a framework for intellectual discussion about the subject.[2] Goldhagen spent his youth in Newton, Massachusetts before entering Harvard, where his interest in the origins of the Holocaust was sparked by a lecture in 1983 given by Saul Friedlander.[2] Goldhagen told The New York Times in 1996 that "everyone was talking about why the order was given, but not about why it was carried out."[2] His research on the question led him to spend 14 months in Ludwigsburg, Germany, examining relevant documents, before returning to Harvard to draw the material together in the first of his books.[2]

[edit] Books

[edit] Hitler's Willing Executioners

Main article: Hitler's Willing Executioners

In Hitler's Willing Executioners, Goldhagen posited that ordinary Germans not only knew about, but also supported, the Holocaust because of a unique and virulent "eliminationist" antisemitism in the German identity, which had developed in the preceding centuries. This book, successful but controversial,[3] began as Goldhagen's Harvard doctoral dissertation, which won the American Political Science Association's 1994 Gabriel A. Almond Award in comparative politics.

According to The New York Times, Hitler's Willing Executioners, met with widespread hostility in Germany at its debut,[4] has been credited for launching national discussion on the topic in that country.[5] In late 1996, Goldhagen visited Berlin to participate in the debate on television and in lecture halls before capacity crowds.[6][7] Goldhagen was awarded the prestigious Democracy Prize in 1997 by the German Journal for German and International Politics, which asserted that "...because of the penetrating quality and the moral power of his presentation, Daniel Goldhagen has greatly stirred the consciousness of the German public." The laudatio, awarded for the first time since 1990, was given by Jürgen Habermas and Jan Philipp Reemtsma.[8][7]

Hitler's Willing Executioners also drew controversy with the publication of two critical articles: "Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's 'Crazy' Thesis", written by political scientist Norman Finkelstein and initially published in UK political journal New Left Review, and "Historiographical review: Revising the Holocaust", written by historian Ruth Bettina Birn and initially published in the Historical Journal of Cambridge.[3] These articles were later published as the book A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth.[3] In response to their work, Goldhagen sought a retraction and apology from Birn, according to Salon declaring Finkelstein "a supporter of Hamas".[3]

[edit] A Moral Reckoning

Main article: A Moral Reckoning

Goldhagen's second book, A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair, an account of what he maintains was the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust, has also been controversial, garnering both praise and strong criticism.[9][10] Goldhagen wrote the book following a request by The New Republic to review several books concerning Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust.[10] The book has been criticised as being a "misuse of the Holocaust to advance [his] anti-Catholic agenda" and as being poor scholarship, including a lack of any primary sources and being riddled with factual errors.[11][12][13] Because of these criticisms and because he says the recommendations of the book would mean the end of the Church as it has been for two millennia, William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has labeled Goldhagen an "anti-Catholic bigot".[14] Goldhagen noted in an interview with The Atlantic that the title and the first page of the book reveal its purpose as a moral, rather than historical analysis, asserting that he has invited European Church representatives to present their own historical account in discussing morality and reparation.[10]

[edit] Works

  • Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. ISBN 0-679-44695-8.
  • A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair (New York: Alfred A. Knopf: Distributed by Random House, 2002). ISBN 0-375-41434-7.
  • The “Willing Executioners/Ordinary Men” Debate: Selections from the Symposium, April 8, 1996, introduced by Michael Berenbaum (Washington, D.C.: USHMM, 2001).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Daniel Jonah Goldhagen biography Random House. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  2. ^ a b c d Smith, Dinitia. (April 1, 1996). Challenging a view of the Holocaust. The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d Shatz, Adam. (April 8, 1998) Goldhagen's willing executioners: the attack on a scholarly superstar, and how he fights back Slate. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  4. ^ Carvajal, Doreen. (May 7, 1996) Forum on Holocaust canceled after an author withdraws The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  5. ^ Landler, Mark. (November 14, 2002) Holocaust writer in storm over role of Catholic Church The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  6. ^ Cowell, Alan. (September 8, 1996). Author goes to Berlin to debate Holocaust. The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  7. ^ a b Elon, Amos. (January 26, 1997). The antagonist as liberator The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  8. ^ Deborah Bradley Ruber. Goldhagen Wins German Prize For Holocaust Book. Harvard Gazette.
  9. ^ Wheatcroft, Geoffrey. (November 24, 2002). Sins of the Fathers. The New York Times. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  10. ^ a b c Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg. (January 31, 2003) The Guilt of the Church. The Atlantic. Accessed January 4, 2008.
  11. ^ Dalin, David G., The Weekly Standard, February 10, 2003.
  12. ^ Bottum, J. The Usefulness of Daniel Goldhagen The Weekly Standard 23 October 2002
  13. ^ Fisher, Eugene J. Review of A Moral Reckoning Ethical Perspectives, Journal of the European Ethics Network
  14. ^ 2002 Report on Anti-Catholicism, Executive Summary Catholic League

[edit] References

  • Bauer, Yehuda Rethinking the Holocaust, New Haven [Conn.] ; London : Yale University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-300-08256-8.
  • Eley, Geoff (editor) The Goldhagen Effect : History, Memory, Nazism--Facing The German past, Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2000 ISBN 0-472-06752-4.
  • Feldkamp, Michael F. Goldhagens unwillige Kirche. Alte und neue Fälschungen über Kirche und Papst während der NS-Herrschaft, München : Olzog-Verlag, 2003 ISBN 3789281271
  • Finkelstein, Norman & Birn, Ruth Bettina A Nation On Trial : The Goldhagen Thesis And Historical Truth, New York : Henry Holt, 1998 ISBN 0-8050-5871-0.
  • Guttenplan, D. D. The Holocaust on Trial, New York : Norton, 2001 ISBN 0-393-02044-4.
  • Kershaw, Sir Ian The Nazi Dictatorship : Problems and Perspectives Of Interpretation, London : Arnold ; New York : Copublished in the USA by Oxford University Press, 2000 ISBN 0-340-76028-1
  • Rosenbaum, Ron Explaining Hitler : the search for the origins of his evil New York : Random House, 1998 ISBN 0-679-43151-9.
  • Sereny, Gita Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth (1995)
  • Shandley, Robert & Riemer, Jeremiah (editors) Unwilling Germans? : The Goldhagen Debate, Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1998 ISBN 0-8166-3101-8.
  • Stern, Fritz "The Goldhagen Controversy: The Past Distorted" pages 272-288 from Einstein's German World, Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1999 ISBN 0-691-05939-X.
  • Wesley, Frank The Holocaust And Anti-semitism : the Goldhagen Argument And Its Effects, San Francisco ; London : International Scholars Publications, 1999, 1998 ISBN 1-57309-235-5.
  • Kwiet, Konrad: “‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ and ‘Ordinary Germans’. Some Comments on Goldhagen’s Ideas,” Jewish Studies Yearbook 1 (2000) (online at http://www.ceu.hu/jewishstudies/pdf/01_kwiet.pdf)
  • LaCapra, Dominick: “Perpetrators and Victims: The Goldhagen Debate and Beyond,” in LaCapra, Writing History, Writing Trauma (= ch. 4) (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2001), 114-140.
  • Pohl, Dieter: "Die Holocaust-Forschung und Goldhagens Thesen," Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte 45 (1997).

[edit] External links

Critical analyses

Persondata
NAME Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION political scientist and Holocaust historian
DATE OF BIRTH 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH