Obituary

David Bankier, 1947-2010

The death of David Bankier on February 25th robbed Holocaust scholarship of a powerful voice and vital force. For years Bankier had suffered from multiple myeloma, but had managed to continue his work. Survived by three children, he was 63.

Born in Germany, David Bankier was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he received his doctorate in 1984. He was among Yehuda Bauer's many students. Bankier became lecturer at the Hebrew University in 1986 and moved rapidly up the academic ranks. He was among the best known Israelis in the second generation of Holocaust specialists.

Bankier was Solomon and Victoria Cohen Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and also was director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, where he held the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies. He was associate editor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and taught as a visiting professor in Britain, the U.S., and Latin America.

He wrote books and articles on a wide range of topics: Nazi propaganda, Zionism and Palestine, the attitudes of German Communist émigrés and German conservative émigrés toward the "Jewish Question," and the role of intelligence services during the Holocaust. His books were published in Hebrew, English, German, and Spanish. Later this year Berghahn will publish the last of his many volumes, Holocaust Historiography: Emergence, Challenges, Polemics, and Achievements, which he co-edited with Dan Michman.

Bankier's most important work, The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion under Nazism, published in 1992 and released in paperback in 1996, looked carefully at the evidence of what the German public felt about Nazis' persecution and murder of German Jews. He conceded that there were conceptual difficulties: can one have public opinion in a police state? He also showed that there were limitations or biases in all the available sources. Nonetheless, by counterbalancing and reading a wide range of different kinds of sources, he was able to establish a pattern over time. Bankier was among those who saw a significant level of antisemitism among Germans; substantial numbers welcomed the exclusion and expropriation of Jews. He also showed that many Germans received information about the mass shootings of Jews early in the Holocaust, although relatively few knew about the extermination camps. Although it was hard to argue that the German public explicitly supported the Final Solution, a top secret program, there were few signs of public opposition to it, and what Germans knew did not affect their overall support for the regime during the war. Bankier saw more signs of support than of indifference or opposition.

Bankier's book also showed that the Nazi elite were concerned about the reactions of the German public. It followed that Nazi leaders sought to condition Germans to accept whatever came in anti-Jewish policies, even before there were specific plans for the Final Solution. This conclusion elicited a great deal of attention and new perspectives on the early years of the Nazi regime. As a result, in 1997 Bankier organized a conference focused on Nazi Germany during the years 1933-1941. The papers at that lively gathering became the basis for another of his edited volumes, Probing the Depths of German Antisemitism: German Society and the Persecution of the Jews, 1933-1941, published in 2000.

David's Israeli students and colleagues saw him much more than did we at Holocaust and Genocide Studies. But we had our own channels of communication. Operating from Jerusalem, David read virtually every manuscript submitted to Holocaust and Genocide Studies and offered constructive comments to us, and through us, to authors. No matter how far afield the topic or the discipline of the author, he knew enough to contribute effectively. He anonymously improved the work of many dozens of authors.

We learned that he had strong likes and dislikes. He loved the field of history, with all of its limitations and warts. He disliked postmodernism, abstract theory, and overly dense writing. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He was a friend as well as a valued colleague, and we will sorely miss his qualities and style.