Contemporary Responses to the Holocaust (review)

In their introduction, Kwiet and Matthäus note the inadequacy of any scholarship to date to explain the Holocaust, as well as the gap between academic scholarship and the collective memory of the non-academic public. They argue that "the professional keepers of memory have for a long time failed to provide the basis on which others could build" (p. xi), but limit themselves to the more modest wish to offer "a temporary beacon of orientation in a shifting landscape of memory" (p. xviii). Few of the book's chapters actually address the question of memory, however, and while some chapters discuss ways in which non-academics understand the Holocaust, the book as a whole hardly bridges the gap between academics and the public.

In Part 1, "Consensus and Confrontation," Yehuda Bauer presents several contradictory themes; for example an argument for the uniqueness of the Shoah and a basis for its comparison with other genocides, and a presentation of key areas of research along with some of the greatest obstacles to further progress. According to Bauer, too few scholars have the language skills to conduct research in Eastern Europe, and much of the scholarship published in Hebrew is unread outside Israel. Still, Bauer hopes for new syntheses based on the outpouring of new work. In his chapter, Dieter Pohl sets out to survey responses to the Shoah in Germany and Eastern Europe. Twice, however, he says that the task is "almost impossible" (pp. 19, 21), and the topic ultimately proves too ambitious for this short and rather unsatisfying essay. Moreover, Pohl's comments on Germany are also somewhat contradictory. Having demonstrated the connections between politics and culture, Pohl states that "the Shoah is not a constant subject in German politics" (p. 22) but adds that "it is little wonder that the Shoah has a central place in German culture" (p. 23). Tim Cole's essay on the "Holocaust industry" is a balanced introduction to this controversy, represented by Peter Novick and Norman Finkelstein, both of whom have criticized the instrumentalization of the Holocaust for contemporary purposes. For his part, Cole contextualizes his own criticism of the commercial exploitation of Holocaust themes.

Part 2, "Beliefs and Identity," is the strongest section of the book. Here John Conway addresses "Changes in Christian-Jewish Relations since the Holocaust," in particular the ways that both the Catholic and Protestant churches have turned away from centuries-old traditions of active antisemitism, a departure difficult to realize and as yet unevenly realized: Christian complicity in the Holocaust has not been acknowledged in all cases; crucial sections of the Vatican archives remain closed; the Holy See established diplomatic relations with Israel only in 1993; and the move to beatify Pope Pius XII remains controversial. At the same time, the Church has gradually abandoned its doctrine of Jewish responsibility for Christ's death and the obligation to convert Jews. Conway's article focuses mostly on German churches and the Vatican; therefore, analysis of Christian positions in Poland, France, and the United States would have been welcome.

Gershon Greenberg's densely written essay on some of the explanations for the Holocaust put forth by ultra-orthodox Jews is especially valuable because their reasoning is not widely known. Supporting his study with references to English-and Hebrew-language literature, Greenberg groups the explanations into three rubrics: the Holocaust as the actions of radically evil people and nations (Hitler, Nazi Germany, and their collaborators); the Holocaust as God punishing the Jews for their failings (including rejection or absence of Torah, generalized sin, assimilation, and rejection of Jewish identity); and the Holocaust as an extraordinary sacrifice to God, an act of love and faith. Greenberg's essay fits well with Dan Michman's piece, which deals with the attempts of some Western European Jews to draw lessons from the Holocaust to form an identity distinct from that in the two largest Jewish centers, Israel and the United States. Michman sees the Holocaust as the result...