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War Crimes Trials and Investigations pp 157–191Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

History: War Crimes in the Past and Present—A Historian’s Perspective

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Part of the book series: St Antony's Series ((STANTS))

Abstract

The chapter discusses how historians contribute to their society’s attempts to deal with war crimes and related mass violence, in particular the Holocaust and other genocidal processes. This relates to the primary role of historians—to describe and explain the dynamics and the causes of these processes, but at the same time to address the role of historians themselves in shaping the memory of these atrocities, both as individual scholars and as part of their institutional environment. The author takes his examples from the Dutch case of which he is part.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, for instance: Book 1, Kylon (126–127); Book 2, the Thebeans and Plataeans (5–6), Cleon/Mytiline.

  2. 2.

    Michael Grant, The Ancient Historians (London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1970), 95–97. On violent regime change in Athens at the time: John Elster, Closing the Books. Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 7–16.

  3. 3.

    The Statute of the International Criminal Court defines war crimes as, inter alia, ‘serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in international armed conflict’ and ‘serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in an armed conflict not of an international character’—ICC Statute, Article 8 (Vol. II, Ch. 44, § 3). For more on the complex evolution of the terminology and legal status of ‘war crimes’ and ‘crimes against humanity’, see Jan Martin Lemnitzer’s chapter in the present volume.

  4. 4.

    Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 60–61.

  5. 5.

    Christian Gerlach, Extremely Violent Societies. Mass Violence in the Twentieth-Century World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); idem, The Extermination of the European Jews (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016); Donald Bloxham, The Final Solution. A Genocide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009); Jacques Semelin, Purify and Destroy. The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide (London: Hurst & co., 2007).

  6. 6.

    Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), chapter 3.

  7. 7.

    Henry Rousso, “Therapeut und Richter. Was ist Zeitgeschichte in Frankreich zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts?” in Was heiβt und zu welchem Ende studiert man Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts?, ed. Norbert Frei (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2007), 53.

  8. 8.

    Henry Rousso, La hantisse du passé. Entretien avec Philippe Petit (Paris: les Editions Textuel, 1998), 63.

  9. 9.

    Norbert Frei, “Nach Broszat,” in Martin Broszat, der “Staat Hitlers” und die Historisierung des Nationalsozialismus, ed. Norbert Frei (Weimar: Wallstein, 2007), 7–16.

  10. 10.

    Annette Weinke, Gewalt, Geschichte, Gerechtigkeit. Transnationale Debatten über deutsche Staatsverbrechen im 20. Jahrhundert (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2016), 258–260.

  11. 11.

    Elazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations. Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (New York/London: W.W. Norton & Co., 2000).

  12. 12.

    Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin (London: The Bodley Head, 2010), x.

  13. 13.

    Hanna Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Viking Press, 1963) as an author, and as the protagonist in Margarethe von Trotta’s feature film Hannah Arendt (2014).

  14. 14.

    A leading figure being the Polish-Jewish historian Philip Freedman (1901–1960) according to: Conny M. Kristel, Geschiedschrijving als opdracht. Abel Herzberg, Jaques Presser en Loe de Jong over de Jodenvervolging (Amsterdam: Meulenhoff, 1998), 12–14.

  15. 15.

    Eugen Kogon, Der SS-Staat. Das System der deutschen Konzentrationslager (Munich: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1991–1923. Auflage), 11.

  16. 16.

    Conny M. Kristel, Geschiedschrijving als opdracht, 12–21.

  17. 17.

    H. Wielek (pseudonym of W. Kweksilber), De oorlog die Hitler won (Amsterdam, 1947).

  18. 18.

    Abel Herzberg, Kroniek der Jodenvervolging 1940–1945 (Amsterdam: E. Querido, 1950 (1985—5th revised Ed.)), 19.

  19. 19.

    Jacques Presser, Ondergang. De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse Jodendom 1940–1945 (Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij, 1965); English translation: Ashes in the Wind (London: Souvenir Press, 1968) and The Destruction of the Dutch Jews (New York: Dutton, 1969).

  20. 20.

    Kristel, Geschiedschrijving als opdracht, 292–305.

  21. 21.

    Louis de Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in de Tweede Wereldoorlog (14 Volumes—Den Haag and Amsterdam: Staatsuitgeverij/Martinus Nijhoff/SDU, 1969 (Vol I)—1991 (Vol. 14).

  22. 22.

    Kristel, Geschiedschrijving als opdracht, 246–248.

  23. 23.

    Johan C.H. Blom, “The Persecution of the Jews in the Netherlands: A Comparative Western European Perspective,” European History Quarterly 19, no. 3 (July 1989): 333–351. Blom inspired a number of historical studies in this specific field, culminating as an all-encompassing comparison in: Pim Griffioen and Ron Zeller, Jodenvervolging in Nederland, Frankrijk en België, 1940–1945 (Amsterdam: Boom, 2011).

  24. 24.

    August David. Belinfante, In plaats van bijltjesdag. De geschiedenis van de bijzondere rechtspleging na de Tweede Wereldoorlog (Assen: Van Gorcum, 1978); Christiaan F. Rüter, Enkele aspecten van oorlogsmisdaden en misdaden tegen de menselijkheid (Amsterdam: Associated Publishers, 1973); Peter Romijn, Snel, Streng en rechtvaardig. Politiek beleid inzake de bestraffing en reclassering van ‘foute’ Nederlanders (Houten: Unieboek, 1989).

  25. 25.

    Donald Bloxham, Genocide on Trial. War Crimes Trials and the Formation of Holocaust History and Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 200–208.

  26. 26.

    David Bathrick, Brad Prager and Michael D. Richardson, eds., Visualizing the Holocaust: Documents, Aesthetics, Memory (Woodbridge: Camden House, 2008).

  27. 27.

    Wulf Kansteiner, “Gefühlte Wahrheit and ästetischer Relativismus. Über die Annäherung von Holocaust-Geschichtsschreibung und Geschichsttheorie,” in Den Holocaust Erzählen. Historiographie zwischen wissenschaftlicher Empirie und narrativer Kreativität, ed. Norbert Frei and Wulf Kansteiner (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2013), 13

  28. 28.

    Ibid., 28–29.

  29. 29.

    Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men. Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (New York: HarperCollins, 1992).

  30. 30.

    Jan T. Gross, Neighbors. The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (Princeton: Princeton university Press, 2001).

  31. 31.

    As represented in Klaus-Michael Mallmann and Gerhard Paul, eds., Karrieren der Gewalt. Nationalsozialistische Täterbiographien (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2004).

  32. 32.

    A. Dirk Moses and Bart Luttikhuis, eds., Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence. The Dutch Empire in Indonesia (Abingdon/New York: Routledge, 2014).

  33. 33.

    Harald Welzer, Täter. Wie aus ganz normalen Menschen Massenmörder werden (Frankfurt: Fischer, 2005).

  34. 34.

    As regulated in a Royal Decree concerning the Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (1981) and in the transfer of the NIOD to the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1999.

  35. 35.

    Boudewijn Smits, Loe de Jong 1914–2005: Historicus met een missie (Amsterdam: Boom, 2014).

  36. 36.

    Annemieke van Bockxmeer, De oorlog verzameld. Het ontstaan van de collectie van het Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie (Amsterdam: De Bezige Bij, 2014), 162–170.

  37. 37.

    Christian Ritz, Schreibtischtäter vor Gericht. Das Verfahren vor dem Münchener Landgericht wegen der Deportation der niederländischen Juden (1959–1967) (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöning, 2012), 178–180.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., 149, 170–177.

  39. 39.

    De affaire-Menten 1945–1976 (Den Haag: Staatsuitgeverij, s.a., 1979).

  40. 40.

    Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (New York: Viking Press, 1963).

  41. 41.

    Raoul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (New York, 1961; revised version: Holmes & Meier, 1985).

  42. 42.

    Isaiah Trunk, Judenrat. The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation (New York: Macmillan, 1972); Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews 1933–1945 (London: Penguin, 1975, 2nd Ed. 1987); Helen Fein, Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization during the Holocaust (Chicago/London: Chicago University Press, 1979).

  43. 43.

    Henry Russo, La hantisse du passé (Paris: le Seuil, 1998), 85–138.

  44. 44.

    Teitel, Transitional Justice, 149–189.

  45. 45.

    Elly Touwen, Op zoek naar grenzen. Toepassing en uitvoering van de wetten voor oorlogsslachtoffers (Amsterdam: Boom, 2010).

  46. 46.

    Konrad H. Jarausch and Thomas Lindenberger, Conflicted Memories. Europeanizing Contemporary Histories (New York/Oxford: Berghahn, 2007); Norbert Frei, ed., Transnationale Vergangenheitspolitik. Der Umgang mit deutschen Kriegsverbrechern in Europa nach dem zweiten Weltkrieg (Göttingen: Wallstein, 2006).

  47. 47.

    Berber Bevernage, History, Memory, and State-Sponsored Violence. Time and Justice (New York: Routledge, 2012), 1–16.

  48. 48.

    Johan C.H. Blom, “Wat hebben wij aan de waarheid als die ons hindert?: verificatie in de wetsuitvoering,” Cogiscope: Tijdschrift over de gevolgen van oorlog en geweld 2, no. 2 (2006): 14–23.

  49. 49.

    Peter Romijn, Der lange Krieg der Niederlande. Besatzung, Gewalt und Neuorientierung in den vierziger jahren (Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2017).

  50. 50.

    The exhibition “Verbrechen der Wehrmacht. Dimensionen des Vernichtungskrieges 1941–1944” of the Hamburg Institut für Sozialforschung, shown 1995–1999; in a revised form, 2001–2004.

  51. 51.

    Stef I. Scagliola, “‘Clio’s ‘unfinished business’: Coming to Terms with Dutch war Crimes in Indonesia’s War of Independence,” in Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence. The Dutch Empire in Indonesia, ed. A. Dirk Moses and Bart Luttikhuis (London: Routledge, 2014), 240–260.

  52. 52.

    De excessennota (with an introduction by Jan Bank—Den Haag: SDU, 1985).

  53. 53.

    Willem IJzereef, De Zuid-Celebes affaire. Kapitein Westerling en de standrechtelijke executies (Dieren: de Bataafse Leeuw, 1984).

  54. 54.

    Jacques A.A. van Doorn and Wim J. Hendrix, Ontsporing van geweld: over het Nederlands-Indische/Indonesisch conflict (Rotterdam, 1970).

  55. 55.

    De Jong, Het Koninkrijk, Vol. 10b ‘Het laatste jaar’ (Den Haag, 1981), 50–67.

  56. 56.

    Ibid. and Vol. 12—Epiloog (Den Haag, 1988), 1011–1061 and Annex 2.

  57. 57.

    Hans Blom, see footnote 48.

  58. 58.

    Rémi Limpach, “Business as Usual: Dutch Mass Violence in the Indonesian War of Independence 1945–49,” and Peter Romijn, “Learning on ‘the job’: Dutch War Volunteers Entering the Indonesian War of Independence 1945–1946,” both in Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence. The Dutch Empire in Indonesia, ed. A. Dirk Moses and Bart Luttikhuis (London: Routledge, 2014), 64–90 and 91–110.

  59. 59.

    Elazar Barkan, The Guilt of Nations. Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (New York/London: W.W. Norton and Co., 2000), Preface, xi.

  60. 60.

    De Volkskrant, August 16, 2005; “De verkeerde kant van de geschiedenis”.

  61. 61.

    Paul Bijl, “Colonial memory and forgetting in the Netherlands and Indonesia,” in Colonial Counterinsurgency and Mass Violence. The Dutch Empire in Indonesia, ed. A. Dirk Moses and Bart Luttikhuis (London: Routledge, 2014), 301.

  62. 62.

    Christ Klep, “A Tale of Two Commissions. Dutch Parliamentary Inquiries During the Srebrenica Aftermath,” in Investigating Srebrenica: Institutions, Responsibilities, Facts, ed. Isabella Delpla (Oxford/New York: Berghahn, 2012), 68.

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    Peter Romijn

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Romijn, P. (2018). History: War Crimes in the Past and Present—A Historian’s Perspective. In: War Crimes Trials and Investigations. St Antony's Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64072-3_6

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