Introduction

Abstract

As an extreme case of genocide, the Holocaust — the murder of the Jews and Romanies of Europe by the Nazis during the Second World War — has become, in the West, the archetype of evil.¹ The reasons for this are many and varied, and are addressed in several essays in this volume. Whatever they are, there is no doubt that the literature on the Holocaust is now so enormous that no individual can have real mastery over all its aspects. The aim of this volume is to provide accessible and up-to-date essays on the major sub-fields of the historiography of the Holocaust, the largest part of the literature of what is now known as Holocaust studies. As such, it addresses the issues that have long exercised historians, such as the decision-making process of the ‘Final Solution’ (Browning), the role played by antisemitism (Heilbronner) and Hitler (Noakes) as well as fields of inquiry that have only in recent years become major areas of study in their own right, such as the topography of genocide (Charlesworth), the question of bystander nations (Kushner) and gender (Pine). Some essays deal with topics that used to be central to the historiography of Nazism and the Holocaust and, after a long absence, have once again, in modified form, become central to the debates (Kobrak and Schneider; Ericksen and Heschel; Rozett). Some deal with the after-effects of the Holocaust on post-war western culture, with a major emphasis on eastern Europe (Pohl; Dean; Klier; Fox; Lobont).