The Historiography of the Holocaust

Introduction
Dan Stone
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).
In the aftermath of the Cold War, not only have historians had unprecedented
access to documents housed in archives of the former Soviet Bloc, but
there has been increasing awareness of the importance of eastern Europe in its
own right, for a full understanding of European history in general and the
Holocaust in particular. The end of the post-war consensus brought about by
the collapse of ‘real existing socialism’ and the US-led ‘new world order’ have
meant that suppressed questions concerning collaboration, resistance and the
true impact of Nazism and the Second World War are now being addressed.
Although this is a potentially dangerous development, breeding resentment and
reopening old wounds, it also permits a more thoroughgoing, critical treatment
1