The Historiography of the Holocaust

134 Martin Dean
and the development of policies against the Jews. 77 This is representative of the
more general trend noted above not to treat the non-Jewish populations of
eastern Europe merely as ‘bystanders’ to the Holocaust, but to examine their
role as independent actors who directly influenced and participated in the
implementation of genocide at the local level.
In conclusion, the increased interest in the issue of ‘local collaboration’ indicated
by this selective survey reflects certain key trends in the way scholars are
approaching the Holocaust. As more documentation from the archives of
eastern Europe has become available, the sharp division between studies based
mainly on ‘perpetrator’ or ‘victim’ sources is thankfully being overcome. Instead,
there is growing recognition of the need to examine events from the perspective
of all participants and especially to integrate the viewpoint of the local
non-Jewish populations of eastern Europe into the narrative. This produces
a complex and often painful picture of quite widespread ‘local collaboration’,
as well as sometimes surprising aid for Jews. As Omer Bartov has forcefully
argued, there is a need to understand the social fabric of the local societies in
these areas and to piece together in detail how they reacted during this fateful
period. 78 Thus the spontaneous reactions of the local population on the arrival
of the Germans, the motives of individuals serving in the collaborationist police
and the significance of Jewish property in gaining support for anti-Jewish measures
all add considerably to our understanding of the dynamics of genocide.
For it is important to remember that the Holocaust required not only central
plans, but also real people at the local level, many of them non-German, for
the nightmare to become reality.
Notes
1 The opinions stated in this chapter are those of the author alone and do not necessarily
reflect those of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum or of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council.
2 On the genesis of this debate, see, for example, M. Broszat, The Hitler State: The Foundation
and Development of the Internal Structure of the Third Reich (London: Longman, 1981);
C.R. Browning, Fateful Months: Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution (New York:
Holmes & Meier, 1985); I. Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of
Interpretation (London: Arnold, 1989).
3 Two regional studies that examine in more detail the role of local collaboration are
B. Chiari, Alltag hinter der Front: Besatzung, Kollaboration und Widerstand in Weissrussland,
1941–1944 (Düsseldorf: Droste, 1998) and S. Spector, The Holocaust of Volhynian Jews,
1941–44 (Jerusalem: Achva Press, 1990).
4 R. Hilberg, Die Vernichtung der europäischen Juden, 3 vols (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer,
1961, 1982), see especially pp. 326–8 and 758–61.
5 On the Holocaust in these two countries, see especially R.L. Braham, The Politics of
Genocide: The Holocaust in Hungary, 2 vols (New York: Columbia University Press,
1994) and R. Ioanid, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies
under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944 (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000).