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Critique.
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History, Memory,and the Historian:
Dilemmas and Responsibilities
Saul Friedlander
I cannot even tell you how many Jews there are at presentin this or
that town, in this or thatcountry,becauseat the very momentof writ-
ing thousandsof them are fleeing hither and thither,from Belgium
and Holland to France(hoping to escape to Switzerland),from Ger-
many - because deportationto Polandwas imminent- to Franceand
Belgium, where the same ordersfor deportationhavejust been issued.
Trappedmice runningin circles. They are fleeing from Slovakia to
3
4 History, Memory, and the Historian
The religious domain may have an even more lasting impact on the
presenceof the past thanthe nationalone. Establishinga Carmelitecon-
vent at Auschwitz was a minor mattercomparedto the storm that may
eruptaroundthe imminentbeatificationof Pius XII, if maintained.The
entire set of controversiesregardingthe role of Christianity,its anti-
Jewish teachings and its traditionalhostility towards the Jews - all of
which providedthe obviously involuntary,but historicallyunavoidable
backgroundto their extermination- would reappearagain. Thus the
presence of the Holocaust in western consciousness resembles that of
some sort of lava rising ever closer to the surface and announcedby
ever strongereruptions.Yet, recognizingthis growing presence of the
past does not explain it. Let me turnto three possible interpretations:a
an
generationalfactor, ongoing demand for justice, and the transforma-
tion of Nazism into the metaphorof evil for ourtime.
even today, many people would opt for such an absolutestand in regard
to Nazi crimes. The present-dayjudicial process is basically not at issue
anymore (the Papon trial in France was possibly the last major court
case regardingNazism and relatedcrimes) but the demandfor an abso-
lute, uncompromising,and almost metaphysicaljustice remains,mainly
in the communityof the victims. It also appearsin segments of Euro-
pean society somehow involved in the collaborationwith Nazism. There
it becomes a demand for distinctionsbetween degrees of involvement,
of responsibility,and of guilt. On all sides, the quest for justice focuses
on the shapingof memoryandcontributesto the growthof memory.
The demandfor justice is also fueling fierce debates on comparative
victimizationwithin the Nazi system of terrorand exterminationitself
and among various terrorand exterminationsystems, the Stalinist and
the Nazi, for example. Over the last three decades or so, some of these
debates have spread to the American scene. The growing demand of
diverse ethnic minoritiesfor the recognitionof theirown historicalheri-
tage, one that would offer a tale of sufferingand triumph,is leading to
overt confrontationsabout degrees of historicalmartyrdom.In this con-
text, the Holocaust has become a focus of resentmentand the demand
for justice fuses with increasinglyacrimoniousargumentsaboutthe his-
torical comparabilityor exceptionalityof the exterminationof the Euro-
pean Jews. Mainly, the adoption of the Holocaust by popular culture
has increasinglyadded a peculiar dimension to its image in the con-
sciousness of vast sectorsof U.S. andWesternsociety.
Nazism has become the centralmetaphorof evil of our time. In our age
of genocide and mass criminality,apartfrom its specific historicalcon-
text, the exterminationof the Jews of Europeis now perceivedby many
as the ultimatestandardof evil againstwhich all degreesof evil are mea-
sured. Such a perceptionof Nazism was already present before and
mainly duringthe war among the Allies, in occupied Europe,and even
amongresistancegroupsin Germanyitself. Afterthe war, HannahArendt
identifiedNazism with "radicalevil." Her later notion of the "banality
of evil" was no contradiction.In our epoch, radicalevil is linked to the
utterbanalityof its perpetrators,the Eichmannsof this world.
The most extreme insult that one can hurl against any brutalbehavior
is to compareit with Nazism, the worst tag applicableto a hated leader
is the comparison with Hitler. And, incidentally, the only Christian
name that may have disappearedfrom the repertory after 1945 is
10 History,Memory,and the Historian
On Memoryand History
It may have become evident, from what has been said until now, that
the various facets of the expandingmemory of the Holocaust create a
whole array of dilemmas in the writing of its history. The impact of
generational change on the transformationof the historiographyof
Nazism and the Shoahhas often been mentioned.3The personalmemo-
ries of those historians who were the contemporariesof Nazism do
indeedfind theirexpressionin distinctformsof emphasisor avoidance.4
More specifically, it has been argued that emotional involvement in
these events precludes a rationalapproachto the writing of their his-
tory. The "mythic memory"of the victims has been set against the
"rational"understandingof others. I certainlydo not wish to open old
debatesbut merely to suggest thatGermanand Jewish historiansas well
as those of any other backgroundcannot avoid a measureof "transfer-
ence" in regardto this past. Of necessity, such involvement impinges
upon the writing of history. But the historian's necessary measure of
detachmentis not hinderedtherebyprovidingthe presence of sufficient
self-awareness.It may indeed be harderto keep one's balance in the
other direction;whereas a constantlyself-critical gaze might diminish
the effects of subjectivity,it could also lead to other, no lesser risks,
those of unduerestraintandparalyzingcaution.
The main aspect of the interactionbetween the memoryof the Holo-
caust and its historiography belongsto the moraldimensionof the events,
thatis to the demandforjustice andto Nazism as a metaphorof evil.
In the early 1980s, German historians seized upon the TV show
"Holocaust"and similar media representationsin order to criticize a
black and white, so-called moralisticrepresentationof Nazism. In the
unfolding "historians'controversy"and in the debate about the histori-
cization of National Socialism, among other themes at stake was this
"moralistic,""black-and-white" dimension of the representationof the
events and, thus,the limits of theirhistoricization.5
3. See in particularNorbertFrei,"Farewellto the Eraof Contemporaries: National
Socialism and Its HistoricalExaminationen routeinto History,"History& Memory9.1/2
(Fall 1997): 59ff.
4. See, in particular,MartinBroszatand Saul Friedliinder,"A Controversyabout
the Historicizationof NationalSocialism,"Reworkingthe Past: Hitler, the Holocaust and
the Historians'Debate, ed. PeterBaldwin(Boston:Beacon, 1990).
5. The most profoundcommenton this debateand its implicationsis to be found
in JoimRilsen, "The Logic of Historicization:MetahistoricalReflections on the Debate
between FriedliinderandBroszat,"History& Memory9.1/2 (Fall 1997): 113-44.
12 History,Memory,and the Historian
not speak in their own voice, but the little that could be found aboutthe
life and deportationof a boy of eight or a girl of three sufficed, pre-
cisely because it was so little.
The victims' testimonies cannot enlighten us about the internal
dynamics of Nazi persecutionsand exterminations,but they put Nazi
behaviorin its full perspective;they describethe face to face encounter
of the perpetratorswith the victims duringthe persecutions,the deporta-
tions, and the killings. But, mainly, the victims' testimonies are our
only source for the historyof theirown pathto destruction.They evoke,
in their own chaotic way, the depth of their terror,despair, apathetic
resignation- andtotal incomprehension.
The integrationof the victims' voices radicallywidens the narrative
span. This integrationhas to be complementedby the historian'seffort
to find correspondinglynew concepts that would express, however
inadequately,the breakdownof all normsand the dimensionsof suffer-
ing thattraditionalhistoriographycannoteasily deal with.
Wittlich (in the Mosel region), November 10, 1938. The synagogue
has been set on fire, the Jewish shops have been destroyed.HerrMarx,
the butcher,as most Jewish men, has been shoved into a truckabout to
leave for a concentrationcamp. On the street, in front of the ruined
shop, amongjeering SA men, FrauMarx stands wailing: "Why do you
do this to us? What did we ever do to you?" And, on both sides of the
street, the Marxs' life-long Germanneighborsstand at their windows,
watching her - in silence.
Was it fear, was it hatred,was it just plain humanindifferenceto the
despairof today's outcastswho had been yesterday'sfriends?The most
elementary human ties had disappearedand the tornado evoked by
Lichtheimin his anguishedletterhadnot even started.