A nation on trial: the Goldhagen thesis and historical truth
Consists of two essays which refute the arguments used by Goldhagen in "Hitler's Willing Executioners." Finkelstein's "Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's 'Crazy' Thesis: A Critique of 'Hitler's Willing Executioners'" (pp. 1-100) contends that Goldhagen's book is neither novel nor a scholarly work. It is based mainly on misinterpreted secondary sources. Goldhagen exaggerates the significance of German "eliminationist antisemitism, " while he disparages the crucial factor of Nazi totalitarianism, with its propaganda and repressive system. He exaggerates the uniqueness of German antisemitism, racism, and wartime sadism. Goldhagen's book is a continuation of the pro-Zionist historical discourse which considers antisemitism to be eternal and the only cause of the Holocaust. Birn's "Revising the Holocaust" (pp. 101-148) is a slightly revised version of a review published in "The Historical Journal" 40 (1997). (States here that this essay was written in collaboration with Volker Riess.) Criticizes Goldhagen's discursive technique, non-academic style, and biased use of sources. Goldhagen exaggerates the number of Germans involved in the Holocaust, as well as their "ordinariness, " and he ignores the participation of non-Germans in the Holocaust.