Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews of Europe

Throughout these essays Saul Friedlander is concerned about the relationship between memory and history, the stages in the evolution of attitudes toward the Nazi epoch and the Shoah in both German and Jewish memory, and the gap between individual memory and the collective re-elaboration of the past. "The passage from memory to history", he states, "the changing attitudes toward this epoch, the waning of individual memory lead of necessity (with or without the impact of decisive political normalization) to the expulsion of terror from the presence of those years". The book includes chapters on Nazism, the German struggles with memory, the new German debates about the "final solution", Israeli memory of the Shoah and the Shoah in present historical consciousness, the genesis and various interpretations of the "final solution", the extermination of the Jews in Europe, the historicization of National Socialism, and the views of Martin Broszat. Consideration is given to the implications of German reunification.

"No one has written more incisively about the dynamics and divergences of German and Jewish memory of the Third Reich than Saul Friedlander. His new book is a singularly important contribution to our understanding of the evolving memory of the Nazi period within German and Jewish historical consciousness." --Alvin H. Rosenfeld

"... This volume is of importance not only for Holocaust research itself, but also for understanding German and Israeli societies." --Bulletin of the Arnold and Leora Finkler Institute of the Holocaust Research

A world-famous scholar analyzes the historiography of the Nazi period, including conflicting interpretations of the Holocaust and the impact of German reunification.

SAUL FRIEDLANDER is the author of numerous books, including When Memory Comes and Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death.

Introduction

I. German Struggles with Memory

II. A Conflict of Memories? The New German Debates about the "Final Solution"

III. The Shoah in Present Historical Consciousness

IV. Reflections on the Historicization of National Socialism

V. Martin Broszat and the Historicization of National Socialism

VI. The "Final Solution": On the Unease in Historical Interpretation

VII. Trauma and Transference

Index