Holocaust Historiography in Context: Emergence, Challenges, Polemics and Achievements

The modes in which historical research is being shaped have become themselves a topic of research. Holocaust historiography – the documentation, depiction and analysis of one of the most horrific events in human history – is today a wide academic field in which Jewish and non-Jewish scholars throughout the world are active. But how did this historiography, especially its Jewish aspect, emerge and by what factors was it shaped? In this book a wide range of scholars examine the very beginnings of the effort to apply scholarly standards to the understanding of the Holocaust – when World War II was still raging, and immediately after it ended. It looks at the personalities who made the first steps, the centers that were created, the projects that were initiated, the ideas that were put forward, the contexts that impacted on the materialization, the conditions in which the work was carried out, and the challenges that were encountered – in Europe, North America and Israel. Additionally, the volume explores some long-term processes of crystallization of research schools of thought and approaches. This volume thus provides an in-depth and fascinating picture of the forming of a high-profile scholarly field of research.