Historical Myth and-Revisionism in Yad Vashem Studies, Volume XIX

Between Historical Myth and Revisionism? The Third Reich from the Perspective of 1980

Nolte states that historical revisionism is necessary to reduce stereotyped historical myths, such as the wholly negative nature of the Third Reich, to their true dimensions. He describes several revisionist interpretations, though he rejects David Irving’s claim that Hitler did not know about the Final Solution. Also traced are the historical origins of Nazi Germany, placing the extermination of the Jews in the context of the trend, fostered by the Industrial Revolution, toward eliminating small, parasitic groups as a precondition for modernization. The author claims that the Nazis’ anti-Jewish policy identifying Jews with liberalism and Bolshevism was also a reaction to the anxiety aroused by the mass killings of the Russian Revolution — an irrational copy of the “red terror.”