The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian [Hardcover]

Raul Hilberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1996

This is the poignant memoir of a man who has spent most of his lifetime immersed in the evidence of one of the great horrors in human history. It is both a record of how it affected him and a revelation of the surprising ways in which his monumental work was received by his contemporaries. Even after thirty-five years, Raul Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews remains the most distinguished and comprehensive analysis of the Nazi destruction process. Yet at the time it was written, as Mr. Hilberg recounts in The Politics of Memory, both the manuscript and its subject matter were rejected by major publishers and university presses; and in the wake of publication the author faced a hostile reception from those who refused to believe that the Jews were less than heroic in their journey to the gas chambers. How his study was used and abused—especially by Hannah Arendt, Lucy Dawidowicz, and Nora Levin—draws Mr. Hilberg's attention, as does the more admiring reception for Destruction in Europe than in America. The Politics of Memory brings full circle a scholarly enterprise that in many ways has been a terrible calling. A courageous, powerful portrait of one scholar's self-directed search for truth. —Toronto Globe and Mail

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his writings, eminent Holocaust historian Hilberg (The Destruction of the European Jews) has argued that the Nazi genocide was a bureaucratic, decentralized process, and that the "Final Solution," the plan for total annihilation of European Jewry, was not formulated until 1941. By highlighting the role of the Jewish councils, which he views as agents of accommodation with the German apparatus, and by investigating what he perceives as Jewish victims' lack of resistance, Hilberg has drawn the wrath of scholarly critics. In this defensive, dryly written, sometimes acrimonious memoir, he settles scores with his opponents, notably Holocaust historian Lucy Dawidowicz, and sharply distances himself from Hannah Arendt and her notion of the "banality of evil." Professor emeritus of political science at the University of Vermont, Hilberg relives personal moments of intense drama, as when he escaped Austria with his family in 1939 at the age of 13 or when he arrived in Munich as an American soldier at war's end. There, in the former Nazi party headquarters, he discovered Hitler's private library packed in crates.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In an erudite, witty, and sometimes sarcastic narrative, Hilberg (Perspective, Victims, Bystanders: The Jewish Catastrophe 1933-1945, HarperCollins, 1992) takes the reader on a tour of his life and work as an Austrian Jewish refugee who grew up to be one of the most controversial Holocaust historians of the day. Whether or not one agrees with Hilberg's interpretation of the Holocaust, or of his observations about his contemporaries?e.g., Lucy Dawidowicz?his life suggests the social, political, and intellectual forces that shape Holocaust historiography. Of particular interest are the people and events that influenced Hilberg's development as a scholar. His book should be read especially by graduate students and younger scholars because he gives important insights on research, writing, publishing, and job hunting. Recommended for libraries with an interest in the Holocaust and Judaica.?Frederic Krome, Northern Kentucky Univ., Highland Heights
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee (June 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566631165
• ISBN-13: 978-1566631167
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,498,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Summary of life & work of the greatest Holocaust historian, February 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian (Hardcover)

The memoir is a much needed supplement for the scholarly works of undoubtedly peerless Holocaust researcher. All the process of transforming of Holocaust studies from metaphysical reflections into a scholarly discipline is revealed before our eyes, with almost tragic touch of author's own fate as "controversial"(for some) and plagiated scholar. And also a personal note: Gauleiter Kube, a much maligned Hitler's boss of Belorussia, got in Hillberg's magnum opus Destruction of European Jews some flesh and blood which made me understand better the Holocaust reality in my native land.

Hilberg's works are surely uneasy reading for those who perceive the Holocaust through a comforting model reduced to "... a more familiar picture of a struggle-- however unequal--between combatants" (p.135).

The language of the book is unusual and its laconism , though sometimes veiling the sense, is accompanied by inner dramatic beauty and power.

In general, Hilberg's memoir is a mind-nourishing and thought-provoking book, a must for anyone with an interest in history of the 20th century.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If interested in Israel, Palestine, Finkelstein's research, it is essential reading., August 24, 2011

By 

Red Eyes - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian (Paperback)

I became interested in Hilberg after he defended Norman Finkelstein's controversial studies of the exploitation of the Holocaust and the cynical manipulation of the Israel lobby in exaggerating charges of `anti Semitism' to deflect criticism of Israel.

Hilberg stood by Finkelstein when he was being vilified by large sections of the academic and publishing establishment in America and Europe. Hilberg gave Finkelstein the stamp of authenticity and respectability, when his research was being attacked as `scandalous' and `anti Semitic.'

When readers saw Hilberg supporting Finkelstein -- they knew that Finkelstein was also to be trusted and believed.

Hilberg's autobiography is sparingly written, with a disciplined, unsentimental and unadorned style, yet with hints of dark humour and undertones of skepticism and detachment.

The narrative and prose give the reader insight into the immigrants' experience, as Hilberg describes his life as a young man who clearly enjoyed `being American', but never fully seems to have integrated into society. Throughout, he appears as an outsider, looking in on American culture as well as that of the immigrant, and also looking at a rootless diaspora consciousness, a state of being he occasionally gently mocks, and occasionally empathises with and relates to.

Throughout, the reader senses Hilberg's deep yearning, and a deep sense of loss: loss for his European identity (destroyed by the Nazis), loss of his German culture, which he clearly respects (Goethe, Heine, Kant) but no longer feels he can entirely accept; loss of his family (his entire family identity and role was altered after the Holocaust), and perhaps, one may speculate, loss of a full sense of belonging on the earth.

We get very little insight into life with his wife and children, who are barely mentioned in the book ( he makes passing reference to his divorce in his 40's, and his children reading his texts before publication ), though he gives us a lot of information about the psychological state of his parents, and how that effected him.

Hilberg dismisses nearly all the Holocaust studies as shallow, derivative and of little value, though he does repeatedly praise the World War Two studies of the English historians, emphasising their scrupulous research. Browning and Hugh Trevor Roper are noted as producing worthy studies. Hannah Arendt is dismissed as shallow and derivative in her work , and Hilberg appears surprised at her appeal, which he puts down to a need after the war to view Nazism and Communism as being almost identical forms of evil, albeit appearing to be opposites. Hilberg states that Arendt filled a need in people who wanted to understand how such evil could have arisen amongst such cultured and sophisticated people, but he is not satisfied with her explanations, and dismisses Arendt's notion of the `banality of evil' as being wholly insufficient. Hilberg is also somewhat critical of the attitude of many of the Holocaust study and memorial centres in Israel, many of whom seem to take exception to Hilberg's theories, writings and ideas.

Hilberg emerges from these pages as a very solitary figure, a lonely man with a stoic attitude to his fleeting life as it unfolds, aware of transience and the passing nature of things, but also determined to steer his existence as best he can toward a state of quiet dignity, and to ensure his life's work is faithful to those who died at the hands of the Nazis.

Norman Finkelstein wrote the following in tribute to Hilberg when he died in 2007 :

"Whenever I ventured to write something on the Nazi holocaust I would again peruse all the volumes ( of Hilberg's first book) cover to cover. They provided the psychological security I needed before daring to render a judgment of my own. Wanting to stand on the firmest possible intellectual foundations I reflexively reached for Hilberg...

Character not ideology... is the better measure of a person...Primo Levi originally titled his memoir of Auschwitz If This is a Man. Of Raul Hilberg it might be said, There went a man."

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where it all begins, December 16, 2002

By 

The Professor Dave "knowlege over ignorance" (Cleveland, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian (Paperback)

Hillberg wrote this as a Phd thesis, and therefore it is a carefully researched book. I have an original copy signed by the author, and it came at a time to be my first major purchase on the subject. I had a chance to hear him speak a couple of years ago and brought my copy along. He was amazed that any still existed. Because of the purpose, it is not a "story," but a well done place for any one serious in learning could well start. His beginning statement of the eras of Jewish history is still the best I've ever hear in the 45 yrs. of collecting--read it and see.