Customer Reviews

The Politics of Memory: The Journey of a Holocaust Historian

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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.

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."

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.