Rethinking the Holocaust [Paperback]

Yehuda Bauer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | Series: Nota Bene

A study of the Holocaust, evaluating accepted views of its history and meaning. Yehuda Bauer offers his own interpretation of why the Holocaust occurred and how another can be prevented. He presents opinions on topics ranging from how Jews reacted to the murderous campaign against them to the relationship between the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this latest contribution from Bauer is slightly misleading; as valuable as it is, the volume is not really a rethinking of the Holocaust but rather a revisiting of the major problems and interpretations in Holocaust studies. Bauer, director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, begins with a short discussion of what exactly historians do. He quite rightly departs from standard practice when he asks such moral and "what if" questions as what could have been done? and what should have been done? Contrary to what he calls Elie Wiesel's "mystification" of the Holocaust, he insists that the catastrophe was a human invention and therefore historically and "rationally" explicable. Separate chapters deal with Jewish armed and unarmed resistance, and with rescue attempts--he examines, for instance, the case of Gisi Fleischmann, a Zionist leader who worked to get as many Jews out of Slovakia as possible, which Bauer uses to discuss issues of gender, arguing that women did not fight for the status of women separately but for collective and individual survival and for honor. Most fascinating for non-Jewish readers are the chapter on Jewish theological attempts to explain the Holocaust and Bauer's valuable synthesis and reexamination of some of the major interpretations of the Holocaust. Bauer ends by looking at how the Holocaust is related to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 (he rejects, for instance, the notion that "a guilt complex" on the part of Western countries led them to vote for partition of British Palestine). (Jan.)Forecast: This book will become a staple of Holocaust literature and should enjoy a long, if quiet, life in print.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Bauer insists that this is not another history of the Holocaust but rather an attempt to rethink issues arising from that watershed in human history. He starts with a definition and explanation of the Holocaust and then compares it with other genocide. He analyzes attempts by six important historians and sociologists--Zygmunt Bauman, Jeffrey Herf, Goetz Aly, Daniel J. Goldhagen, John Weiss, and Saul Friedlander--to interpret the Holocaust. Two chapters deal with Jewish reactions during the Holocaust, specifically Jewish resistance. Bauer analyzes one contemporary gender study regarding the problems that Jewish women have had to face in dealing with this catastrophe, and he examines Jewish theological explanations of the tragedy. He also discusses "the dismal chronology of rescue attempts" and considers the impact of the Holocaust on the establishment of the State of Israel. Bauer, director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, and author of Jews for Sale? (1994), has written a book of extraordinary scope, depth, and power. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300093004
• ISBN-13: 978-0300093001
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 4.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #589,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A profound reconsideration of the Holocaust, December 5, 2005

By 

Shalom Freedman "Shalom Freedman" (Jerusalem,Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Rethinking the Holocaust (Paperback)

This work is written by one of the major Holocaust historians. In it he summarizes the work of a lifetime. He in this work attempts to understand the unprecedented character of the Holocaust. His conclusions are that the Holocaust is truly unique, distinguished from other genocides in that those involve real disputes, usually by neighbors over land and territory. The Holocaust , the murder of the Jews of Europe, the murder of over one third of the Jews of the world, was unique in that its perpetrators had the goal of eliminating the Jews wherever they were, every place on earth.. A Jew simply by being born was a target of the Nazis.

Bauer points out that there was a strong ideological component in the Shoah, and that the Nazis dream was to create a new order of the world free of Jews, Gypsies, Poles, and a whole variety of others they considered inferior races.

Bauer points out that thre was a strong irrational element in Nazi Ideology. The Jews in Germany had not been enemies of German culture but rather had made most significant contributions to it. The insane hatred of the Nazis for the Jews, their determination to murder all Jews ,was pursued even when it undermined the German war effort.

Bauer provides many stories that point out the enormous cruelty of the Shoah.

In his concluding chapter which is an address he gave to the German Bundestag he speaks forcefully about the importance of education in preventing a similar evil coming to the world.

25 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Rethinking "Rethinking the Holocaust", October 9, 2004

By 

Rachel Robinson "Rachel Motte" (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rethinking the Holocaust (Paperback)

In his "Rethinking the Holocaust," Yehuda Bauer, a professor at Hebrew University, examines different interpretations of the holocaust and attempts to understand the event for himself.

Bauer begins his book with an attempt to determine what the holocaust was. He argues that genocide and holocaust are not the same thing, and that the holocaust was not necessarily a unique event; though it could have been avoided, it could also happen again. Bauer points out that "Although the Holocaust has no precedent, it could become one." The holocaust, he concludes, stemmed out of different motives than genocide and proves that man is capable of unspeakable evil. Pretty good, so far.

Chapters four and five examine several different interpretations of the holocaust. These chapters, both entitled "Overall Interpretations," might be more aptly named "Rethinking the historians whose theories I find stupid." I was generally unimpressed by the quality of scholarship in this book, and these two chapters particularly bothered me. While Dr. Bauer's determination to examine so many of the popular interpretations is admirable, his methods and conclusions leave something to be desired. For example, I found it quite ironic that in a book riddled with poor grammar, bad punctuation and many typos, Dr. Bauer saw fit to criticize a colleague for "consistently" misspelling another historian's name. I was disappointed that he did not spend more time interacting with conflicting ideas; instead, he described and quickly rejected holocaust theories that differed from his own.

In chapter nine, Bauer examines various theological attempts to understand the holocaust. I do not understand why he saw fit to spend a full twenty-six pages examining various approaches to the problem of evil, only to reject them all and state, "The theology of the holocaust is fascinating, but it is a dead end." One wonders why he bothered with this subject at all.

I have already mentioned that Dr. Bauer's book is full of typos, poor grammar, and bad punctuation. He is a terrible writer. His consistent use of passive sentence construction, unnecessarily long words, and words that were not needed at all was distracting. I had a hard time figuring out what he was trying to say. Given his writing style, I assume that English is not his first language. That's fine, but an editor could have very quickly and easily cleaned up Dr. Bauer's writing by simply cutting out unnecessary words, using simple instead of complicated terms, and restructuring sentences.

The book was published by Yale University Press. I am confused--I had expected better quality from Yale. This book was badly written, but most of the errors could have been easily fixed. Why did the publisher not take care of this? As it is, the language used is sloppy and gives the impression that Dr. Bauer does not really care about his subject. Also, he frequently repeats ideas and contradicts himself. This confuses the reader and, again, gives the impression that Bauer's ideas are not well thought out and that he did not really care much about his topic.

I would like to publish a book someday; perhaps I will contact the publishers at Yale. The quality of Dr. Bauer's book indicates that they aren't very picky.

13 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Historical Overview, October 31, 2002

By 

Fred M. Blum - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rethinking the Holocaust (Hardcover)

Rethinking the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer is an excellent historical review of the various issues that are raised by the Holocaust. Bauer is one of the preeminent holocaust historians and this book will only reenforce his place in historical studies.

The book reviews most of the recent historical issues ranging from the holocausts place in history to a comparison with more recent genocides. The central thesis is that what seperates the holocaust from the more recent genocides is not the necessarily the evil of the act. What has happened in Africa or Bosnia is not less evil or horrible than what the Nazis did. However, the African and Bosnian genocides were more significanly limited in scope. The Nazi plan was to hunt down the Jews where ever they lived and to eliminate them as a race. This desire seperates the holocaust from all other genocides.

The most interesting chapter discuses the theology of the holocaust. The central theological difficulty of the holocaust is how to reconcile an all powerful God with one that is just. The question being how could a just God who had the power to stop the death of millions not stop that murder. One conclusion is that God is all powerful or just, but not both. Bauer does not have any real answers, and there might not be any; however, the discussion is thought provoking and leads to furhter readings. This chapter was worth reading the book.