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A Macat analysis of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s Hitler’s Willing Executioners
American author Daniel Jonah Goldhagen’s 1996 work Hitler’s Willing Executioners is one of the most controversial history books of modern times. While most historians have sought to explain the horror of the Holocaust by focusing on Nazi leaders and their ideologies, Goldhagen set out to investigate whether ordinary Germans enthusiastically embraced their goals. His conclusion: “eliminationist anti-Semitism”—a genocidal hatred of Jews unique to Germany—caused the Holocaust.
Hitler’s Willing Executioners topped bestseller lists in Britain, Germany, and America, and won prestigious awards. But historians almost universally disagreed with Goldhagen’s arguments, which ran counter to those of Christopher Browning in his 1992 book Ordinary Men. Browning examined members of a police unit who carried out acts of genocide and found that regular people acted out of fear and as a result of peer pressure. A ferocious historical dispute raged between partisans of the two authors. This “Goldhagen Controversy,” as it became known, proved to be one of the most significant debates of the 1990s.
Hitler’s Willing Executioners topped bestseller lists in Britain, Germany, and America, and won prestigious awards. But historians almost universally disagreed with Goldhagen’s arguments, which ran counter to those of Christopher Browning in his 1992 book Ordinary Men. Browning examined members of a police unit who carried out acts of genocide and found that regular people acted out of fear and as a result of peer pressure. A ferocious historical dispute raged between partisans of the two authors. This “Goldhagen Controversy,” as it became known, proved to be one of the most significant debates of the 1990s.
80 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 3, 2016
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 14, 2018
Actually, I thought I am going to read the book itself, and I didn't really get it that I am reading an analysis, and an unnecessary one at this. This is a really repetitive book, and it can be summarized in about three sentences. I can't say much on the original, but based on what I have heard, I am probably not going to read it (at least any time soon).
In large, Goldhagen claimed that the German people willingly cooperated with Hitler, and that there was even joy when doing so. That Germany had a different type of racism, and that the Holocaust could not happen in any place other than Germany.
Overall, there is an agreement that this book has no proof, and that it might actually be racist against Germans, moreover that other people has slaughtered nations before and after, even if not as thoroughly. It is not just Germany, and just Germans, and clearly not all Germans.
The author highlights the book success around the world and controversy. Germany on the 30s and 40s is a place that we can't even imagine today, the Holocaust is the most terrible thing that I can think of, but I didn't get anything new or too interesting from this book. The ideas in "Hitler's Willing Executioners" seem too be too exaggerated at best, and the value of the book mostly in waking discussion.
For this analysis, 2 stars.
In large, Goldhagen claimed that the German people willingly cooperated with Hitler, and that there was even joy when doing so. That Germany had a different type of racism, and that the Holocaust could not happen in any place other than Germany.
Overall, there is an agreement that this book has no proof, and that it might actually be racist against Germans, moreover that other people has slaughtered nations before and after, even if not as thoroughly. It is not just Germany, and just Germans, and clearly not all Germans.
The author highlights the book success around the world and controversy. Germany on the 30s and 40s is a place that we can't even imagine today, the Holocaust is the most terrible thing that I can think of, but I didn't get anything new or too interesting from this book. The ideas in "Hitler's Willing Executioners" seem too be too exaggerated at best, and the value of the book mostly in waking discussion.
For this analysis, 2 stars.
Displaying 1 of 1 review