History,Hitler, and the Holocaust

EBERHARD JACKEL. Hitler in History. Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1984. Pp. 115; GERALD FLEMINO. Hitler and the Final Solution. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1984. Pp. 219; MALCOLM c. MACPHERSON. The Blood of His Servants. New York: The New York Times Book Co., Inc., 1984. Pp. 310; ISABELLA LEITNER. Fragments of Isabella: A Memoir of Auschwitz. New York: Cowell Publishers, 1978. Pp. 112; JAMES BENTLEY. Martin Niemöller 1891–1984. New York: Free Press, 1984. Pp. 253; SAUL s. FRIEDMAN. The Oberammergau Passion Play: A Lance Against Civilization. Carbondale, Ill.: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984. Pp. 270; DAVID s. WYMAN. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust 1941–1945. New York: Pantheon Books, 1984. Pp. 445; WALTER N. BANNING. The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry. Torrance, Cal.: Institute for Historical Review, 1983. Pp. 239.     

The Environmental History of the Holocaust

ABSTRACT

The introduction conceptualizes environmental history of the Holocaust as a subdiscipline of Holocaust studies. The authors approach this emerging field of research through the context of environmental humanities with its current interest in the Anthropocene, soil science, forensics, multispecies collectives, and explorations of relations between ecocides and genocides. Proposed approach considers post-Holocaust spaces and landscapes as specific ecosystems and examines relations between its actors (human and non-human) in order to show the Holocaust’s spatial markers and long-terms effects. The article outlines existing literature on the subject, identifies the central research problems and questions, and discusses sources and methods. The authors demonstrate that the environmental history of the Holocaust applies a hybrid methodology that uses methods from various disciplines with the aim of creating new theories and interpretive categories and thus should be considered complementary to existing approaches in Holocaust studies. The authors follow the methodological principles of grounded theory in generating new concepts and seeking multidisciplinary methods for explaining nature’s role in the Holocaust and how Holocaust has changed nature. The authors claim that environmental history of the Holocaust broadens Holocaust studies as a field of research and opens up new questions concerning relations between nature and extermination in order to provide a more holistic perspective for exploring the relationship between culture and nature, genocide and ecocide. The approach proposed here shows Holocaust and post-Holocaust landscapes in terms of ecological/natural heritage, which might influence the way these spaces are commemorated, conserved and preserved, as well as used for tourist purposes.     

“食货派”的史学理论与方法

食货派的史学理论与方法具有自己的特色,具体表现如下:接近唯物史观,却不是唯物史观的社会史观;从探寻中国社会形态的演变到新经学的研究旨趣;重视史料但不忽视理论的治史主张;倡导分工合作的治史路径等。他们的史学思想对推动社会史论战之后学风的转变起了一定作用,在四十年代中后期也一度产生了积极影响。但抗战爆发以后,食货派未能从史学发展中去理解和把握学术研究的本质要求,没有对唯物史观认真总结,致使其史学思想黯然失色。     

Toward a Received History of the Holocaust

In this article, I examine both the problem of so-called postmodern history as it relates to the Holocaust and suggest the ways that Saul Friedlander's recent work successfully mediates between the somewhat overly polemicized positions of “relativist” and “positivist” history. In this context, I find that in his search for an adequately self-reflexive historical narrative for the Holocaust, Hayden White's proposed notion of “middle-voicedness” may recommend itself more as a process for eyewitness writers than as a style for historians after the fact. From here, I look at the ways Saul Friedlander's reflections on the historian's voice not only mediate between White's notions of the ironic mode and middle-voicedness, but also suggest the basis for an uncanny history in its own right: an anti-redemptory narrative that works through, yet never actually bridges, the gap between a survivor's “deep memory” and historical narrative. For finally, it may be the very idea of “deep memory” and its incompatibility to narrative that constitutes one of the central challenges to Holocaust historiography. What can be done with what Friedlander has termed “deep memory” of the survivor, that which remains essentially unrepresentable? Is it possible to write a history that includes some oblique reference to such deep memory, but which leaves it essentially intact, untouched and thereby deep? In this section, I suggest, after Patrick Hutton, that “What is at issue here is not how history can recover memory, but, rather, what memory will bequeath to history.” That is, what shall we do with the living memory of survivors? How will it enter (or not enter) the historical record? Or to paraphrase Hutton again, “How will the past be remembered as it passes from living memory to history?” Will it always be regarded as so overly laden with pathos as to make it unreliable as documentary evidence? Or is there a place for the understanding of the witness, as subjective and skewed as it may be, for our larger historical understanding of events? In partial answer to these questions, I attempt to extend Friedlander's insights toward a narrow kind of history-telling I call “received history”—a double-stranded narrative that tells a survivor-historian's story and my own relationship to it. Such a narrative would chart not just the life of the survivor-historian itself but also the measurable effect of the tellings—both his telling and mine—on my own life's story. Together, they would compose a received history of the Holocaust and its afterlife in the author's mind—my “vicarious past.”     

何炳松的相对主义史学思想辨证

何炳松指出历史学与自然科学在研究方法、研究目的和研究对象上均有很大不同,由此得出历史学是一门主观推理的学问,历史学不必像自然科学那样寻求历史发展的因果规律,历史认识会随时代的变化而变化,体现了历史相对主义的思想特征。另一方面,他指出,历史学与自然科学都旨在求真,历史学为了求得历史真相,必须在充分搜集史料的基础上,对史料进行科学的考订和分析,然后用科学的方法进行编撰,这又是一种实证史学的方法论。因此,简单将他定位为中国现代相对主义史学家是片面的。     

The Significance of the Christian-Jewish Dialogue and Holocaust Studies for Catholic Ethics

Abstract

When I survey the vast field of literature on social ethics, including that from progressive Christian scholars, I find little, if any, recognition that the positive development in the understanding of the Christian-Jewish relationship these past forty years have any relevance for shaping Christian perspectives on social ethics today. In this presentation I share some reflections on various areas of study within the context of the Christian-Jewish dialogue, especially the experience of the Holocaust, which in my judgment do make an important difference in the way we present Christian thinking on social ethical questions. The positive impact of the Hebrew Scriptures is one important area as is the enhanced understanding of law in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Judaism generally. Also of significance is the growing body of literature linking Jesus positively to the Jewish tradition of his time, including in terms of his moral teaching. The same holds true for new studies on Paul's positive relationship to Judaism. Finally the Holocaust provides us with important links to contemporary moral issues such as genocide and human rights.     

春秋战国时期史官职责与史学传统

在春秋战国时期,史官们承担着诸多方面的职责,他们所承担的职责,与巫、祝、卜职责有一定的联系,但也有根本性的区别,要注意其中的“异中之同”和“同中之异”。春秋战国时期是中国史学传统开创的重要时期,而许多史学传统的开创,与此时期史官所任职责及其为履行职责所做出的努力,有密切的关系。     

Himmler's Ethics of Duty: A Moral Approach to the Holocaust and to Germany's Impending Defeat

Heinrich Himmler is mostly seen as the all-powerful organizer who coordinated the police apparatus that reigned over occupied Europe and who supervised personally the concentration camp system. But Himmler was also a thinker or, at least, he perceived himself as such, and he was especially concerned with moral issues. This article examines the role of ethics in Himmler's thinking. More specifically, it considers what sort of ethics it was and how the Reichsführer SS could rely on moral notions to legitimize his endeavors and to make sense of extreme events in which he participated. From a normative viewpoint any claim to philosophical validity for this type of approach may be called into question, for the nihilism and denial of otherness were paramount in the instrumentalization of humans that led to genocide.     

Archaeology, History, and Material Culture: Grounding Abstractions and Other Imponderables

United States national programs for historic preservation have a great influence on public memory and commemoration. Decisions about what may be listed in the National Register of Historic Places or designated a National Historic Landmark may commemorate or silence parts of the past. Historians invoke the concept of integrity as a gatekeeper to control access to these lists. Archaeologists have the opportunity to contest some of the imposed silences and make these lists more inclusive of underrepresented groups.     

从经注与史注的变奏看裴松之《三国志注》的学术史地位

在中国学术发展史上,史学是作为经学附庸的地位出现的,这时史注附属于经注;伴随着史学从经学的附庸地位摆脱出来,成为一门独立学科,史注也逐渐打破此前经注研究范式,探索适合史学这门学科本身特点的研究范式;裴注正是对这些探索成果的吸收和总结,并继承了经注研究范式的优长之处;裴注对后世的史注形式产生了深远的影响,并在近代获得了新生,它的出现标志着史注研究范式的确立;这种新的研究范式,反过来又影响了其所脱胎的经注研究范式。仔细研究二者关系的变化,就会发现其与学术史上经史关系的变化有着某种规律性的联系。     

彝文古籍与彝族史学理论评述

彝族拥有悠久的历史与古老的彝文典籍。南北朝时期的彝族学者举奢哲与阿买妮 ,创建了彝族史学理论。在其后的 1 0 0 0多年时间里 ,又有一些彝族史官不断继承与创新 ,使其更加完善。在这个史学理论体系指导下 ,产生了大量彝文历史著述 ,丰富了中国古代史学的内容。