Moshe Zimmermann Book order

Among the many narratives about the atrocities committed against Jews in the Holocaust, the story about the Jews who lived in the eye of the storm--the German Jews--has received little attention. Germans against Germans: The Fate of the Jews, 1938-1945, tells this story--how Germans declared war against other Germans, that is, against German Jews. Author Moshe Zimmermann explores questions of what made such a war possible? How could such a radical process of exclusion take place in a highly civilized, modern society? What were the societal mechanisms that paved the way for legal discrimination, isolation, deportation, and eventual extermination of the individuals who were previously part and parcel of German society? Germans against Germans demonstrates how the combination of antisemitism, racism, bureaucracy, cynicism, and imposed collaboration culminated in "the final solution."

A member of the The Richard Koebner Minerva Center series, this unique volume, which is sure to engage the attention of both scholars and the general public, is an unparalleled cross-generational and international dialogue among eminent historians about three central aspects of the unfathomable enigma of the Holocaust. In the first section, beyond a seminal overview of sixty years of research, the writers reflect on historiography and historical thought ranging from contemporaries of the Third Reich to the ongoing discussion about the controversial role post-war West German historians played in Holocaust research. This is followed by a section focusing on social antisemitism until the 1950s and the German publics awareness of the Holocaust, including the posture of the German Resistance Movement. The third major theme is the Jewish society, from its initial attempts to develop new forms of societal life under the Nazi regime until the brink of annihilation during the mass deportation from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. The concluding chapter sheds light on the unresolved tension between reflective personal memory and impersonal historical research of this dark period in human history.

Mit dem Leopold-Lucas Preis wurde in diesem Jahr der Historiker Moshe Zimmermann für seinen Beitrag zur Erforschung von Geschichte und Kultur des deutschen Judentums und ihres Verständnisses im Horizont der allgemeinen Geschichte geehrt. In seinem Vortrag anläßlich der Preisverleihung fordert er die Historiker auf, die außerordentliche Erfolgsgeschichte des deutschen Judentums angemessen darzustellen. Sonst würde der tatsächlichen eine Shoa der Erinnerung folgen. Er sieht darin Prallelen zum Problem der friedlichen Koexistenz von Israelis und Palästinensern in ihrem je eigenen Staat.