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Daniel GoldhagenDaniel Jonah Goldhagen (born 1959) is an American political scientist most famous for his book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, which hypothesizes that all ordinary Germans were actively in favour of the Holocaust because of the supposedly unique and virulent "eliminationist" anti-semitism that was a part of the common consciousness in Germany throughout history. He claims that this special mentality cannot be fully understood by non-Germans and that it was unique to Germany; eliminationist anti-semitism grew out of medieval attitudes that were religiously based. Later they became more secularly based, but the anti-semitism remained the same. The book was published in 1996 and caused a great deal of media interest. The debate about his theory has been intense; most historians reject Goldhagen's thesis. The most common complaints are that the theory is simplistic, unprovable, and his arguments are based on a very limited number of sources. Some critics believe that Goldhagen made factual errors, such as in his claims about the attitude of the church toward the Nazi party. Others doubt his command of the secondary literature, as some claims he makes seem to be intended to revolutionize the field, but have already been made. Still another alleged problem is his lack of comparison to other countries: Germany is treated as an isolated case, but many of the same phenomena were observed in France, Hungary, and other countries. The fact that Jews were highly successful and that the country had some of the most liberal Jewish laws in Europe in the late 19th century is also raised as a counterpoint to his theory. Another arguement against Goldhagen is that in the pre-history of Holocaust, Goldhagen stops at 1914, implying Germany was ready to have an Holocaust by that date. Given the that Holocaust did not begin until around 1941, this is an large period of time that is ignored. Furthermore, by this reasoning, Hitler was not very important as the author of the Holocaust. Moreover, Goldhagen repeatly claims that the average German was full of murderous anti-semitism, and this merely an reflection of the bascially "eliminationist" anti-semitic nature of German culture. If this were true, then it would imply that those who participated in the Holocaust really did not have an choice in the matter. The men who became the killers profiled in Goldhagen's book only killed because they were brought in "eliminationist" anti-semitic culture. Had they grown up in some other culture, they would not have became killers. Goldhagen himself seems to realized that his theroy offers an potential excuse for Holocaust crimes and repeatly moralizes about how the men whose crimes he records were making evil choices. If people killed because they culture makes them killers, then they have no choice. If kill because of an personal decision, then perhaps they're culture might an influence on that decision, but ulimatley it is an matter of choice for the individual concerned. Goldhagen appears to want it both ways. Among the public at large, however, his book has been fairly well received, both in the United States and Germany, and it remained a best seller for many months. Goldhagen was awarded the prestigious Democracy Prize in Germany, on the basis that the positive popular reaction to his work showed how far the Germans had advanced from their Nazi past. External link Goldhagen, Daniel
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