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ogra phy . Dawidowi cz presents a revoltin g picture o f systema ti c
omi ss ions, gross di storti ons, a nd pl a in lies, in line with wha t is
known a bout the o ffi cia l a ttitudes of bo th countries towa rds J ews ,
Zioni sm , a nd , as fa r as Sov iet Russ ia is conce rned , the emba rras s–
ment o f hi sto ri a ns conce rning some as pects o f the ge neral hi sto ry of
the wa r . In both countri es, hi story a nd political propaganda a re one
and the same : "No t without the help of the leade rs of Zioni sm ,"
writes some Sovi et sc ribbl e r , "did hundreds o f thousand s o f ordina ry
J ews mee t their dea th in the gas chambers." There is nothing to add
to tha t.
But , whe n Dawidow icz leaves the ra ther obv ious doma in of
communi st hi stori ogra ph y, she ge ts into dilti culti es . H ad she wa nted
to show tha t pos twa r Weste rn hi stori ogra phy is una ble to integrate
the ex termina ti on o f the J ews o f Europe into a cohere nt interpre–
tati on o f the epoc h , she would eas il y have proven he r case ; had she
wi shed to say tha t the Holocaust may be inaccess ible to hi sto rical
understa nding , leaving us dee pl y uneasy with mos t ex isting studi es,
ma ny of us would have agreed . But he r point seems to be that the
subj ec t as such is eithe r e ntirel y neglected or mi sha ndl ed , which is,
at bes t, a n ex treme ove rsta tement o f the case. Let us ta ke Germa n
hi storiogra phy as a n exampl e.
Accordin g to D awidowicz, the maj or Ge rma n hi sto ri cal studies
of Naz ism simpl y avo id the Holocaust or compl etely minimi ze it.
Indeed , as she shows, neithe r Friedri ch M einecke, nor Gerha rd
Ritter , nor H a ns R othfel s, a ll o f whom took on the problema tic heri–
tage of Germa n hi sto ri ogra ph y a fter the wa r , gave a ny signifi cant
pl ace to the des tru cti on o f the J ews in their interpreta ti on of the
"Germa n ca tas trophe," a ca tas trophe tha t some tried , as well as they
could , to isolate from the ma in trends o f Germa n hi story. One
redeemin g exception , fo r D awidowicz, is K a rl Dietrich Bracher's
German Dictatorship
(1969), but th a t is the onl y one . Nothing is men–
ti oned a fte r that , with the exce ption o f a concluding footnote : "Since
the publicati on of
Die deutsche Diktatur,
some Ge rma n hi sto ri a ns have
unde rta ken to write a bout J ews in Ge rma ny (e .g . R einha rd Rurup)
a nd about a nti -Semitism (e.g. Thomas Nipperdey). " Thi s is a ra ther
one-sided picture o f the sce ne.
D awidowi cz could have made a stronge r case fo r consta nt
German minimi zation of the extermina tion of the J ews by
menti oning va ri ous popula r biographi es of Hitler , the current
exe rtion s of neo-Ma rx ist hi stori a ns, the obfusca tions o f exponents of
a "structura l-functional" interpreta tion of Nazism , etc. But , on the
