REVIEW OF DANIEL GOLDHAGEN’S ‘A MORAL RECKONING: THE ROLE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE HOLOCAUST AND ITS UNFULLFILLED DUTY OF REPAIR’
This essay will review Daniel Goldhagen’s controversial moral inquiry, ‘A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair’, published in 2002. Goldhagen attended Harvard University as a graduate, undergraduate and assistant professor until he was denied tenure in 2003; this possibly indicates his limited status as an academic. Goldhagen notes that he is ‘indebted’ to his father, a Holocaust survivor, for some of his findings on the Holocaust. This personal connection to the Holocaust on the one hand allows Goldhagen to write more passionately. On the other hand, it obscures his ability to view evidence objectively, evident in this book under review. Goldhagen status rose to notoriety due to the controversial nature of his first book, ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ published in 1996. This received much criticism and perhaps more importantly to Goldhagen, plenty of publicity. The contentious assertions of the book, whether academically valid or not, established the relative novice amongst historians. This is evident in the abundance of secondary literature that comments on Goldhagen’s work including that edited by F. Littell and F. Kautz. Goldhagen’s credentials as a controversial author explain the extremist content of his second book, ‘A Moral Reckoning’. Goldhagen’s academic background in political science is evident in the books emphasis on the church as a ‘political institution’ and the pope as a ‘political leader’ (p. 184). . This limits his work as a historian as he fails to fully examine the role of the individual.
Goldhagen’s ...
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...es are manipulated for his argument. Goldhagen’s controversial and stimulating study encourages research to continue and in 2013 Jewish leaders pressured Pope Francis to open the Vatican archives from 1939-1947. The opening of these archives will instigate more investigations in this field and until these archives are opened the historical record will not be clarified. The importance of these archives illustrates the interesting nature of historical literature. The study of history focuses predominantly around primary materials, however these materials do not provide a definitive depiction of the past. Historians analyze primary sources to deduce an interpretation of the past. The discrepancies between historian’s interpretations form historiographical debate. It would be interesting to examine the extent to which historians are perhaps just academic storytellers.
Arguments of Christopher Browning versus Daniel John Goldhagen Regarding The German View of the Holocaust
Vanden Heuvel, William J. “The United States and Its Leaders Were Not to Blame for the Holocaust.” World War II. Don Nardo. Michigan: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Print.
It is my belief that the author presents a very controversial view of the causes and implementation of the Holocaust. The root of the controversy is his contention that the German people, as a society, are responsible for the attempted extermination of the Jews. According to Mr. Goldhagen, in the eyes of the Germans, the Jews as nothing more than a cancer that must be removed in order to cure the ills of their nation. In the book Mr. Goldhagen has gone to great extents to prove his views. However, “…his theories will probably remain a point of contention with historians for years to come.”4 The brutality and horror that is described throughout the book is, at times, overwhelming. To realize that one group of people can treat their fellow man with such heartlessness and savagery in what we call a civilized world is almost beyond comprehension.
The Holocaust was not perpetrated by a small band of Nazis but by “ordinary Germans” in the hundreds of thousands. The abrupt transformation of Germans from bakers, bankers and bureaucrats to mass murderers was due to a particularly virulent strain of anti-Semitism. Goldhagen’s indictment focuses on the citizenry’s complicity in three of Nazi Germany’s institutions of mass killing; the Ordnungspolizie (the Nazi Police Battalions), the work camps where Jews were incarcerated, and the death marches from the those camps led by prison guards and their charges near the end of the war. While Goldhagen efficiently states the thesis to his dissertation, his organizational style leaves much to be desired.
Through previously analysing examples of early Christian anti-Judaism, this chapter provides an insight into the connection between early Christian anti-Judaic attitudes and the Nazi understanding of the Jews. As Ruether contends that Christian anti-Semitism originates from the ‘left hand of Christology’, it will become apparent through analysing Nazi ideology and propaganda how early Christian anti-Judaism is repeated in the Nazi depiction of the Jews. Conversely, it is counter argued by Langmuir that Nazi anti-Semitism differed from early Christian anti-Judaism and therefore was not a continuation of anti-Judaism. He contends that despite the medieval church referring to the Jews as blind to the truth and the symbol of disbelief, medieval authorities did not condone the slaughter of the Jews. Therefore, it can be argued that there is not a direct connection between anti-Judaism and the racial anti-Semitism adopted by the Nazis. In response to Langmuir’s argument, the racial hatred for the Jews expressed by the Nazis, as with any hatred, has to have an origin and a trigger point which generates the feelings of contempt. For example, Christian contempt for Jews originates from the idea that the Jews were responsible for the death of Christ. Taking this into account, Langmuir’s argument is problematic and this chapter will reveal the repetition of early Christian anti-Judaism in Nazi propaganda. Although the Nazis interpreted the Jews from a racial discriminative standpoint, which was distinct to the early Church Fathers portrayal of the Jews, they used Christian anti-Judaic accusations and stereotypes of Jews to contribute to their portrayal of the Jewish race. This leads to the conclusion that the Nazis were influenced by the...
The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...
Rosenbaum, Alan S. Is The Holocaust Unique?. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 2008. 387. Print.
an And The Controversy Over The Bombing Of Auschwitz." Journal Of Ecumenical Studies 40.4 (2003): 370-380. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2014 Rice, Rondall. "
Religious people from many religions all over the world need a response to the Holocaust to understand what to believe, why it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. Some religious people need a response to the Holocaust to justify their belief in God after such destruction has taken place, even though God is supposed to be benevolent, all loving. Jews specifically need a response to the Holocaust a great amount of those who died in the Holocaust were Jewish and since then many theologians have tried to decipher the message of the Holocaust. Fackenheim has a unique response to the Holocaust and his theory of a new commandment, and his answers of how to prevail after such evil was committed are unusual and controversial. The 'Commandment' is explicit and detailed, and although Fackenheim's theories do not explain why the Holocaust happened, or how to prevent it, he explains how to live after the Holocaust. Sacks continued to believe in God after the Holocaust and does not think that the Holocaust was unique, and recognises the previous persecutions of the Jewish people. Although this constant destruction against the Jewish people is not positive, the idea that the Jewish people can always survive and recover from such events is encouraging and hopeful.
Shriver Jr., Donald W. "BYSTANDERS: CONSCIENCE AND COMPLICITY DURING THE HOLOCAUST ." . Christian Century, 02 08 2. Web. 6 Feb 2014.
Whether the Catholic Church was a bystander or rescuer during the Holocaust remains a controversial topic. The Holocaust was a time of desperation, leading to the massacre of 6 million Jews. This act of Horror was led by Germans Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler. Evidence suggests that the church, to an extent was a bystander, staying silent, not publicly condemning Hitler’s policies due to fear of retaliation (Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust.2017). However, the undisclosed actions taken by Pope Pius XII contributed to the liberating and rescuing of thousands of Jews. (Rescue-Holocaust Encyclopedia. 2017).
Levi, Neil, and Michael Rothberg. The Holocaust: Theoretical Readings. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2003. Print.
Dwork, Deborah, and R. J. Van Pelt. Holocaust: a History. New York: Norton, 2002. Print.
He argues that the Holocaust can only be a product of modernity if Germany itself exemplified it as well --it does not. In Bauman’s opinion, standard sociology has belittled the significant of the event by presenting in one of two ways: as an inconsequential even in Jewish history or as an extreme case of human predisposition (p 1). In reality, there is something more heinous hiding underneath.
James Rachels expresses his thoughts on what a satisfactory moral theory would be like. Rachels says a “satisfactory theory would be realistic about where human beings fit in the grand scheme of things” (Rachels, 173). Even though there is an existing theory on how humans came into this world there is not enough evidence to prove the theory to be correct. In addition to his belief of knowing how our existence came into play, he also has a view on the way we treat people and the consequences of our actions. My idea of a satisfactory moral theory would be treating people the way we wish to be treated, thinking of what results from our doings, as well as living according to the best plan.