About book Nazi Germany And The Jews: The Years Of Persecution, 1933-1939 (1998)
In this first volume Friedlander concentrates on the policies of the Nazi regime toward the Jews during the years 1933-39, but also integrates the social context, both the attitudes of German society in general and the reactions to and perceptions of Nazi policies on the part of the Jewish population. He focuses on the measures enacted by the Nazis to increase legal discrimination against the Jews, and the ambivalence with which these measures were received by institutions or religion and higher learning, as well as by the general population; all of whom for the most part failed to protest strenuously. Friedlander is nuanced in his analysis, describing a "split consciousness" in which most Germans, although hostile to the Jews, disapproved of brutality toward them, yet favored some degree of purging of "un-German" aspects of their culture and society.Friedlander focuses on the cultural and physical, or biological, as the two essential aspects of "redemptive anti-Semitism," which he treats as the key to understanding Nazi attitudes and policies toward the Jews in the pre-war period. The author describes this as a "quasi-religious" ideas centered on the sacredness of German blood and soil. This worldview designated the Jews as sources of physical and cultural degeneration which must be cleansed from Germany before their pollution spread too far. Mixed marriages and the involvement of Jews in intellectual and cultural activities thus became paramount dangers. Hitler presented himself to the German people as a prophet and savior who would protect them from corruption, at first hiding the violence and extremity of his views from both German and foreign publics for predominantly practical reasons. Friedlander emphasizes the impossibility of predicting the speed and degree to which the situation would deteriorate. In this he attempts to counter the all-too-frequent criticisms leveled at Jewish communities for their lack of action, the questions of why the Jews did not "know" that they were going to be killed and take action by fleeing or resisting more vigorously. While very sympathetic to this effort, I find it unfortunate that Friedlander chose to downplay the welfare programs, support groups, and other organizations by which the Jews did attempt to deal with the situation as it existed, and instead takes an approach that re-emphasizes perceptions of Jewish passivity. Friedlander argues, however, that given the situation and taking into consideration factors such as the slowness of many Germans to become involved in anti-Jewish activities, the economic obstacles to emigration, and natural reluctance to assume the worst, it is reasonable of the Jews to have expected to have more time to consider their options and arrange a response.This position is typical of Friedlander's resistance to reductive explanations or modes of analysis. Another example of this quality is his attribution of causality to Hitler as an individual and to his ideology; yet, he does not do this with the intention of exculpating other Germans from responsibility for their roles in the fate of the Jews. Rather, Hitler and his ideology, like the atmosphere of anti-Marxism, nationalism, and other "major features of modernity" are portrayed by him as "essential conditions," but not sole causes, of the Holocaust. Friedlander's attitude may then be described as of the explanations, not excuses school of thought. This is particularly valuable in a field where the horrific nature of events understandably contributes to a tendency to devote much time and scholarly effort to assigning or refuting blame. Friedlander prefers to examine multiple aspects of the cultural, economic, political, and legal siutation in order to arrive at a highly sensitive elucidation of the context and content of Nazi persecution of the Jews and the Jews' own perceptions of the situation. This is an exceptionally rich and finely-tuned study.
Em qualquer obra escrita por Saul Friedländer, é fundamental lembrar que o nazismo é parte da vida do autor. Parte essencial, fundamental – basta ler sua comovente autobiografia “When memory comes”. A prosa de Freiedländer é essencialmente narrativa, ainda que a narração se organize sistematicamente:é bastante comum que ela divida tematicamente um assunto, examine um por um, e não siga adiante cronologicamente sem antes analisar horizontalmente o assunto. A questão teórica central deste primeiro volume de “Nazi Germany and the Jews” é colocado da seguinte forma: a perseguição aos judeus não é fruto do caos, tampouco de um planejamento cuidadoso. E, embora tenha dependido, nos momentos mais decisivos, da vontade de Hitler, foi guiada, em geral, pelo que o autor chama de “antissemitismo redentor”: “The crimes commited by the Nazi regime was neither a rare outcome of some haphazard, involuntary, imperceptible, and chaotic onrush of unrelated events nor a predetermined enactment of a demonic spirit; they were the result of converging factors, of the interaction between institutions and contigencies, between discernible causes and chance. General ideological objectives and tactical policy decisions enhanced one another and always remained open to more radical moves as circumstances changed” (p.5)Senti falta, apenas, de uma narrativa da imagem que os alemães faziam de si mesmos antes de 1933, e que superasse o habitual clichê da perda da primeira guerra mundial e da hiperinflação. Por que as faltas que os alemães enxergavam em si mesmos só poderiam ser, na visão deles, superadas pelo assassinato de milhões de seres humanos, muitos deles seus compatriotas?Senti falta também, mas não como algo negativo, da discussão explícita sobre o trauma. A narrativa de Friedländer poderia ser aplicada perfeitamente para qualquer outro tema, e a tese geral, acima citada, está logicamente sustentada de uma maneira que não vejo como considerar como uma reposta ao desafio do trauma. É apenas um meio-termo entre deterministas e intencionalistas. É muito interessante o início: Friedländer examina a reação das elites à chegada de Hitler ao poder, bem como seus primeiros gestos perante as primeiras medidas de perseguição. A Igreja chegou a esboçar algumas reações, mas mais por motivos teológicos específicos – sobretudo, o biologismo materialista da ideologia nazi – do que pelo antissemitismo. Já as universidades, vergonhosamente, partilharam sem dificuldades do credo.Friedländer também analisa o sentido do antissemitismo redentor, e porque tal ideologia foi eficaz: a visibilidade dos judeus, sobretudo na cultura, o nationalismo alemão, o círculo de Bayreuth, a representação dos judeus como Bolcheviques (distante da realidade, pois os judeus eram, em sua maioria, liberais, homens moderados de centro), e, claro, Hitler. O livro é fruto de uma pesquisa minuciosa, e não é possível resumi-lo aqui. É obra monumental, ainda que, por vezes, cansativa. Tive a impressão de que seria melhor se o autor retornasse constantemente à hipótese do antissemitismo redentor. Mas é um marco.
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The Years of Persecution is the first of a two-volume work on the Holocaust by Saul Friedlander. It covers the years 1933 (when Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany) to 1939 (when Germany invaded Poland, an event that generally marks the start of World War II, though I contend that World War II actually started in 1937, with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War, and to hold otherwise is ethnocentric...but I digress). The book starts with art and culture, and shows the Germans chipping away at Jewish rights. Banning a book here, a play there, a concert here, a movie there. It's very gradual, and that's what this book shows in clear, concise detail: the gradual yet inevitable path from petty insults, to the loss of some rights, to the loss of all rights, to utter annihilation. The book comes with a great pedigree, and I was a little worried I was in for a scholarly (see, "unreadable") book. But actually, this volume is quite short (about 330 pages) and quite quick. The brevity comes at a cost, however. There is little context for overall events, and almost nothing of the mechanics of history. You never get to meet the personalities that made this atrocity possible. Hitler, Goering, Himmler, Heydrich, and Goebbels never become anything more than names (albeit infamous names). You never know how certain events - such as Kristalnacht or the Reichstag fire - occurred; rather, you are told they happened and then learn of the cnosequences. It's a very just-the-facts approach, leavened with some insightful analysis, especially with regards to the role that "ordinary Germans" played (there is no overheated "willing executioners" section, ala Daniel David Goldhagen) and how Austria's treatment of Jews, especially at Mauthausen, provided a "final solution" blueprint. My favorite part of the book, though, was its judicious use of anectdotes and case studies. Whenever I started to think I was reading a political science text, the author would remind us of the human dimension, using the letters, diaries, and testimony of actual Holocaust survivors. The feeling I came away with is that there's something infinitely dark and impenetrable about the Holocaust. Despite the hundreds of books written about Hitler, which try to explain him through pop-psychology (was the Holocaust caused by his poor potty training? an oral fixation? latent homosexuality? his failed love affair with Geli Raubal?), Friedlander does not try to explain "how" or "why" the Nazis could have perpetrated such a crime. Rather, there is an acceptance of something akin to unknowable evil that I can't entirely disagree with.
—Matt
Read it in little over a fortnight, which is quick for a history book. And a tribute to its writer.It really helped in comprehending and clarifying the mechanisms behind the persecution of the jewish people of Europe. And how incomprehensible it still is. Reading this now, you're inclined to wish for a happy ending, for some divine intervention, as if it were a fiction, a farfetched figment of some extremist's imagination. But it all happened. Every single detail of it. In our grandparents' lifetime. And we should never stop remembering and never stop learning from the past. It's an essential read.
—Librariel
This is not the sort of book one reads for pleasure, and in many ways, although it's written well and is an "easy read," it is very much a textbook. I read it because I'm writing a book about a family that lived in Berlin during this period. A number of comments:1. It's often painful to read. At times I could not read no more than about 10 pages before putting the book down.2. What I discovered and what I had not known before was how brilliant a politician Hitler was. Evil yes, but a brilliant politician.3. The book suffers because at times it is somewhat of a grab-bag of information, i.e., facts about Nazi Germany and the Jews during this period. The book could have been shortened, and some of the facts placed as footnotes.4. As someone who is using information from this book, the fact that it wasn't always consistent chronologically became quite evident -- and annoying. Friedlander will jump ahead with events and then return to his original date. This occurs too often, so that a careful reader has to constantly check dates.5. But for anyone who wants to know the subject well, this is a MUST read. Painful, yes. MUST, yes. And rather unbelievable, even though we all know what happened next. How can a nation hate a people so intensely and believe so much drivel about the Jews?
—Michael
