Review article on
Raul Hilberg, Sources of Holocaust Research. An Analysis
(Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001)
Raul Hilberg’s new book is an excellent
guide to the thought processes of one of the most important
historians of the Nazi era. It is primarily a highly personal work
of classification. When writing about documents and officialese,
Hilberg is brilliant. At the same time, the book is of uneven value
as a guide to locating, evaluating, and employing various sources.
Hilberg is little interested in three-dimensional sources such as
locations and artifacts, and is interested in photographs only for
their evidentiary value. He also shows scant interest in sources
that give varied expression to the Jewish experience. Still, by the
end of the book, the reader gains an insight into how a great
historian thinks and how history writing is achieved.
