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Michael Berenbaum,
“Distinctions that Inform, Deliberations that Intensify
Understanding,” review article on Dan Michman, Holocaust
Historiography: A Jewish Perspective.
Dan
Michman’s book presents a Jewish perspective on the Holocaust. It is
strongest where he is most expert in the original sources,
especially regarding Holland, religious responses during the
Holocaust, the aftermath of the Holocaust, and its relationship to
the establishment of the Jewish state. The book examines the
evidence intensely, deliberately, and meticulously and is grounded
in evidence and balanced in tone and in outlook. Michman’s work is
anchored in the experience of the Jews and is an important
corrective to the tendency of German historiography to disregard the
victim. Still, the perpetrator--though not the crime--is virtually
absent from this book. A purely Jewish perspective is a necessary
counterweight, but insufficient for understanding the Holocaust.
Some of the essays in this collection published over the past
quarter century in respected journals stand the test of time; others
have been overtaken by scholarly publications and new documentation.
Yet this work has a solidity that is anchored in genuine learning,
reflecting the struggles of a serious historian committed to the
requirements of scholarship and the need to be adequate to the task
of understanding the Holocaust. |
