The Holocaust in Eastern Europe

As we move ever further from the events of the Holocaust—as witnesses die, memories fade and investigative files close—it is becoming painfully obvious that all has not been uncovered, studied and said about this horrific chapter in human history. On the contrary: in an era now marked by a resurgence of nationalism, antisemitism and political extremism, critical studies of the Holocaust in some countries have become the explicit targets of censorship, revisionism and nationalist state politics. In his newest volume, The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution, Waitman Wade Beorn turns his attention to that European region which hosted the Shoah’s primary sites of mass killing, a region which in many ways remains one of the most controversial and understudied contexts of the Holocaust today. Published with Bloomsbury’s series ‘Perspectives on the Holocaust’, Beorn’s book provides a highly accessible overview of recent trends in Holocaust studies, particularly as related to Eastern Europe. As he explains in his introduction, the book’s aim is to ‘explore the epicenter of the Holocaust in the East – the locations of the majority of victims, of the killing centers, of the majority of collaborators, and of the majority of rescuers,’ through ‘the voices and documents of those who survived (and died), those who killed, those who watched, and those who helped’ (p. 3). Beorn thus taps into ongoing attempts at telling the history of the Holocaust in an integrated fashion, combining the perspectives of both victims and perpetrators, and juxtaposing macro-level historic changes with local contexts and individual experiences. His background as a historian, educator and consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum here serves him well: besides presenting both well- and lesser-known testimonials, documents and case studies, Beorn ties these into an effective narrative that introduces students and non-experts to some of the key themes of current Holocaust research.

Antisemitism · Censorship · Judaism · Media studies · Nationalism · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Holocaust · European history and politics · German History and Society · History · Law · Polish-Jewish Holocaust Memory Studies