Saul Friedländer
Encyclopedia
Saul Friedländer (born Prague
, October 11, 1932) is an award-winning Israel
i historian and currently a professor of history at UCLA.
to a family of German-speaking Jews. He grew up in France and experienced the German Occupation of 1940–1944. From 1942 until 1944, Friedländer was hidden in a Catholic boarding school in Montlucon, near Vichy, posing as a Gentile. While in hiding, he converted to Roman Catholicism and later began preparing for the Catholic priesthood. His parents attempted to flee to Switzerland
, were arrested instead by Vichy French
gendarmes, turned over to the Germans and were gassed at the Auschwitz death camp. Not until 1946 did Friedländer learn the fate of his parents.
After 1946, Friedländer grew more consciously aware of his Jewish identity and became a Zionist. In 1948, Friedländer emigrated to Israel on the Irgun
ship Altalena. After finishing high school, he served in the Israeli army. From 1953-55, he studied Political Science in Paris. Later, Friedländer served as secretary to Nachum Goldman then President of the World Zionist Organization
and the World Jewish Congress
. In 1959, he became an assistant to Shimon Peres
, then vice-minister of defense. Late in the 1980s, Friedländer moved to the Left and was active in the Peace Now group.
In 1963, he received his PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies
in Geneva
, where he taught until 1988. Friedländer taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and at Tel Aviv University
. In the 1960s, he wrote biographies of Kurt Gerstein
and Pope Pius XII
. Since 1988 he has been Professor of History at the University of California
, Los Angeles.
as the negation of all life, and as a type of death cult. He has argued that the Holocaust
is such a horrific event that its horror is almost impossible to put into normal language. Friedländer sees the anti-semitism
of the Nazi Party as unique in history, since he maintains that Nazi anti-semitism was distinctive for being “redemptive anti-semitism”, namely a form of anti-semitism that could explain all in the world and offer a form of “redemption” for the anti-Semitic.
Friedländer is an Intentionalist
on the origins of the Holocaust question. However, Friedländer rejects the extreme Intentionalist view that Adolf Hitler
had a master plan going back to the time when he wrote Mein Kampf
for the genocide
of the Jewish people. Friedländer, through his research on the Third Reich, has reached the conclusion that there was no intention to exterminate the Jews of Europe before 1941. Friedländer's position might best be deemed moderate Intentionalist.
In the 1980s, Friedländer engaged in a spirited debate with the West German historian Martin Broszat
over his call for the "historicization" of Nazi Germany
. In Friedländer’s view, Nazi Germany was not and cannot be seen as a normal period of history. Friedländer argued that there were three dilemmas, and three problems involved in the "historicization" of the Third Reich. The first dilemma was that of historical periodization, and how long-term social changes could be related to an understanding of the Nazi period. Friedländer argued that focusing on long-term social changes such as the growth of the welfare state from the Imperial to Weimar to the Nazi eras to the present as Broszat suggested changed the focus on historical research from the particular of the Nazi era to the general long duration of 20th century German history. Friedländer felt that "relative relevance" of the growth of the welfare state under the Third Reich, and its relationship to post-war developments would cause historians to lose their attention to the genocidal politics of the Nazi state. The second dilemma Friedländer felt that by treating the Nazi period as a "normal" period of history, and by examining the aspects of "normality" might run the danger of causing historians to lose interest in the "criminality" of the Nazi era. This was especially problematic for Friedländer because he contended that aspects of "normality" and "criminality" very much overlapped in the everyday life of Nazi Germany. The third dilemma involved what Friedländer considered the vague definition of "historicization" entailed, and it might allow historians to advance apologetic arguments about National Socialism such as those Friedländer accused Ernst Nolte
and Andreas Hillgruber
of making. However, Friedländer conceded that Broszat was not an apologist for Nazi Germany like Nolte and Hillgruber. Friedländer noted that though the concept of "historicization" was highly awkward, partly because it opened the door to the type of arguments that Nolte and Hillgruber advanced during the Historikerstreit, Broszat's motives in calling for the "historicization" were honourable.
The first problem for Friedländer was that the Nazi era was too recent and fresh in the popular memory for historians to deal with it as a "normal" period as for example 16th century France. The second problem was the "differential relevance" of "historicization". Friedländer argued that the study of the Nazi period was "global", that is it belongs to everyone, and that focusing on everyday life was a particular interest for German historians. Friedländer asserted that for non-Germans, the history of Nazi ideology in practice, especially in regards to war and genocide were vastly more important then Alltagsgeschichte. The third problem for Friedländer was that the Nazi period was so unique that it could not easily be fitted into the long-range view of German history as advocated by Broszat. Friedländer maintained that the essence of National Socialism was that it "tried to determine who should and should not inhabit the world", and the genocidal politics of the Nazi regime resisted any attempt to integrate it as part of the "normal" development of the modern world. The debates between Broszat and Friedländer were conducted through a series of letters between 1987 until Broszat's death in 1989. In 1990, the Broszat-Friedländer correspondences were translated into English, and published in the book Reworking the Past: Hitler, The Holocaust, and the Historians' Debate edited by Peter Baldwin
.
Friedländer’s 1997 book, Nazi Germany and the Jews was written as a reply to Broszat’s work. The second volume, "Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 : The Years of Extermination" appeared in 2007. Friedländer’s book is Alltagsgeschichte
(history of everyday life), not of “Aryan” Germans nor of the Jewish community, but rather an Alltagsgeschichte of the persecution of the Jewish community.
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, October 11, 1932) is an award-winning Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i historian and currently a professor of history at UCLA.
Biography
Saul Friedländer was born in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
to a family of German-speaking Jews. He grew up in France and experienced the German Occupation of 1940–1944. From 1942 until 1944, Friedländer was hidden in a Catholic boarding school in Montlucon, near Vichy, posing as a Gentile. While in hiding, he converted to Roman Catholicism and later began preparing for the Catholic priesthood. His parents attempted to flee to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, were arrested instead by Vichy French
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
gendarmes, turned over to the Germans and were gassed at the Auschwitz death camp. Not until 1946 did Friedländer learn the fate of his parents.
After 1946, Friedländer grew more consciously aware of his Jewish identity and became a Zionist. In 1948, Friedländer emigrated to Israel on the Irgun
Irgun
The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...
ship Altalena. After finishing high school, he served in the Israeli army. From 1953-55, he studied Political Science in Paris. Later, Friedländer served as secretary to Nachum Goldman then President of the World Zionist Organization
World Zionist Organization
The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland...
and the World Jewish Congress
World Jewish Congress
The World Jewish Congress was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations...
. In 1959, he became an assistant to Shimon Peres
Shimon Peres
GCMG is the ninth President of the State of Israel. Peres served twice as the eighth Prime Minister of Israel and once as Interim Prime Minister, and has been a member of 12 cabinets in a political career spanning over 66 years...
, then vice-minister of defense. Late in the 1980s, Friedländer moved to the Left and was active in the Peace Now group.
In 1963, he received his PhD from the Graduate Institute of International Studies
Graduate Institute of International Studies
The Graduate Institute of International Studies, best known as HEI , was founded in 1927 as one of the first institutions in the world dedicated to the study of international relations...
in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, where he taught until 1988. Friedländer taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
and at Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
. In the 1960s, he wrote biographies of Kurt Gerstein
Kurt Gerstein
Kurt Gerstein was a German SS officer and member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS. He witnessed mass murders in the Nazi extermination camps Belzec and Treblinka...
and Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
. Since 1988 he has been Professor of History at the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, Los Angeles.
Views
Friedländer sees NazismNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
as the negation of all life, and as a type of death cult. He has argued that the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
is such a horrific event that its horror is almost impossible to put into normal language. Friedländer sees the anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
of the Nazi Party as unique in history, since he maintains that Nazi anti-semitism was distinctive for being “redemptive anti-semitism”, namely a form of anti-semitism that could explain all in the world and offer a form of “redemption” for the anti-Semitic.
Friedländer is an Intentionalist
Functionalism versus intentionalism
Functionalism versus intentionalism is a historiographical debate about the origins of the Holocaust as well as most aspects of the Third Reich, such as foreign policy...
on the origins of the Holocaust question. However, Friedländer rejects the extreme Intentionalist view that Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
had a master plan going back to the time when he wrote Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
for the genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
of the Jewish people. Friedländer, through his research on the Third Reich, has reached the conclusion that there was no intention to exterminate the Jews of Europe before 1941. Friedländer's position might best be deemed moderate Intentionalist.
In the 1980s, Friedländer engaged in a spirited debate with the West German historian Martin Broszat
Martin Broszat
Martin Broszat was a German historian specializing in modern German social history whose work has been described by The Encyclopedia of Historians as indispensable for any serious study of the Third Reich. Broszat was born in Leipzig, Germany and studied history at the University of Leipzig and...
over his call for the "historicization" of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. In Friedländer’s view, Nazi Germany was not and cannot be seen as a normal period of history. Friedländer argued that there were three dilemmas, and three problems involved in the "historicization" of the Third Reich. The first dilemma was that of historical periodization, and how long-term social changes could be related to an understanding of the Nazi period. Friedländer argued that focusing on long-term social changes such as the growth of the welfare state from the Imperial to Weimar to the Nazi eras to the present as Broszat suggested changed the focus on historical research from the particular of the Nazi era to the general long duration of 20th century German history. Friedländer felt that "relative relevance" of the growth of the welfare state under the Third Reich, and its relationship to post-war developments would cause historians to lose their attention to the genocidal politics of the Nazi state. The second dilemma Friedländer felt that by treating the Nazi period as a "normal" period of history, and by examining the aspects of "normality" might run the danger of causing historians to lose interest in the "criminality" of the Nazi era. This was especially problematic for Friedländer because he contended that aspects of "normality" and "criminality" very much overlapped in the everyday life of Nazi Germany. The third dilemma involved what Friedländer considered the vague definition of "historicization" entailed, and it might allow historians to advance apologetic arguments about National Socialism such as those Friedländer accused Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte
Ernst Nolte is a German historian and philosopher. Nolte’s major interest is the comparative studies of Fascism and Communism. He is Professor Emeritus of Modern History at the Free University of Berlin, where he taught from 1973 to 1991. He was previously a Professor at the University of Marburg...
and Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Hillgruber
Andreas Fritz Hillgruber was a conservative German historian. Hillgruber was influential as a military and diplomatic historian.At his death in 1989, the American historian Francis L...
of making. However, Friedländer conceded that Broszat was not an apologist for Nazi Germany like Nolte and Hillgruber. Friedländer noted that though the concept of "historicization" was highly awkward, partly because it opened the door to the type of arguments that Nolte and Hillgruber advanced during the Historikerstreit, Broszat's motives in calling for the "historicization" were honourable.
The first problem for Friedländer was that the Nazi era was too recent and fresh in the popular memory for historians to deal with it as a "normal" period as for example 16th century France. The second problem was the "differential relevance" of "historicization". Friedländer argued that the study of the Nazi period was "global", that is it belongs to everyone, and that focusing on everyday life was a particular interest for German historians. Friedländer asserted that for non-Germans, the history of Nazi ideology in practice, especially in regards to war and genocide were vastly more important then Alltagsgeschichte. The third problem for Friedländer was that the Nazi period was so unique that it could not easily be fitted into the long-range view of German history as advocated by Broszat. Friedländer maintained that the essence of National Socialism was that it "tried to determine who should and should not inhabit the world", and the genocidal politics of the Nazi regime resisted any attempt to integrate it as part of the "normal" development of the modern world. The debates between Broszat and Friedländer were conducted through a series of letters between 1987 until Broszat's death in 1989. In 1990, the Broszat-Friedländer correspondences were translated into English, and published in the book Reworking the Past: Hitler, The Holocaust, and the Historians' Debate edited by Peter Baldwin
Peter Baldwin (professor)
Peter Baldwin is a professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was educated at Yale and Harvard and has written several books on Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries: The Politics of Social Solidarity: Class Bases of the European Welfare State, 1875-1975; Contagion and...
.
Friedländer’s 1997 book, Nazi Germany and the Jews was written as a reply to Broszat’s work. The second volume, "Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 : The Years of Extermination" appeared in 2007. Friedländer’s book is Alltagsgeschichte
Alltagsgeschichte
Alltagsgeschichte is a form of microhistory that was particularly prevalent amongst German historians during the 1980s. It was founded by historians Alf Luedtke and Hans Medick....
(history of everyday life), not of “Aryan” Germans nor of the Jewish community, but rather an Alltagsgeschichte of the persecution of the Jewish community.
Awards
- In 1983, Friedländer was awarded the Israel PrizeIsrael PrizeThe Israel Prize is an award handed out by the State of Israel and is largely regarded as the state's highest honor. It is presented annually, on Israeli Independence Day, in a state ceremony in Jerusalem, in the presence of the President, the Prime Minister, the Knesset chairperson, and the...
, for history. - Friedländer was awarded the Geschwister-Scholl-PreisGeschwister-Scholl-PreisThe Geschwister-Scholl-Preis is a literary prize which was initiated in 1980 by the State Association of Bavaria in the Stock Market Society of the German Book Trade and the city of Munich...
in 1998 for his work, Das Dritte Reich und die Juden. - MacArthur FellowshipMacArthur Fellows ProgramThe MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
(1999) - In 2007 he was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book TradePeace Prize of the German Book TradeThe Peace Prize of the German Book Trade is an international peace prize given yearly at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main, Germany...
. - For his book The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, Friedländer was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-FictionPulitzer Prize for General Non-FictionThe Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction has been awarded since 1962 for a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in another category.-1960s:...
, as well as the 2007 Leipzig Book Fair PrizeLeipzig Book Fair PrizeThe Leipzig Book Fair Prize is awarded annually during the Leipzig Book Fair to outstanding newly released literary works in the categories "Fiction", "Non-fiction" and "Translation"...
for Non-fiction.
Published works
- Pius XII and the Third Reich : A Documentation, New York : Knopf, 1966 trans. Charles Fullman, from the original Pie XII et le IIIe Reich, Documents, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1964.
- Prelude to downfall: Hitler and the United States 1939-1941, London, Chatto & Windus, 1967.
- Kurt Gerstein, the ambiguity of good, New York : Knopf, 1969.
- L'Antisémitisme nazi : histoire d'une psychose collective, Paris : Editions du Seuil, 1971.
- co-written with Mahmoud Hussein Arabs & Israelis : a Dialogue Moderated by Jean Lacouture, New York : Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1975.
- Some aspects of the historical significance of the Holocaust, Jerusalem : Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1977.
- History and Psychoanalysis : an Inquiry Into the Possibilities and Limits of Psychohistory, New York : Holmes & Meier, 1978.
- When Memory Comes, New York : Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1979. (Noonday Press, Reissue edition 1991, ISBN 0374522723).
- Reflections of Nazism : an essay on Kitsch and death, New York : Harper & Row, 1984.
- Visions of apocalypse : end or rebirth?, New York : Holmes & Meier, 1985.
- Probing the limits of representation : Nazism and the "final solution", Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1992.
- Memory, history, and the extermination of the Jews of Europe, Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1993
- Nazi Germany and the Jews: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939, New York : HarperCollins, 1997.
- The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945, HarperCollins, 2007. Second Volume to the above.
External links
- Friedlander's List
- Saul Friedländer’s Home Page
- Review of Memory, History, and the Extermination of the Jews of Europe
- On Saul Friedländer
- Interview in Spiegel
See also
- List of Israel Prize recipients