
Remembering the Holocaust

On 17 May 1946, the Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft (DEFA) was officially founded. Over the course of the following four decades, the studio produced nearly 700 feature films, as well as hundred of animation and documentary films. By the time it was finally privatised and sold following German reunification, DEFA was one of Europe’s largest film studios.
Continue reading “The 75th anniversary of the founding of the East German film studio DEFA”Raul Hilberg’s path-breaking 1961 study The Destruction of the European Jews rightfully remains on the reading list of any serious student of the Holocaust. Nonetheless, Hilberg’s insistence on European Jews‘ alleged “almost complete lack of resistance” has been subjected to frequent scholarly criticism. He partially based this claim on a cursory reading of petitions: “Everywhere, the Jews pitted words against rifles” and “everywhere they lost.”
Continue reading “Do Petitions matter? Rethinking Jewish Petitioning during the Holocaust”Browse our February and March 2020 releases in Anthropology, Archaeology/Heritage Studies, History, Memory Studies, and Mobility Studies and see what’s new in paperback.
TIMOTHY E. PYTELL
The recent United Nations General Assembly declaration that the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – January 27 – be designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day reflects the reality that the Holocaust has become a touchstone in global memory. Given the magnitude of the “unprecendented” destruction, this is not surprising. However, the conflation of the Holocaust with Auschwitz also distorts our understanding. For example, although Auschwitz is the culmination of the Holocaust, by the time the gas chambers came onto line at Auschwitz in April of 1943 three quarters of the Jews killed in the Holocaust were already dead. The vast majority of the Soviet and Polish Jews were killed east of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line and often by bullets. In Timothy Snyder’s words “Auschwitz is the coda to the death fugue.” (Snyder Bloodlands p. 383).
Continue reading “Viktor Frankl: 75 years after the liberation of Auschwitz”Dear Colleague,
We are delighted to inform you that we will be attending the American Historical Association’s annual meeting in New York, NY, on January 3rd–6th, 2020. Please stop by Booth #1007 to browse our latest selection of books at discounted prices and pick up free journal samples. Scroll down for a preview of the new releases on display.
Continue reading “See you at AHA!”We’re delighted to offer a selection of latest releases from our core subjects of Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Studies, and History along with our new in paperback titles and new Berghahn journal issues published in September.
Continue reading “SIMULATED SHELVES”