Probing the Limits of Categorization: The Bystander in Holocaust History(27 War and Genocide)

Of the three categories that Raul Hilberg developed in his analysis of the Holocaust—perpetrators, victims, and bystanders—it is the last that is the broadest and most difficult to pinpoint. Described by Hilberg as those who were “once a part of this history,” bystanders present unique challenges for those seeking to understand the decisions, attitudes, and self-understanding of historical actors who were neither obviously the instigators nor the targets of Nazi crimes. Combining historiographical, conceptual, and empirical perspectives on the bystander, the case studies in this book provide powerful insights into the complex social processes that accompany state-sponsored genocidal violence.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Introduction: Probing the Limits of Categorization Christina Morina and Krijn Thijs PART I: APPROACHES Chapter 1. Bystanders: Catchall Concept, Alluring Alibi or Crucial Clue? Mary Fulbrook Chapter 2. Raul Hilberg and His “Discovery” of the Bystander René Schlott Chapter 3. Bystanders as Visual Subjects: Onlookers, Spectators, Observers, and Gawkers in Occupied Poland Roma Sendyka Chapter 4. “I Am Not, What I Am.”: A Typological Approach to Individual (In)Action in the Holocaust Timothy Williams Chapter 5. The Many Shades of Bystanding: On Social Dilemmas and Passive Participation Froukje Demant Chapter 6. The Dutch Bystander as Non-Jew and Implicated Subject Remco Ensel and Evelien Gans SECTION II: HISTORY Chapter 7. Photographing Bystanders Christoph Kreutzmüller Chapter 8. The Imperative to Act: Jews, Neighbors, and the Dynamics of Persecution in Nazi Germany, 1933–1945 Christina Morina Chapter 9. Martin Heidegger’s Nazi Conscience Adam Knowles Chapter 10. Natura Abhorret Vacuum: Polish “Bystanders” and the Implementation of the “Final Solution”           Jan Grabowski Chapter 11. Defiant Danes and Indifferent Dutch?: Popular Convictions and Deportation Rates in the Netherlands and Denmark, 1940–1945           Bart van der Boom Chapter 12. The Notion of Social Reactivity: The French Case, 1942–1944 Jacques Semelin SECTION III: MEMORY Chapter 13. Ordinary, Ignorant and Noninvolved?: The Figure of the Bystander in Dutch Research and Controversy Krijn Thijs Chapter 14. Hidden in Plain View: Remembering and Forgetting the Bystanders of the Holocaust on (West) German Television Wulf Kansteiner Chapter 15. Stand by Your Man: (Self-)Representations of SS Wives after 1945 Susanne C. Knittel Chapter 16. “Bystanders” in Exhibitions at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Susan Bachrach Epilogue I: A Brief Plea for the Historicization of the Bystander Norbert Frei Epilogue II: Saving the Bystander Ido de Haan Index

About the Author :
Christina Morina is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Bielefeld. From 2015 to 2019, she was DAAD Visiting Assistant Professor at the Duitsland Instituut Amsterdam. She has also worked as lecturer at the University of Jena and was a research fellow at the Jena Center 20th Century History. Her dissertation Legacies of Stalingrad: Remembering the Eastern Front War in Germany since 1945 appeared in 2011. Since then, she has published a number of books and articles on modern German and European political-intellectual history and memory culture, among them Die Erfindung des Marxismus. Wie eine Idee die Welt eroberte (2017, forthcoming in English in 2022), and Zur rechten Zeit. Wider die Rückkehr des Nationalismus (2019, with N. Frei, F. Maubach and M. Tändler).

Review :
“Although not all Central and Eastern European countries are discussed in this work…the volume offers great insight into the bystander position and how it can be interpreted in different societies, cultures, and historical situations… This pioneering excellent book should encourage new – hopefully, transnational comparative – studies and contribute to further develop Bystander Studies as new field of Holocaust and Genocide Studies.” • Journal of Contemporary History “Scholars interested in the conceptual and research methodological approaches to bystanders will find great sources of research inspiration in a number of chapters… This rich, multidimensional book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the limits and difficulties of categorising bystanders. It advances the field and, crucially, provides a roadmap for future research into this complex, unsettling figure, not just during the Holocaust, but also beyond.” • BMGN Low Countries Historical Review “This collection stands as an extraordinary and incisive contribution to understanding the processes of extreme violence. Probing the Limits of Categorization is an important book that promises to provoke fruitful discussion.” • Peter Fritzsche, University of Illinois and author of An Iron Wind: Europe under Hitler “With its disciplinarily diverse contributions, this book offers a captivating and discerning overview of the ‘bystander’ in recent Holocaust studies, rethinking questions that have intrigued historians of the Holocaust for decades. This volume is a thought-provoking and important contribution to the field.” • Caroline Mezger, Center for Holocaust Studies, Institute for Contemporary History