Abstract
This article shows that German government offices and private diarists and correspondents kept widely scattered but extensive records of the unfolding of the 'Final Solution'. Anti-Jewish legislation ensured that the paper trails of persecution ran to the far corners of the German bureaucracy. Moreover, the perpetrators of anti-Jewish actions at the local and national level commemorated their deeds, in effect preparing initial drafts for a victorious history of the destruction of Jewish life. Private diaries and letters not only confirm the widespread knowledge that Germans came to share about the 'Final Solution', but also the process by which many of them came to endorse cruelty toward Jews.
Original language | English (US) |
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Title of host publication | The Oxford Handbook of Holocaust Studies |
Publisher | Oxford University Press |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9780191594724 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780199211869 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Nov 25 2010 |
Keywords
- Diarists
- Final solution
- Jews
- Persecution
- Records
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Arts and Humanities