Book Review

Methods/Theory

Yehuda Bauer has been the leading representative of Israeli historiography on the Holocaust, whose publications and public activities have greatly influenced how Nazi genocide has been interpreted. In retirement, Bauer wanted to republish his important articles but decided that he must rethink what he had previously written. His "rethinking" implies more than is delivered. On the major themes, Bauer has not changed his opinions; he has "refined" and "updated" them.	1
Bauer presents his interpretation of the meaning of the Holocaust in eleven chapters, covering a variety of different themes. Several deal with intra-Jewish affairs, such as the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish theology, Jewish resistance, and the creation of the state of Israel. One chapter deals with rescue, the area where Bauer has made his primary research contribution. Chapter eight, "The Problem of Gender," deals with a new subject. Focusing on Gisi Fleischmann in Slovakia, Bauer shows how the events of the Holocaust altered the traditional position of Jewish women by elevating a few to leadership positions. But this restricted focus does not do justice to the topic. It does not show how gender often determined the fate of Jewish men and women; the traditional view that children belonged to their mothers inevitably condemned them, but not fathers, to the gas chambers. Bauer also does not explore the difference between men and women in the camps; those for women saw less violence and greater bonding than those for men.	2
Bauer's central argument, covering the first five chapters, deals with the way the Holocaust should be defined. Bauer has always insisted on the uniqueness of the Holocaust, and that it involved the murder of Jews and of no one else. He now presents a different analysis, rejecting "uniqueness" and replacing it with "unprecedentedness" (p. 20). This is certainly more accurate. Bauer's conclusions, however, do not differ from those formerly based on the uniqueness argument.	. . .