Published : 2011-12-31

Historiography and the Holocaust – attitudes of Frank Ankersmit and Hayden White

Magdalena Kawa



Abstract

The extermination of European Jews is referred to as the event, das Ereignis Auschwitz or ‘the coming-about’. The science and research at some point faced the problem of inadequate tools for researching and presenting the Holocaust. It was not only historiography which encountered the problem of describing the ‘indescribable’ and explaining the ‘inexplicable’. Apart from that, these were also the witnesses of the events, who survived the Holocaust and, traumatized, remained silent for years. This might be the reason why the discourse of Shoa was initiated long after the Second World War was over. Furthermore in Poland, where the death camps were located, the research into the Holocaust and open debate could be conducted only after overthrowing the Communism. Historiography, understood as the method of establishing, interpreting and presenting facts, strives to grasp the Holocaust. Current achievements consist predominantly in the work of Western historiographers. Polish historiography of the Holocaust, on the Polish soil, is mainly based on American and Western European research centres and universities. The article revolves around four issues. It commences with an introduction of basic assumptions of historiography. Next, different approaches to the Holocaust in the historiographic discourse are presented in order to reflect how Western historiography refers to the issue of depicting the Holocaust. Two final points in question outline Frank Ankersmit’s and Hayden White’s attitudes to the historiography of the Holocaust.

Keywords:

historiography, the Holocaust, Shoa, German extermination camps, World War II


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Kawa, M. (2011). Historiography and the Holocaust – attitudes of Frank Ankersmit and Hayden White. Jewish Studies. Almanac, 1(1), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.56583/sz.574

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