Table Of ContentSources for Studying the Holocaust
Sources for Studying the Holocaust provides a pathway for readers to engage with
questions about what sources can be used to study the Holocaust.
For many historians, the challenge has been how to rescue the story from oblivion
when oft-used sources for other periods of history introduce even more issues around
authenticity and reliability. What can be learned of what transpired in villages and
towns numbering several thousand people, when all its Jewish inhabitants were totally
obliterated through Nazi action? Who can furnish eyewitness testimony, if all the
eyewitnesses were killed? How does one examine written records preserving knowledge
of facts or events, where none were kept or survived the onslaught? And what weight
do we put upon such resources which did manage to endure the destruction wrought
by the Holocaust? Each chapter looks at one of a diverse range of source materials
from which scholars have rescued the history, including survivor testimony, diaries,
letters, newspaper accounts, photographs, trial documents, artefacts, digital resources,
memorials, films, literature, and art. Each chapter shows how different types of
records can be utilised as accurate sources for the writing of Holocaust history.
Collectively, they highlight the ways in which all material, even the most fragmentary,
can be employed to recreate a reliable record of what happened during the Holocaust
and show how all sources considered can be employed to find meaning and
understanding by exploring a range of sources deeply.
This book is a unique analysis of the types of sources that can be used to access the
history of the Holocaust. It will be of invaluable interest to readers, students, and
researchers of the Holocaust.
Paul R. Bartrop is a Professor Emeritus of History at Florida Gulf Coast University,
Fort Myers, Florida, and a Principal Fellow in History at the University of
Melbourne. He is the author or editor of over 30 books, including the Routledge titles
The Routledge History of the Second World War (2022), The Holocaust: The Basics
(2019), Genocide: The Basics (2015), Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide
(2011), and The Genocide Studies Reader (2009).
Routledge Guides to Using Historical Sources
How does the historian approach primary sources? How do interpretations differ? How
can such sources be used to write history?
The Routledge Guides to Using Historical Sources series introduces students to different
sources and illustrates how historians use them. Titles in the series offer a broad spectrum of
primary sources and, using specific examples, examine the historical context of these sources
and the different approaches that can be used to interpret them.
History and Economic Life
A Student’s Guide to approaching Economic and Social History sources
Edited by Georg Christ and Philipp R. Roessner
Approaching Historical Sources in their Contexts
Space, Time and Performance
Edited by Sarah Barber and Corinna M. Peniston-Bird
Reading Primary Sources
The Interpretation of Texts from Nineteenth and Twentieth Century History, 2nd edition
Edited by Miriam Dobson and Benjamin Ziemann
Sources for the History of Emotions
A Guide
Edited by Katie Barclay, Sharon Crozier-De Rosa, and Peter N. Stearns
Games of History
Games and Gaming as Historical Sources
Apostolos Spanos
Doing Spatial History
Edited by Riccardo Bavaj, Konrad Lawson and Bernhard Struck
Sources in the History of Psychiatry, from 1800 to the Present
Edited by Chris Millard and Jennifer Wallis
Sources for Studying the Holocaust
A Guide
Edited by Paul R. Bartrop
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Guides-to-Using-Historical-Sources/book-series/RGHS
Sources for Studying the
Holocaust
A Guide
Edited by Paul R. Bartrop
Cover image: © DeymosHR
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Paul R. Bartrop; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Paul R. Bartrop to be identified as the author of the editorial material,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance
with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised
in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Bartrop, Paul R. (Paul Robert), 1955- editor.
Title: Sources for studying the Holocaust : a guide / edited by Paul R. Bartrop.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge guides to using historical sources | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022053961 (print) | LCCN 2022053962 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032164519 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032164502 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003248620 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)‐‐Historiography. | Holocaust,
Jewish (1939-1945)‐‐Study and teaching. | Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)‐‐Sources.
Classification: LCC D804.348 .S68 2023 (print) | LCC D804.348 (ebook) |
DDC 940.53/18072‐‐dc23/eng/20221115
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053961
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022053962
ISBN: 978-1-032-16451-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-16450-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24862-0 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003248620
Typeset in Times New Roman
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
List of Contributors viii
Introduction 1
PART I
The Personal Domain 7
1 Oral History: Hearing the Voice of the Survivors 9
JOANNA SALAPSKA-GELLERI AND PAUL R. BARTROP
2 Letters: An Intimate and Innocent Window into History 21
TYLER HALLATT
3 Written Remnants of Catastrophe: Holocaust Diaries as
Historical Sources 33
AMY SIMON
4 Analysing Memoirs: Gone but Not Forgotten 45
KAYLA M. STANTON
5 A Thousand Unspoken Words: Reading Photographs of the
Holocaust 58
JOSHUA FORTIN
PART II
The Public Domain 75
6 Considering Nazi Propaganda as a Source for Studying the
Holocaust 77
PAUL R. BARTROP
7 Using Trial Documents for Holocaust Study 90
MICHAEL DICKERMAN
vi Contents
8 Understanding Holocaust Memory Through Museums and
Memorials 103
ABIGAIL WINSLOW
9 Using Church Documents for Holocaust Study 117
MICHAEL DICKERMAN
10 Contemporary Newspapers as Sources for Approaching
Holocaust Study 130
EVE E. GRIMM
11 Using Yiddish Sources in Studying the Holocaust 142
FREDA HODGE
12 Researching the Holocaust in a Digital World 154
RACHEL TAIT-RIPPERDAN
13 Persistence of Memory Through Artefacts 166
MELISSA MINDS VANDEBURGT AND BAILEY RODGERS
PART III
The Popular Domain 179
14 Learning About the Holocaust Through Movies 181
PAUL R. BARTROP
15 How Holocaust Documentaries Defined Documentary Cinema 194
YVONNE KOZLOVSKY GOLAN
16 Humanising the Holocaust: Literature as a Source for Studying
the Holocaust 208
KINSEY BROWN
17 Art as a Source for Studying the Holocaust 222
LAURA MOROWITZ
PART IV
Epilogue 243
18 Thinking About and Using Documents From the Perpetrators 245
BETH GRIECH-POLELLE
Chronology of the Holocaust 257
PAUL R. BARTROP
Index 264
Illustrations
5.1 Executions of Jews by German army mobile killing units
(Einsatzgruppen) near Ivangorod Ukraine 59
5.2 Stroop report—Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 08 62
5.3 Nazi officers and female auxiliaries (Helferinnen) pose on a wooden
bridge in Solahütte. The man on the right carries an accordion 63
5.4 Polish Jews captured by Germans during the suppression of the
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (Poland) 67
17.1 David Olère, Selections for the Gas Chamber 224
17.2 Felix Nussbaum, Self Portrait in the Camp, 1940 229
17.3 Helga Weissova, Transport Leaving Terezin, 1943 231
17.4 Esther Lurie, portrait of Chaim Nachman Shapiro, Kovno.
Ghetto, 1942 232
17.5 Hirsch Sylis, landscape in the Lodz Ghetto after Aktion 1942 233
17.6 Karl Scheswig, 4 Mock stamps from Gurs camp, 1940 234
17.7 Manci Anis, portrait of Susan Weiss, 1944 236
17.8 Edith Birkin,The Death Cart in Lodz Ghetto 237
17.9 Zoran Music, We Are Not the Last, 1970 238
Contributors
Paul R. Bartrop, FRHistS, is a multi-award-winning scholar of the Holocaust and
genocide. He is a graduate of La Trobe University (BA Hons, MA) and Monash
University (PhD). Until December 2020 he was Professor of History and Director
of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Research at Florida Gulf Coast
University, Fort Myers, Florida, and is now Professor Emeritus of History there
and Principal Fellow in History at the University of Melbourne. He has also held
numerous other positions including as Visiting Professorial Fellow at the
University of New South Wales, Canberra, and Stockton University, New Jersey.
He is the author, co-author, and editor of 30 books, the most recent of which are:
The Holocaust and Australia: Refugees, Rejection, and Memory (2022); The
Holocaust: The Essential Reference Guide (2022); The Routledge History of the
Second World War (2022); Children of the Holocaust (2020); and The Holocaust: An
Encyclopedia and Document Collection (co-editor, which won the Society for
Military History Distinguished Book Award, 2017). He is currently editing The
Routledge History of the First World War, among many other projects. He is a
former Vice-President of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association and is a Past
President of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies.
Kinsey Brown holds an MA in English from Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU).
Her research focuses on modern European literature. Her research has examined
the Swedish Red Cross White Bus Rescue Action of 1945; in her role as an Archival
Assistant for FGCU, she travelled to Germany to perform in-depth research at the
Ravensbrück concentration camp site. She is now pursuing additional studies at the
University of Illinois’ iSchool in Library and Information Science.
Michael Dickerman is a member of the adjunct faculty at Stockton University, New
Jersey, teaching a range of undergraduate courses in Holocaust and Genocide
Studies. He also teaches graduate courses in Holocaust and Genocide Studies at
Gratz College, Pennsylvania. He is the co-editor of The Holocaust: An Encyclopedia
and Document Collection (4 volumes, ABC-CLIO, 2017), winner of the 2018
Distinguished Book Award by the Society of Military History, and the 2018
Judaica Reference Award by the Association of Jewish Libraries.
Joshua Fortin is an Adjunct Professor of History and Integrated Studies at Florida
Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida. Since 2015, he has taught courses that
explore systems theory as it relates to memory and public history in the fields of
public health and housing. His chapter “Western Europe under Occupation” has
Contributors ix
been published in The Routledge History of the Second World War. He has also
engaged in advanced research on genocide during the Middle Ages, as well as
human rights abuses during nineteenth-century colonialism in Africa and the
United States.
Beth Griech-Polelle holds the Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies at Pacific
Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She earned her bachelor’s degree at
Chestnut Hill College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and her MA and PhD at
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her books include Trajectories of
Memory: Intergenerational Representations of the Holocaust in History and the Arts
(co-editor, 2008); Bishop von Galen: German Catholicism and National Socialism
(2002); (ed.) The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and Its Policy Consequences Today
(2nd ed., 2020); and Antisemitism and the Holocaust: Language, Rhetoric, and the
Traditions of Hatred (second revised and expanded edition, 2023).
Eve E. Grimm is a former Senior Advisor to the Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Research at Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, Florida. Her published work
has appeared in the journal Without Prejudice, and she was a key contributor to The
Holocaust: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection (2017). She is the co-author
of three books: Perpetrating the Holocaust: Leaders, Enablers, and Collaborators,
Children of the Holocaust (both 2019), and The Holocaust: The Essential Reference
Guide (2022).
Tyler Hallatt is an independent scholar based in Florida. He received his BA and MA
from Florida Gulf Coast University. His primary area of study encompasses
Western American history during the nineteenth century. His research led him to
present at the Western Historical Association conference in 2020, as a result of
which his research will be published in the journal California History, through the
University of California.
Yvonne Kozlovsky-Golan is the Head and founder of the MA Interdisciplinary Program
for Culture and Film Studies at the University of Haifa. Her interdisciplinary
research addresses the encounter between history, legal history, and their
representation in film and media. Her research focuses on the audio–visual
representation of memories from the period of World War II and the Holocaust
and their impact on the construction of the historical consciousness of societies
throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her research follows the
expression of these memories in film and media and analyses artistic and historical
aspects of the cinematic corpus, according to the spirit of the time and place in which
they were created. She is the author of five books on film and history.
Laura Morowitz is a Professor of Art History at Wagner College, New York. She is a
recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for her book in
progress, Art, Exhibition and Erasure in Nazi Vienna, and a co-editor, with Megan
Brandow-Faller, of Erasures and Eradication: Modern Viennese Art, Architecture and
Design (2022). She was co-organiser, with Lori Weintrob, of the 2021 international
symposium Heroines of the Holocaust: New Frameworks of Resistance.
Bailey Rodgers, a graduate in Anthropology from Florida Gulf Coast University with
a focus on archaeology, cultural history, and social justice, is currently pursuing an
MS in Library and Information Science at Florida State University. She is the
