Anton Weiss-Wendt - Böcker

Using the framework of genocide, this volume analyzes the patterns of persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated Europe. Detailed case studies of France, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia generate a critical mass of evidence that indicates criminal intent on the part of the Nazi regime to destroy the Roma as a distinct group. Other chapters examine the failure of the West German State to deliver justice, the Romani collective memory of the genocide, and the current political and historical debates. As this revealing volume shows, however inconsistent or geographically limited, over time, the mass murder acquired a systematic character and came to include ever larger segments of the Romani population regardless of the social status of individual members of the community.

The Historiography of Genocide is an indispensable guide to the development of the emerging discipline of genocide studies and the only available assessment of the historical literature pertaining to genocides.

In post-Soviet Russia, there is a persistent trend to repress, control, or even co-opt national history. By reshaping memory to suit a politically convenient narrative, Russia has fashioned a good future out of a "bad past." While Putin's regime has acquired nearly complete control over interpretations of the past, The Future of the Soviet Past reveals that Russia's inability to fully rewrite its Soviet history plays an essential part in its current political agenda. Diverse contributors consider the many ways in which public narrative shapes Russian culture—from cinema, television, and music to museums, legislature, and education—as well as how patriotism reflected in these forms of culture implies a casual acceptance of the valorization of Stalin and his role in World War II. The Future of the Soviet Past provides effective and nuanced examples of how Russia has reimagined its Soviet history as well as how that past still influences Russia's policymaking.

In post-Soviet Russia, there is a persistent trend to repress, control, or even co-opt national history. By reshaping memory to suit a politically convenient narrative, Russia has fashioned a good future out of a "bad past." While Putin's regime has acquired nearly complete control over interpretations of the past, The Future of the Soviet Past reveals that Russia's inability to fully rewrite its Soviet history plays an essential part in its current political agenda. Diverse contributors consider the many ways in which public narrative shapes Russian culture—from cinema, television, and music to museums, legislature, and education—as well as how patriotism reflected in these forms of culture implies a casual acceptance of the valorization of Stalin and his role in World War II. The Future of the Soviet Past provides effective and nuanced examples of how Russia has reimagined its Soviet history as well as how that past still influences Russia's policymaking.

After the staggering horrors of World War II and the Holocaust, the United Nations resolved to prevent and punish the crime of genocide throughout the world. The resulting UN Genocide Convention treaty, however, was drafted, contested, and weakened in the midst of Cold War tensions and ideological struggles between the Soviet Union and the West.Based on extensive archival research, Anton Weiss-Wendt reveals in detail how the political aims of the superpowers rendered the convention a weak instrument for addressing abuses against human rights. The Kremlin viewed the genocide treaty as a political document and feared repercussions. What the Soviets wanted most was to keep the subjugation of Eastern Europe and the vast system of forced labor camps out of the genocide discourse. The American Bar Association and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in turn, worried that the Convention contained vague formulations that could be used against the United States, especially in relation to the plight of African Americans. Sidelined in the heated discussions, Weiss-Wendt shows, were humanitarian concerns for preventing future genocides.

In Racial Science in Hitler's New Europe, 1938–1945, international scholars examine the theories of race that informed the legal, political, and social policies aimed against ethnic minorities in Nazi-dominated Europe. The essays explicate how racial science, preexisting racist sentiments, and pseudoscientific theories of race that were preeminent in interwar Europe ultimately facilitated Nazi racial designs for a "New Europe." The volume examines racial theories in a number of European nation-states in order to understand racial thinking at large, the origins of the Holocaust, and the history of ethnic discrimination in each of those countries. The essays, by uncovering neglected layers of complexity, diversity, and nuance, demonstrate how local discourse on race paralleled Nazi racial theory but had unique nationalist intellectual traditions of racial thought. Written by rising scholars who are new to English-language audiences, this work examines the scientific foundations that central, eastern, northern, and southern European countries laid for ethnic discrimination, the attempted annihilation of Jews, and the elimination of other so-called inferior peoples.

The Genocide Convention was drafted by the United Nations in the late 1940s, as a response to the horrors of the Second World War. But was the Genocide Convention truly effective at achieving its humanitarian aims, or did it merely exacerbate the divisive rhetoric of Cold War geopolitics? A Rhetorical Crime shows how genocide morphed from a legal concept into a political discourse used in propaganda battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Over the course of the Cold War era, nearly eighty countries were accused of genocide, and yet there were few real-time interventions to stop the atrocities committed by genocidal regimes like the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.  Renowned genocide scholar Anton Weiss-Wendt employs a unique comparative approach, analyzing the statements of Soviet and American politicians, historians, and legal scholars in order to deduce why their moral posturing far exceeded their humanitarian action.

The Genocide Convention was drafted by the United Nations in the late 1940s, as a response to the horrors of the Second World War. But was the Genocide Convention truly effective at achieving its humanitarian aims, or did it merely exacerbate the divisive rhetoric of Cold War geopolitics? A Rhetorical Crime shows how genocide morphed from a legal concept into a political discourse used in propaganda battles between the United States and the Soviet Union. Over the course of the Cold War era, nearly eighty countries were accused of genocide, and yet there were few real-time interventions to stop the atrocities committed by genocidal regimes like the Cambodian Khmer Rouge.  Renowned genocide scholar Anton Weiss-Wendt employs a unique comparative approach, analyzing the statements of Soviet and American politicians, historians, and legal scholars in order to deduce why their moral posturing far exceeded their humanitarian action.

In this detailed study of Estonians' role in the Holocaust, Anton Weiss-Wendt casts light on a largely unexplored subject. A country known for its benevolent treatment of ethnic minorities, Estonia had a small number of indigenous Jews, and anti-Semitism existed on a relatively limited scale. However, many ethnic Estonians, acting as auxiliary security forces under the guidance of the German security police, participated in the murder of thousands of Estonian, Czech, and German Jews. Weiss-Wendt investigates these acts of genocide by posing the simple question: what prompted the Estonians to cooperate with the Nazis? He argues that the actions were voluntary but that the reasons varied. Narrating the history of Estonia's involvement, Weiss-Wendt presents lucid explanations regarding the relationships between nation-building, mass violence, and the brutal effects of authoritarian oppression on occupied states. The first book-length exploration of this aspect of the Holocaust, ""Murder Without Hatred: Estonians and the Holocaust"" enriches our knowledge of ethnic violence and reinvigorates the current debates over the roots and operation of the Holocaust.

Using the framework of genocide, this volume analyzes the patterns of persecution of the Roma in Nazi-dominated Europe. Detailed case studies of France, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine, and Russia generate a critical mass of evidence that indicates criminal intent on the part of the Nazi regime to destroy the Roma as a distinct group. Other chapters examine the failure of the West German State to deliver justice, the Romani collective memory of the genocide, and the current political and historical debates. As this revealing volume shows, however inconsistent or geographically limited, over time, the mass murder acquired a systematic character and came to include ever larger segments of the Romani population regardless of the social status of individual members of the community.

This book provides a bold examination of the political use of history in contemporary Russia. Anton Weiss-Wendt argues that history is yet another discipline misappropriated by the Kremlin for the purpose of rallying the population. He explains how, since the pro-democracy protests in 2011–12, the Russian government has hamstrung independent research and aligned state institutions in the promotion of militant patriotism. The entire state machinery has been mobilized to construe a single, glorious historical narrative with the focus on Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History examines the intricate networks in Russia that engage in “historymaking.” Whether it is the Holocaust or Soviet mass terror, Tsars or Stalin, the regime promotes a syncretic interpretation of Russian history that supports the notion of a strong state and authoritarian rule. That interpretation finds its way into new monuments, exhibitions, and quasi-professional associations. In addition to administrative measures of control, the Russian state has been using the penal code to censor critical perspectives on history, typically advanced by individuals who also happen to call for a political change in Russia.This powerful book shows how history is increasingly becoming an element of political technology in Russia, with the systematic destruction of independent institutions setting the very future of History as an academic discipline in Russia in doubt.

This book provides a bold examination of the political use of history in contemporary Russia. Anton Weiss-Wendt argues that history is yet another discipline misappropriated by the Kremlin for the purpose of rallying the population. He explains how, since the pro-democracy protests in 2011–12, the Russian government has hamstrung independent research and aligned state institutions in the promotion of militant patriotism. The entire state machinery has been mobilized to construe a single, glorious historical narrative with the focus on Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.Putin’s Russia and the Falsification of History examines the intricate networks in Russia that engage in “historymaking.” Whether it is the Holocaust or Soviet mass terror, Tsars or Stalin, the regime promotes a syncretic interpretation of Russian history that supports the notion of a strong state and authoritarian rule. That interpretation finds its way into new monuments, exhibitions, and quasi-professional associations. In addition to administrative measures of control, the Russian state has been using the penal code to censor critical perspectives on history, typically advanced by individuals who also happen to call for a political change in Russia.This powerful book shows how history is increasingly becoming an element of political technology in Russia, with the systematic destruction of independent institutions setting the very future of History as an academic discipline in Russia in doubt.

The Historiography of Genocide is an indispensable guide to the development of the emerging discipline of genocide studies and the only available assessment of the historical literature pertaining to genocides.

This document collection highlights the legal challenges, historical preconceptions, and political undercurrents that had informed the UN Genocide Convention, its form, contents, interpretation, and application. Featuring 436 documents from thirteen repositories in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia, the collection is an essential resource for students and scholars working in the field of comparative genocide studies.The selected records span the Cold War period and reflect on specific issues relevant to the Genocide Convention, as established at the time by the parties concerned. The types of documents reproduced in the collection include interoffice correspondence, memorandums, whitepapers, guidelines for national delegations, commissioned reports, draft letters, telegrams, meeting minutes, official and unofficial inquiries, formal statements, and newspaper and journal articles. On a classification curve, the featured records range from unrestricted to top secret. Taken in the aggregate, the documents reproduced in this collection suggest primacy of politics over humanitarian and/or legal considerations in the UN Genocide Convention.

A People Destroyed features the most recent work on the Roma genocide in Europe during World War II. Despite the murder of a substantial part of the Romani population in various countries and occupied territories, it took historians more than half a century to collect enough evidence to establish the fact of genocide. Even today the public remains largely unaware of the extent of suffering that the Nazis and some of their allies inflicted on the Roma.A People Destroyed shows that the Nazis most consistently murdered Roma in the German-speaking countries and the occupied Soviet territories, while Fascist Croatia attempted its own “Final Solution of the Gypsy Question.” The history of persecution that Roma people endured in Europe laid the foundation for the Nazi policy of extermination.Anton Weiss-Wendt and the contributors to the volume, who come from nine different countries, build on existing Holocaust scholarship in their discussion of policy implementation, racial ideology, and the shared experiences of Jews and Roma. Meticulously analyzing diverse primary sources such as perpetrator documents and war crimes trial records, witness testimonies, population data, and contemporaneous newspaper reports and oral interviews, A People Destroyed provides a comprehensive overview of the destruction while focusing on the individual experiences of the victims.