Mourning the Last of the Deans of Israeli Holocaust Historians

Oct. 30 2024

In the U.S., much scholarship of the Shoah has its roots in the first English-language books on the subject, published in the 1960s. Israeli historical research, by contrast, flows from the works of a different set of scholars, much less known on this side of the Atlantic, with a different set of assumptions and priorities. The deans of this group were Yitzhak Arad, Israel Gutman, and Yehuda Bauer—the last of whom died on October 18. Andrew Silow-Carroll describes how Bauer, as a graduate student, came to the subject:

In a conversation with Abba Kovner, the poet who had led the resistance to Nazi rule in the Vilna ghetto, the young historian said he knew there was a larger story to tell but admitted that he was fearful of taking on a subject as monumental as the Holocaust. Kovner convinced him that there was no more important event in Jewish history and that his fear of the subject was “a very good starting point.”

Bauer was born in Prague in 1926, and with his family left Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, the same day the country was annexed by the Nazis. The family fled to Poland and Romania before settling in British Mandate Palestine later that year.

Bauer attended high school in Haifa and served in the pre-state Jewish paramilitary known as the Palmach. He studied at Cardiff University in Wales on a scholarship, returning home to Israel to fight in the 1948-49 War of Independence. (Welsh was one of the nine languages he was able to speak.)

In 1998, Bauer gave a speech to the German Bundestag in which he proposed three additional commandments to the Ten Commandments. “I come from a people that gave the Ten Commandments to the world,” he said. “Let us agree that we need three more, and they are these: thou shalt not be a perpetrator; thou shalt not be a victim; and thou shalt never, but never, be a bystander.”

Read more at Jewish Telegraphic Agency

More about: Holocaust, Israeli society, Jewish history

After Taking Steps toward Reconciliation, Turkey Has Again Turned on Israel

“The Israeli government, blinded by Zionist delusions, seizes not only the UN Security Council but all structures whose mission is to protect peace, human rights, freedom of the press, and democracy,” declared the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech on Wednesday. Such over-the-top anti-Israel rhetoric has become par for the course from the Turkish head of state since Hamas’s attack on Israel last year, after which relations between Jerusalem and Ankara have been in what Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak describes as “free fall.”

While Erdogan has always treated Israel with a measure of hostility, the past few years had seen steps to reconciliation. Yanarocak explains this sharp change of direction, which is about much more than the situation in Gaza:

The losses at the March 31, 2024 Turkish municipal elections were an unbearable blow for Erdoğan. . . . In retrospect it appears that Erdoğan’s previous willingness to continue trade relations with Israel pushed some of his once-loyal supporters toward other Islamist political parties, such as the New Welfare Party. To counter this trend, Erdoğan halted trade relations, aiming to neutralize one of the key political tools available to his Islamist rivals.

Unsurprisingly, this decision had a negative impact on Turkish [companies] engaged in trade with Israel. To maintain their long-standing trade relationships, these companies found alternative ways to conduct business through intermediary Mediterranean ports.

The government in Ankara also appears to be concerned about the changing balance of power in the region. The weakening of Iran and Hizballah could create an unfavorable situation for the Assad regime in Syria, [empowering Turkish separatists there]. While Ankara is not fond of the mullahs, its core concern remains Iran’s territorial integrity. From Turkey’s perspective, the disintegration of Iran could set a dangerous precedent for secessionists within its own borders.

Read more at Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security

More about: Iran, Israel diplomacy, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey