Historikerstreit

(Historians’ Conflict)

   In Germany a controversy, which has come to be known as the Historikerstreit (historians’ conflict), questioned whether the Nazi crimes were unique or comparable to other national atrocities, such as those perpetrated in the Soviet Union. This revisionist view holds that, as appalling as Auschwitz was, it was only one form of genocide among other massacres that occurred in the 20th century. Ernst Nolte, a leading historian of the revisionist school, suggests that Auschwitz resulted from the Nazi fear of the Soviets and accuses critics of Nazism of ignoring what other nations have done in similar situations “with the sole exception of the gassing procedures.”