Dan Michman
broad variety of countries, which in turn led to the establishment of a
series of historians’ inquiry committees” — all attracted new and more
focused interest in the anti-Jewish economic practices of the Third Reich
and its allies and collaborators. This research benefited, of course, from
the opening of many archives in the former communist countries in
Eastern Europe, and also from the internationalization of research on
the Shoah, which broke through linguistic boundaries which had hith-
erto a restraining impact.”
Analytical Conceptualizations of the Place
of Economic Persecution within the Overall
Framework of Nazi Anti-Jewish Policies
The “how” aspect, which — as said above — has been central to research
on issues of economic persecution is undoubtedly of essential impor-
tance, and provides the basis without which a broader analysis cannot be
done. It is also a reasonable result of the extensive documentation at
hand in a variety of archives, from the top to the local levels. Yet it leaves
the conceptual question of the place and role of Nazi economic persecu-
tions of the Jews within the broader anti-Jewish enterprise open: were
these persecutions unique or different in any way from the economic
persecution of other groups by Nazi Germany and from economic per-
secution of Jews by other European antisemitic regimes at the time (such
as Slovakia, Romania, Hungary)? Moreover, were there any fundamen-
tal changes and shifts in the place of economic persecution in the overall
picture of Nazi antisemitic policies during the twelve-year existence of
the Third Reich?
Regarding this question, Avraham Barkai’s studies were of special
importance. Barkai emphasized that Nazi economic thinking was eclectic,
but its major features were anti-liberalism and anti-communism. It had
absorbed a tradition of wilkisch-etatistic and anti-liberal and capitalist
32 See Barkan, The Guilt of Nations; Marrus, Some Measure of Justice; Diner/ Wyn-
berg (eds.), Restitution and Memory; Dean, Robbing the Jews; Beker (ed.), The
Plunder of Jewish Property During the Holocaust.
33 Michman, Holocaust Historiography, pp. 357-388.
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