Raul Hilberg, pioneer scholar of Holocaust, dies

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) — Raul Hilberg, who spent more than half a century researching the Holocaust, has died at 81 of lung cancer, the University of Vermont said on Tuesday.

The Vienna-born Hilberg, a Jew himself, was best known for his massive study “The Destruction of the European Jews” which chronicled how Nazi Germany constructed and operated history’s most lethal killing machine that murdered 6 million Jews.

[…]

Hilberg was often able to work dispassionately on the grim theme but said he was sometimes overcome by the subject.

“In my dreams, I was a victim,” he said in the interview. “I was on my way to Auschwitz. I was on the train and I was confronting SS guys and I was going to kill them.”

[…]

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Source:

Adam Tanner
Tue 7 Aug 2007
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