Unwilling Germans: The Goldhagen Debate

Few if any works of the past fifty years have moved a broad section of the German public to think about their country's Nazi past as has Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners. The main argument of his book is that Germans committed the unthinkable acts of the Holocaust not because they were forced to but out of a deeply held conviction that killing Jews was morally just. Unwilling Germans? traces the intense and varied reception of a book that has created more heated debate than any other treatment of Germany's genocidal past.

Unwilling Germans? reprints articles that originally appeared in German newspapers, the popular press, and journals, as well as offering original essays. The book traces the initial reactions in Germany to the debate surrounding the U.S. publication of the book, the subsequent reviews and reactions upon the publication of the German translation, and includes contributions by both Goldhagen himself and American historian Christopher Browning. A unique and fascinating collection, Unwilling Germans? will help to sort out the confusing nature of the response to the "Goldhagen Debate".