David Bankier (19 January 1947 –27 February 2010) was a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

historian and head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at

Yad Vashem Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...

.Ethan Bronner, "David Bankier, Scholar of Holocaust, Dies at 63", ''New York Times'', February 28, 2010, available a
link

Biography

David Bankier was born on January 19, 1947 (27 Tevet, 5707), in the Zeckendorf DP camp in the Bamberg district, Oberfranken, Germany, in the then American Occupation Zone. His parents were Holocaust survivors from Ukraine and Poland. From there his family migrated first to Israel and then to Argentina (on reaching adulthood, David immigrated to Israel; the family immigrated to the USA; in the 1980s his parents returned to Israel). Bankier grew up in Argentina; he studied at a public school and at a Jewish school where he consolidated his knowledge of the Hebrew language. In his youth he participated in Zionist activity and in 1967

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Israel. He began to study Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in 1983 he completed his doctoral dissertation, “German Society and National Socialist Antisemitism, 1933–1938.”

Academic career

In 1986, David Bankier became lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He would also serve on the editorial board of ''Contemporary Jewry and Yad Vashem Studies'' and as associate editor of ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies''. Bankier's most influential work covered the role of public opinion in Nazi Germany, specifically opinion relevant to Nazi anti-Semitism and to the

Nazi Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...

.Bankier, David. ''The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2006) His work on this topic involved extensive original research into Sopade reports as well as the internal documentation of the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

(SD) regarding German public opinion.

References

External links

About David Bankier
in

website
David Bankier's Path in Holocaust Research
- an article by Prof. Dan Michman, in

website
An article by David Bankier
about the relations between the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and the German population during Nazi period, in

website
An interview with David Bankier about the Holocaust, its perpetrators, its reasons and its uniqueness
in

website * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmIOeSv17oc {{DEFAULTSORT:Bankier, David 2010 deaths 1947 births 20th-century Israeli historians German male non-fiction writers Yad Vashem people German emigrants to Israel Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Burials at Har HaMenuchot