Nathan Stoltzfus is an American historian and Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of

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; a ...

Studies in the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

department at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

. He has authored or edited many books.

Education and early career

Stoltzfus was educated at

Goshen College Goshen College is a private Mennonite liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, and is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA. The college is accredited by the High ...

in Goshen,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, (B.A. 1978) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

( PhD, 1993). While working on his PhD at Harvard, he was awarded an Einstein Institution Fellowship, which supported his work on the

Rosenstrasse protest Rosenstrasse (or Rosenstraße) is a street in Berlin. It may more specifically refer to: *Rosenstrasse protest Rosenstrasse (or Rosenstraße) is a street in Berlin. It may more specifically refer to: * Rosenstrasse protests, street protests, Be ...

, a 1943 street protest in which mostly women saved about 1,500 men from the

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Stoltzfus continued as a Graduate Affiliate of the Program on Nonviolent Sanctions.

Career

Stolzfus is noted for his work on protest during the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

era, particularly the

Rosenstrasse Protest Rosenstrasse (or Rosenstraße) is a street in Berlin. It may more specifically refer to: *Rosenstrasse protest Rosenstrasse (or Rosenstraße) is a street in Berlin. It may more specifically refer to: * Rosenstrasse protests, street protests, Be ...

that has sparked debate and discussion about the possibility and impact of protest in Nazi Germany. Stoltzfus has done work on the impact of the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

and its demise on national memories and representations of

in several European countries.

Publications

''Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany'' (1996) was co-recipient of the

Fraenkel Prize The Wiener Holocaust Library () is the world's oldest institution devoted to the study of the Holocaust, its causes and legacies. Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the pe ...

in Contemporary History. German and French translations carried a foreword by

German Foreign Minister , insignia = Bundesadler Bundesorgane.svg , insigniasize = 80px , insigniacaption = , department = Federal Foreign Office , image = Annalena Baerbock (cropped, 2).jpg , alt = , incumbent = Annalena Baerbock , incumbentsince = 8 December ...

Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fis ...

. American historian

Walter Laqueur Walter Ze'ev Laqueur (26 May 1921 – 30 September 2018) was a German-born American historian, journalist and political commentator. He was an influential scholar on the subjects of terrorism and political violence. Biography Walter Laqueur was ...

wrote in his foreword that "Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, ncludinginterviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes". In Britain the book was a ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...

'' "Book of the Year". It was #2 on the German Bestenliste for non-fiction in October 1999 and a Main Selection of the Swedish Book Club ''Clio'' in 2004. ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The ...

'' called it the "standard work" on the protest, which was the center of a little

Historikerstreit The ''Historikerstreit'' (, "historians' dispute") was a dispute in the late 1980s in West Germany between conservative and left-of-center academics and other intellectuals about how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German hist ...

. ''Die Zeit'' reported in 2013 that the protest action in the Rosenstrasse was a long almost forgotten episode of Nazi history, but when Stoltzfus wrote about it, he unleashed an "ongoing controversy". He has contributed to other books including ''Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...

, 2001), co-edited with

Robert Gellately Robert Gellately (born 1943) is a Canadian academic and noted authority on the history of modern Europe, particularly during World War II and the Cold War era. Education and career He earned his B.A., B.Ed., and M.A. degrees at Memorial Unive ...

; ''Shades of Green: Environmental Activism around the Globe'' (

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an independent publishing house founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns the book distributing compa ...

, 2006), co-edited with Doug Weiner and

Christof Mauch Christof Mauch (born 9 February 1960 in Sindelfingen, Germany) is a German historian, presently director of the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich, Germany, and since 2007 professor of American Cultural History and Trans ...

, ''Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People'' (

Palgrave MacMillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

, 2007), co-authored with five professors of history, political science, and sociology; ''Nazi Crimes and the Law'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2008), co-edited with

Henry Friedlander Henry Egon Friedlander (24 September 1930 – 17 October 2012) was a German-American Jewish historian of the Holocaust who was noted for his arguments in favor of broadening the scope of casualties of the Holocaust. Born in Berlin, Germany, to a ...

References

External links

Unfinished documentary by Chambon Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoltzfus, Nathan Florida State University faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Living people Harvard University alumni Goshen College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Historians of the Holocaust Nazi Germany American male non-fiction writers