Ruth Bettina Birn (born 1952) is a Canadian historian and author whose main field of research is the security forces of

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 ...

and their role in the

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; ...

. For nearly 15 years, she held a position of chief historian in the war crimes section at the

Canadian Department of Justice The Department of Justice (french: Ministère de la Justice) is a department of the Government of Canada that represents the Canadian government in legal matters. The Department of Justice works to ensure that Canada's justice system is as fair, ...

. Birn co-authored ''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth'' with

Norman Finkelstein Norman Gary Finkelstein (; born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist, activist, former professor, and author. His primary fields of research are the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the politics of the Holocaust. He is a g ...

Education and career

Ruth Bettina Birn was born in 1952 in Stuttgart,

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. In 1985, she received her PhD from the

Stuttgart University The University of Stuttgart (german: Universität Stuttgart) is a leading research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with ...

with the dissertation ''Die Höheren SS-und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten'' ("Higher SS and Police Leaders: Himmler's Representatives in the Reich and the Occupied Territories"), published in Düsseldorf in 1986 as a book. From 1991 to 2005, she was the chief historian at the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Section of the

. Birn studied the Estonian Security Police and SD, publishing a book on this topic, ''Die Sicherheitspolizei in Estland 1941 – 1944: Eine Studie zur Kollaboration im Osten'' ("The Security Police in Estonia 1941 – 1944: A Study in Collaboration in the East"). Based on hundreds of Security Police investigation files kept in the Estonian State Archives, the book analyzes the persecution policies against various victim groups: Communists, Jews, Roma, Russians, Soviet prisoners of war, and so-called asocials.

''A Nation on Trial''

Since the 1970s, Birn conducted research at the

Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes The Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes (german: Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen zur Aufklärung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen; in short or ) is Germany's main age ...

in Germany. She was sharply critical of the 1996 book by

Daniel Goldhagen Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born June 30, 1959) is an American author, and former associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Goldhagen reached international attention and broad criticism as the author of two controver ...

, ''

Hitler's Willing Executioners ''Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust'' is a 1996 book by American writer Daniel Goldhagen, in which he argues that the vast majority of ordinary Germans were "willing executioners" in the Holocaust because of a uniq ...

'', who she accused of being highly selective with the materials from the Central Office in her article "Historiographical review: Revising the Holocaust", published in ''

The Historical Journal ''The Historical Journal'', formerly known as ''The Cambridge Historical Journal'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. It publishes approximately thirty-five articles per year on all aspects of British, ...

''. Birn's essays were later published in book form as '' A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth''.Shatz, Adam. (April 8, 1998
Goldhagen's willing executioners: the attack on a scholarly superstar, and how he fights back
'' Slate''. Retrieved January 4, 2008. along with a critical article, "Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's 'Crazy' Thesis", by American political science professor

(first published) in the UK political journal ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

''. In response to their book, Goldhagen sought a retraction and apology from Birn, threatening her at one point to sue her for libel, and, according to '' Slate'', declaring Finkelstein "a supporter of Hamas". The force of the counterattacks against Birn and Finkelstein from Goldhagen's supporters was described by Israeli journalist

Tom Segev Tom Segev ( he, תום שגב; born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group challenging many of the country's traditional narratives. Biography Segev was born in Jeru ...

as "bordering on cultural terrorism ... The Jewish establishment has embraced Goldhagen as if he were Mr Holocaust himself ... All this is absurd, because the criticism of Goldhagen is backed up so well." The historian

Hans Mommsen Hans Mommsen (5 November 1930 – 5 November 2015) was a German historian, known for his studies in German social history, and for his functionalist interpretation of the Third Reich, especially for arguing that Adolf Hitler was a weak dictator. ...

describes Birn's criticism as harsh; he writes that, in an effort to refute Goldhagen's assertion that Jews and Gentiles were treated completely differently by the regime, Birn comes "close to obviously unintended apologetics". At the same time, he regrets that Goldhagen reacted to Birn's criticism by threatening her and her editor with legal action, thus choosing this route in order "to silence his academic critics".

: ''Einleitung''. In: Norman G. Finkelstein, Ruth Bettina Birn: ''Eine Nation auf dem Prüfstand. Die Goldhagen-These und die historische Wahrheit''. Claassen-Verlag, Hildesheim 1998, pp. 9–22, pp. 14 & 17

Selected works

In English

*''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth''. With

. New York: Henry Holt, 1998. .

In German

* ''Die höheren SS- und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten''. Düsseldorf, 1986. * ''Die Sicherheitspolizei in Estland 1941 – 1944: Eine Studie zur Kollaboration im Osten''. Paderborn, 2006. .

References

External links

Chapter 1 of ''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth
via ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' website
Willing Executioners? Essays by two scholars dissect the work of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.
review of ''A Nation on Trial'' by

Max Frankel Max Frankel (born April 3, 1930) is an American journalist. He was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 1986 to 1994. Life and career Frankel was born in Gera, Germany. He was an only child, and his family belonged to a Jewish minorit ...

, ''The New York Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Birn, Ruth Bettina 1952 births Living people 20th-century Canadian historians Historians of the Holocaust Historians of World War II Canadian women historians Writers from Stuttgart University of Stuttgart alumni German emigrants to Canada 21st-century Canadian historians