Good Citizens, Terrible Times: Community, Courage and Compliance in and beyond the Holocaust

我们所称的大屠杀的规模之大，继续对世界各地的学者和广大公众提出挑战。尽管无数次试图了解有组织的大规模屠杀600多万犹太人，以及罗姆人和辛提人，精神和身体残疾人以及其他受害者群体，但关键问题仍然存在。迄今为止的研究强调了德国的政策和做法，占领和合作的多样性，以及有组织的抵抗和个人的救援努力。该项目涉及尚未得到足够关注的领域：周围社会的重要性以及社区和公民的概念，因为欧洲不同地区的犹太人的生存率惊人地不同。幸存率从立陶宛的5%到丹麦的95%不等;法国有75%的犹太人幸存下来，而荷兰只有25%的犹太人逃脱了驱逐和死亡--这一数字与东欧相当--而比利时的幸存率介于其最亲密的邻国之间。虽然学者们探讨了各种各样的因素，但公众的看法往往突出个人行动的重要性。特别是，自1945年以来，“良好公民”和“公民勇气”在公民教育，教学活动和大屠杀纪念活动中得到了广泛的重视。然而，这种做法很少表明，在一个发起和纵容针对少数群体的暴力行为的国家中，作为一个"好公民"实际上可能意味着对系统性暴力的顺从。我们的研究直接集中在公民身份和社区的概念和实践，因为这些不同的影响遵守国家或职业政策，或激发同情那些被驱逐的人，如果被认为是更广泛的“同情社区”的一部分。深入的案例研究探讨了纳粹德国，与被吞并的奥地利（1938年成为大德意志赖希的一部分）和被占领的荷兰进行比较。此外，还对法国和罗马尼亚的救援和生存情况进行了详细的比较案例研究，因为结构性和情境性因素也影响到人们站在受害者而不是犯罪者一边的意愿和能力。此外，生存取决于社会环境或更广泛的情况，纳粹迫害的受害者根据不断变化的社会政治环境寻求“进入”，寻找避难所或“通过”周围社会的成员。对影响东欧和西欧不同地区在不断变化的情况下生存的社会因素进行全面调查，将探讨战前和战时种族间和社区关系的意义;权力和镇压的结构;以及不断变化的愿望，文化观念和社区边界。该项目结合了对不断变化的历史环境的广泛结构分析，详细探索了不同背景下的主观看法和个人行为，使用了犹太人和非犹太人的日记，信件和回忆录以及其他档案来源。通过这种方式，研究试图识别和理清社会背景的不同因素，这些因素可能有助于解释生存的变化。通过寻找有争议的公民身份，社区建设，并遵守书面和不成文的行为守则，并通过探索条件下，那些谁是最初的旁观者可能会变得越来越同谋，或相比之下，扩大同情或援助受害者的姿态，这种合作研究将作出重大贡献，大屠杀研究领域在德国，英国和国际。它还将通过参与大屠杀纪念活动和公民教育的调查结果的影响，有助于更好地理解围绕“吸取教训”和公民身份概念的问题，这是当今欧洲至关重要的主题。

The sheer scale of what we call the Holocaust continues to challenge both scholars and wider publics around the world. Despite innumerable attempts to understand the organised mass murder of more than six million Jews, alongside Roma and Sinti, the mentally and physically disabled, and other victim groups, key questions remain. Research to date has highlighted German policies and practices, varieties of occupation and collaboration, as well as both organised resistance and individual rescue efforts. This project addresses areas that have not as yet received adequate attention: the significance of surrounding societies and notions of community and citizenship for the startlingly different survival rates of Jews in different areas of Europe. Survival rates ranged from a mere 5% in Lithuania to 95% in Denmark; and while 75% of Jews in France survived, only 25% of Jews in the Netherlands escaped deportation and death - a figure comparable to eastern Europe - while the survival rate in Belgium was midway between those of its closest neighbours. While scholars have explored a wide variety of factors, public perceptions tend to highlight the significance of individual actions. In particular, 'good citizenship' and 'civil courage' have been widely emphasised in civic education, pedagogical initiatives, and Holocaust memorialisation since 1945. Such approaches rarely register, however, that being a 'good citizen' in a state initiating and condoning violence against targeted minorities may in fact mean compliance with systemic violence. Our research focuses directly on conceptions and practices of citizenship and community, as these variously affected compliance with state or occupation policies, or inspired sympathy with those ousted if considered part of a wider 'community of empathy'. In-depth case studies explore Nazi Germany, in comparison both with annexed Austria, which became part of the Greater German Reich in 1938, and the occupied Netherlands. These are complemented by detailed comparative case studies of rescue and survival in France and Romania, given that structural and situational factors also affected the willingness and capacity of people to side with victims rather than perpetrators. Moreover, survival depended on the social environment or wider circumstances in which victims of Nazi persecution sought to 'go under', find refuge, or 'pass' among members of the surrounding society, depending on changing socio-political circumstances. A comprehensive survey of societal factors affecting survival in different areas of eastern and western Europe under changing circumstances will explore the significance of inter-ethnic and community relations before and during the war; structures of power and repression; and shifting aspirations, cultural conceptions, and borders of communities. The project combines broad structural analysis of changing historical circumstances with detailed exploration of subjective perceptions and individual behaviours in different settings, using diaries, letters, and memoirs by both Jews and non-Jews, and other archival sources. In this way, the research seeks to identify and disentangle the different elements of societal contexts that may help to explain variations in survival. By looking at contested constructions of citizenship, community, and compliance with both written and unwritten codes of behaviour, and by exploring the conditions under which those who were initially bystanders might become increasingly complicit or, by contrast, extend gestures of sympathy or assistance to victims, this collaborative research will make a significant contribution to the field of Holocaust studies in Germany, the UK, and internationally. It will also, by engaging with the implications of the findings for Holocaust memorialisation and civic education, contribute to a better understanding of issues surrounding notions of 'lesson learning' and citizenship, a topic of vital importance in Europe today.