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

我们所说的大屠杀的巨大规模继续挑战着世界各地的学者和更广泛的公众。尽管无数人试图了解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被有组织的大屠杀，但关键问题仍然存在。迄今为止的研究突出了德国的政策和实践、各种占领和合作，以及有组织的抵抗和个人救援努力。该项目涉及尚未得到足够重视的领域：周边社会以及社区和公民观念对欧洲不同地区犹太人存活率差异惊人的重要性。立陶宛的存活率仅为5%，丹麦的存活率为95%；在法国，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--而比利时的存活率介于其最亲密邻国之间。虽然学者们探索了各种各样的因素，但公众的看法往往强调个人行为的重要性。特别是，自1945年以来，公民教育、教育活动和大屠杀纪念活动中都广泛强调“良好公民”和“公民勇气”。然而，在一个发起和纵容针对目标少数群体的暴力的国家里，作为一个好公民实际上可能意味着遵守系统性暴力，这种做法很少被记录下来。我们的研究直接集中在公民身份和社区的概念和实践上，因为这些不同程度地影响了对国家或职业政策的遵守，或者激发了对那些被赶下台的人的同情，如果他们被认为是更广泛的共鸣社区的一部分。深入的案例研究探索纳粹德国，将其与1938年成为大德意志帝国一部分的被吞并的奥地利和被占领的荷兰进行比较。此外，还有关于法国和罗马尼亚救援和生存的详细比较案例研究，因为结构和情况因素也影响到人们站在受害者而不是肇事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，在这种情况下，纳粹迫害的受害者根据不断变化的社会政治环境，寻求在周围社会成员之间‘沉没’、寻求庇护或‘通过’。对东欧和西欧不同地区在不断变化的情况下影响生存的社会因素进行全面调查，将探讨战争前和战争期间族裔间和社区关系的重要性；权力结构和镇压；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，以及对不同环境下的主观看法和个人行为的详细探索，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，这项研究试图识别和理清可能有助于解释生存差异的社会背景的不同元素。通过研究公民身份、社区和遵守书面和不成文行为准则的有争议的结构，以及探索那些最初是旁观者的人可能变得越来越同谋，或者相反，向受害者伸出同情或援助的手势的情况，这项合作研究将对德国、英国和国际的大屠杀研究领域做出重大贡献。它还将通过研究这些发现对大屠杀纪念碑和公民教育的影响，有助于更好地理解围绕“吸取教训”和公民身份的概念的问题，这是当今欧洲至关重要的话题。

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.