THE “SINGULARIZATION PROCESS” AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE HOLOCAUST HISTORIOGRAPHY (1960-1980)

Abstract

In this paper we will look into the social, political, and cultural conditions in which the beginnings of academic historiography of the Holocaust (1960-1980) have been framed. Those beginnings, as we will try to demonstrate, were conditioned in various ways by the question of “uniqueness”, in terms of what we will call the “singularization process” of the Holocaust. For that, first, we will analyze and historicize the problem of “uniqueness” and we will theoretically develop the idea-notion of “singularization process”. Then, we will propose a historicization of the phenomena, actors, texts, and debates that have been fundamental milestones, both academic and extra-academic, in the evolution of this process in the 1960-1980 stage, and in the beginnings of the academic historiography of the Holocaust, especially in the cases of the United States, Germany, France, and Israel, on which we will focus.