27 Facts About Yehuda Bauer

Yehuda Bauer was a Czech-born Israeli historian and scholar of the Holocaust.

Yehuda Bauer was a professor of Holocaust studies at the Avraham Harman Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Yehuda Bauer was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on 6 April 1926.

Yehuda Bauer's father had strong Zionist convictions and during the 1930s he tried to raise money to relocate his family to the British Mandate of Palestine.

Yehuda Bauer earned a scholarship to study history at Cardiff University but paused his education to serve in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Yehuda Bauer completed his bachelor's degree in 1948 and obtained a master's degree in 1950.

Yehuda Bauer received his doctorate from Hebrew University in 1960, and the following year, he became a professor at the university's Institute of Contemporary Jewry, where he served for 34 years.

Yehuda Bauer was a visiting professor at Brandeis University, Yale University, Richard Stockton College, and Clark University.

In 1995, Yehuda Bauer left his position at Hebrew University to direct the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial.

Yehuda Bauer was the founding editor of the journal Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and served on the editorial board of the Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust, published by Yad Vashem in 1990.

Yehuda Bauer was awarded the Israel Prize, the nation's highest cultural honor, in 1998.

Yehuda Bauer had two daughters, including one named Danit Cohen, as well as three stepsons: Gal, Eyel, and Ran.

Yehuda Bauer died in Jerusalem on 18 October 2024, at the age of 98.

Yehuda Bauer argued that, given the conditions in which the Jews of Eastern Europe had to endure, what is surprising is not how little resistance there was, but rather how much.

Yehuda Bauer defended Rudolf Kasztner and the Aid and Rescue Committee, who have been criticized for allegedly not publicizing the Vrba-Wetzler report which documented the deportation of the Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.

Yehuda Bauer believed that Hitler was the key figure who caused the Holocaust, and that at some point in the later half of 1941, he gave a series of orders which called for the genocide of the entire Jewish population.

Yehuda Bauer believed that, at about the same time, Hitler gave further verbal orders for the Holocaust, but unfortunately for historians, nobody bothered to write them down.

Yehuda Bauer disagreed with those who argue that the Holocaust was just another genocide.

However, Yehuda Bauer said that the Romani were subject to genocide and he supported the demands of the Romani for reparations from Germany.

Yehuda Bauer argued against the work of some Orthodox rabbis and theologians who have said that the Holocaust was the work of God and part of a mysterious master plan for the Jewish people.

Yehuda Bauer argued that a God who inflicts the Shoah on his Chosen People is neither good nor just.

Yehuda Bauer has criticized the American political scientist Daniel Goldhagen, who writes that the Holocaust was the result of the allegedly unique "eliminationist" antisemitic culture of the Germans.

Yehuda Bauer has accused Goldhagen of Germanophobic racism, and of only selecting evidence which is favorable to his thesis.

Yehuda Bauer was known for his criticism of other historians but directed his sharpest rebukes at politicians whom he believed manipulated the Holocaust to serve their agendas, particularly singling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Yehuda Bauer was one of the architects of the Working Definition of Antisemitism, which classifies mainstream Palestinian positions as antisemitic.

Yehuda Bauer has argued that calling for Palestinian right of return is antisemitic because he believes it is a prelude to the genocide of Jews.

Yehuda Bauer received recognition for his work in the field of Holocaust studies and the prevention of genocide.