You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
Dr. Quindeau undertakes a hermeneutically oriented psychoanalytic approach to understanding the reception of Daniel Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners (1996), within Germany. More specifically, she proposes that the embrace of Goldhagen's book by young Germans manifests to a disturbing degree defense mechanisms and an unconscious wish to have closure about the Holocaust. Dr. Quindeau's stimulating discussion offers a mixture of deep insight and broad speculation.
The enormous reception of Goldhagen's book is a worthy subject to contemplate, all the more so, given the striking discrepancy between the public's enthusiastic response and historians' generally negative reaction to the book (Moses, 1998). The book garnered wide attention in the United States as well