Raul Hilberg, who painstakingly documented the bureaucracy of destruction in the murder of European Jewry, has died at the age of 81. See the notices here, here and here. Hilberg's The Destruction of the European Jews is an indispensable work. And there is much to be learned also from shorter pieces that he wrote. Three quotations from him, taken from my own notes:
They were educated men of their time. That is the crux of the question whenever we ponder the meaning of Western civilization after Auschwitz.
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The Germans never let up. You may find correspondence about twelve Jews in Liechtenstein. "What are they doing there?"
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Some things when said can no longer be done. Some things can be done as long as they are not talked about.