Gilad Margalit (; 1959 in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

, Israel – 23 July 2014) was an Israeli historian, writer, and

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

in the Department of General History at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa (, ) is a public research university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963 as a branch of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation as an inde ...

. Margalit's academic research focused on various aspects of post-war

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and its process of coming to terms with the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

past (''

Vergangenheitsbewältigung ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' (, "struggle of overcoming the past" or "work of coping with the past") is a German compound noun describing processes that since the later 20th century have become key in the study of post-1945 German literature ...

''), including

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and attitudes to ethnic minorities —

Romani Romani may refer to: Ethnic groups * Romani people, or Roma, an ethnic group of Indo-Aryan origin ** Romani language, an Indo-Aryan macrolanguage of the Romani communities ** Romanichal, Romani subgroup in the United Kingdom * Romanians (Romanian ...

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

and

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. He particularly examined expressions and reflections of the

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

dealing with this matter. Margalit also worked on an

oral history Oral history is the collection and study of historical information from people, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who pa ...

project about the

Turks in Germany Turks in Germany, also referred to as German Turks and Turkish Germans ( or ''Deutschtürken''; , also known as ''Gurbetçiler'' or ''Almancılar''), are ethnic Turkish people living in Germany. These terms are also used to refer to German-born ...

and their process of creating a collective German-Turkish identity.

Biography

Margalit completed his doctoral thesis at the Hebrew University in 1996. He worked under the supervision of Prof.

Moshe Zimmermann Moshe Zimmermann (; born 25 December 1943) is an Israeli historian and writer. He is a professor emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1986 to 2012 he was the director of the Richard Koebner Minerva Center for German History. Bio ...

from the Hebrew University and Prof. Dan Diner from

Tel-Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

and

University of Duisburg-Essen The University of Duisburg-Essen () is a public research university in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In the 2019 ''Times Higher Education World University Rankings'', the university was awarded 194th place in the world. It was originally ...

. His work was awarded the ‘ Jacob Talmon Prize’.

Academic research

German policies and attitudes since 1945 toward the German Gypsies

Margalit started his academic career with a dissertation on German policies and attitudes since 1945 toward a small German minority, the

Gypsies {{Infobox ethnic group , group = Romani people , image = , image_caption = , flag = Roma flag.svg , flag_caption = Romani flag created in 1933 and accepted at the 1971 World Romani Congress , ...

(Sinti and Roma). Traditionally, the Gypsies had been rejected by German society; and they had been persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. The study, which later appeared as the book ''Germany and its Gypsies'', demonstrates the extent to which prejudices against Gypsies continued to play a major role in forming the policies toward them after

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

. These include, for example, the reluctance of both postwar Germanies to compensate them for their sufferings during the Nazi period, as well as the authorities' attempts to resume their control over the free movement of itinerants.

Official remembrance ceremonies and memorials for the German war dead

The second major issue with which Margalit has been engaged since 1999 culminated in the 2010 publication of the English edition of his book ''Guilt, Suffering, and Memory''. In this study Margalit discusses the official remembrance ceremonies for the German war dead, the

memorials A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...

erected to commemorate them, the public discussions of the disparate German cultures ( FRG and the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

), and their treatment in postwar German

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

. In this book Margalit claims that Germany’s changing historical memory of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and its aftermath, as reflected in the official and public remembrance of the German war dead, exposes an unresolved tension between a discourse of guilt and a discourse of national suffering and

victimization Victimisation ( or victimization) is the state or process of being victimised or becoming a victim. The field that studies the process, rates, incidence, effects, and prevalence of victimisation is called victimology. Peer victimisation Peer ...

. In Germany, under the auspices of the Allied occupation,

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects such as home ...

s honoured the victims of the Nazis and those who had fought against the regime. After the partition of Germany, a new culture emerged, commemorating the fallen German soldiers as well as the civilian dead. Despite the fierce ideological rivalry between East and West Germany, however, certain similarities existed. The political leaderships who shaped these cultures ceased to confront their citizens with the question of guilt; instead, they depicted the German people as victims.

German Turks

Margalit's latest research topic was an oral history project on German

. Turkish immigrants started arriving in West Germany in 1960, after an agreement between

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and the Federal Republic on supplying ''

Gastarbeiter ; ; both singular and plural) are foreign or migrant workers, particularly those who had moved to West Germany between 1955 and 1973, seeking work as part of a formal guest worker program (). As a result, guestworkers are generally considered t ...

'' ("guest workers") for the German labour market. 10 years later, they had become the biggest community of foreigners in the Federal Republic of Germany. His research focused in the Turkish experience of living among Germans, focuses at the religious and cultural difference and otherness of the Turks to their German surroundings, and the prejudices against them, which turns their integration into a complicated and significant challenge. Margalit mainly concentrates on the second and third

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

of German Turks and their process of building a clearly defined collective German-Turkish identity. Another aspect in Margalit's research is the Turks attitudes to the German past and to the Holocaust.

Academic positions held

* 2007 Chair of the founding team of the Haifa Center for German and European Studies (HCGES). * 2007-2012 Haifa Center for German and European Studies, Deputy Director. * 2008

Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society The Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society at the University of Haifa was founded in 2001. The institute was started by the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and Professor Dres. h.c. Manfred Lahnstein. Th ...

, Member of the Academic Steering.

Scholarships and awards

* The Doctoral thesis awarded the ‘ Jacob Talmon Prize', 1995. * DAAD Scholarship at the

Institut für Zeitgeschichte The Institute of Contemporary History (''Institut für Zeitgeschichte'') in Munich was conceived in 1947 under the name ''Deutsches Institut für Geschichte der nationalsozialistischen Zeit'' ("German Institute of the History of the National Socia ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne () is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in 1388. It closed in 1798 before being re-established in 1919. It is now one of the largest universities in Germany with around 45,187 students. The Universit ...

and Mainz, 2006. * Guilt, Suffering and Memory. On German Commemoration of the German victims of WWII The University of Haifa Press 2006 (Heb.) 254 pp. was awarded the ‘Bahat Prize’ for the original book, 2007. * A scholarship from the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

, 2001-2003, 2005,2007,2009. * A scholarship from the

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as t ...

for an oral history project on German Turks, 2010.

Publications

Authored books

Source: * ''Postwar Germany and the Gypsies. The Treatment of Sinte and Roma in the Aftermath of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

'',

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

: Magnes Press 1998, 280 pp. (Heb.) * ''Die Nachkriegsdeutschen und "ihre Zigeuner". Die Behandlung der Sint und Roma im Schatten von Auschwitz'', Berlin: Metropol Verlag, 2001 304 pp. * ''Germany and its Gypsies. A Post-Auschwitz Ordeal'', Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press 2002. 280 pp. * Guilt, Suffering and Memory. On German Commemoration of the German victims of WW II. The University of Haifa Press 2006 (Heb.) 254 pp * ''Guilt, Suffering and Memory, Germany Remembers Its Dead of World War II'', translated by Haim Watzman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2010. 404 pp.

Edited books

* Gilad Margalit & Yfaat Weiss (eds.), ''Memory and Amnesia. The Holocaust in Germany'',

Tel-Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

: HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, 2005, 427 pp. (Hebrew)

Selected articles

* "Antigypsyism in the Political Culture of the Federal Republic of Germany : A Parallel with Antisemitism?" Analysis of Current Trends in Antisemitism (ACTA) 9 (1996), 1-29. * "The Justice System of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies", ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies'', VII (1997), 330-350. * "The Image of the Gypsy in German Christendom", ''Patterns of Prejudice'' vol. 33 No. 2 (1999), 75-83. * "The Representation of the Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies in German Discourse after 1945", ''German History'', vol. 17 Issue 2 (1999) 220-239. * "The Uniqueness of the Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies", ''Romani Studies'' 5, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2000) 185-210. * "Israel through the Eyes of West German Press 1947 – 1967", ''Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung'' 11 (2002) 235-248. * "On Ethnic Essence and the Notion of German Victimization: Martin Walser and Asta Scheib's Armer Nanosh and the Jew within the Gypsy". ''German Politics and Society'', Issue 64, Vol. 20, No. 3 Fall (2002) 15-39. * "German Expelled Foreign Policy: Hans-Christoph Seebohm and Initiatives of the German Sudeten Homeland Society 1956-1964". ''Central European History'' 43, Number 4, 2010 approx. 27 pp. (forthcoming). *"Literary Mirroring of German Suffering during WWII". ''Theory and Criticism'' Vol. 30 Summer (2007) 267-281. (Heb.)

Selected articles in German

*"Zwischen Romantisierung, Ablehnung und Rassismus. Zur Haltung der deutschen Gesellschaft gegenueber Sinti und Roma nach 1945", ''Jahrbuch für Antisemitismusforschung'', VI (1997), 243-265. *"Die deutsche 'Zigeunerpolitik' nach 1945", ''Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte'', 45 (1997), 557-588. *"Sinte und andere Deutsche - Über ethnische Spiegelungen", ''Tel-Aviver Jahrbuch für deutsche Geschichte'', XXVI (1997), 281-306. *"Rassismus zwischen Romantik and Völkermord. Die 'Zigeunerfrage' im Nationalsozialismus", ''Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht'' 49 (1998), 400-420. *" Großer Gott, Ich danke Dir dass Du kleine schwarze Kinder gemacht hast. Der Zigeunerpastor - Georg Althaus", ''WerkstattGeschichte'' 25 (2000) 59-73 *"Gedenk- und Trauerkultur im Nachkriegsdeutschland. Anmerkungen zur Architektur", ''Mittelweg'' 36 Heft 2 (2004) 76-91.

References

External links

"Germany and its Gypsies" at Google Books"Guilt, Suffering and Memory" at Google Books
*, Tel Aviv University, 10-12.2.13: * during the conference "Antisemitism, Multiculturalism & Ethnic Identity", The Hebrew University, 14.6.2006 *, during the conference "Old and New Anti-Jewish Stereotypes in Western Europe and the United States", The Hebrew University, 19.2.2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Margalit, Gilad 1959 births 2014 deaths Israeli historians Historians of the Holocaust Jewish historians Historians of Nazism Historians of Germany Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni