Nathan Stoltzfus is an American historian and Dorothy and Jonathan Rintels Professor of

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

Studies in the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

department at

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

. He has authored or edited many books.

Education and early career

Stoltzfus was educated at

Goshen College Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a ...

in Goshen,

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, (B.A. 1978) and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

(

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

, 1993). While working on his PhD at Harvard, he was awarded an Einstein Institution Fellowship, which supported his work on the Rosenstrasse protest, a 1943 street protest in which mostly women saved about 1,500 men from the

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

during

World War II 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 ...

. Stoltzfus continued as a Graduate Affiliate of the Program on Nonviolent Sanctions.

Career

Stolzfus is noted for his work on protest during 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 ...

era, particularly the Rosenstrasse Protest that has sparked debate and discussion about the possibility and impact of protest in Nazi Germany. Stoltzfus has done work on the impact of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

and its demise on national memories and representations of

in several European countries.

Publications

''Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany'' (1996) was co-recipient of the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History. German and French translations carried a foreword by German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer. American historian Walter Laqueur wrote in his foreword that "Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, ncludinginterviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes". In Britain the book was a ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' "Book of the Year". It was #2 on the German Bestenliste for non-fiction in October 1999 and a Main Selection of the Swedish Book Club ''Clio'' in 2004. ''

Die Zeit (, ) is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History The first edition of was ...

'' called it the "standard work" on the protest, which was the center of a little

Historikerstreit The ''Historikerstreit'' (, "historians' dispute") was a dispute in the late 1980s in West Germany between conservative and left-of-center academics and other intellectuals about how to incorporate Nazi Germany and the Holocaust into German histor ...

. ''Die Zeit'' reported in 2013 that the protest action in the Rosenstrasse was a long almost forgotten episode of Nazi history, but when Stoltzfus wrote about it, he unleashed an "ongoing controversy". He has contributed to other books including ''Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 2001), co-edited with Robert Gellately; ''Shades of Green: Environmental Activism around the Globe'' (

Rowman & Littlefield Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group is an American independent academic publishing company founded in 1949. Under several imprints, the company offers scholarly books for the academic market, as well as trade books. The company also owns ...

, 2006), co-edited with Doug Weiner and Christof Mauch, ''Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People'' (

Palgrave MacMillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

, 2007), co-authored with five professors of history, political science, and sociology; ''Nazi Crimes and the Law'' (

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, 2008), co-edited with Henry Friedlander.

References

External links

Unfinished documentary by Chambon Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stoltzfus, Nathan Florida State University faculty 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Living people Harvard University alumni Goshen College alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American historians of the Holocaust Nazi Germany American male non-fiction writers