Ruth Bettina Birn (born 1952) is a Canadian historian and author whose main field of research is the security forces of

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 ...

and their role in the

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 ...

. For nearly 15 years, she held a position of chief historian in the war crimes section at the Canadian Department of Justice. Birn co-authored ''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth'' with

Norman Finkelstein Norman Gary Finkelstein ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist and activist. His primary fields of research are the politics of the Holocaust and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Finkelstein was born in New York Cit ...

Education and career

Ruth Bettina Birn was born in 1952 in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. In 1985, she received her PhD from the

Stuttgart University The University of Stuttgart () is a research university located in Stuttgart, Germany. It was founded in 1829 and is organized into 10 faculties. It is one of the oldest technical universities in Germany with programs in Civil engineering, civil ...

with the dissertation ''Die Höheren SS-und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten'' ("Higher SS and Police Leaders: Himmler's Representatives in the Reich and the Occupied Territories"), published in Düsseldorf in 1986 as a book. From 1991 to 2005, she was the chief historian at the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Section of the Canadian Department of Justice. Birn studied the

Estonian Security Police and SD The Estonian Security Police and SD (, ), or Sipo, was a security police force created by the Germans in 1942 that integrated both Germans and Estonians within a unique structure mirroring the German Sicherheitspolizei. Following the German occu ...

, publishing a book on this topic, ''Die Sicherheitspolizei in Estland 1941 – 1944: Eine Studie zur Kollaboration im Osten'' ("The Security Police in Estonia 1941 – 1944: A Study in Collaboration in the East"). Based on hundreds of Security Police investigation files kept in the

Estonian State Archives The National Archives of Estonia (NAE, ) has been the centre of archival administration in Estonia since 1999. Organization NAE collects and preserves records documenting the history, culture, nationhood and social conditions in Estonia indep ...

, the book analyzes the persecution policies against various victim groups: Communists, Jews, Roma, Russians, Soviet prisoners of war, and so-called asocials.

''A Nation on Trial''

Since the 1970s, Birn conducted research at the

Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes The Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes (; in short or ) is Germany's main agency responsible for investigating war crimes during Nazi Germany, Nazi rule. The commission possesses ...

in Germany. She was sharply critical of the 1996 book by

Daniel Goldhagen Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born June 30, 1959) is an American author, and former associate professor of government and social studies at Harvard University. Goldhagen reached attention and broad criticism as the author of two books about the Holocau ...

, '' Hitler's Willing Executioners'', who she accused of being highly selective with the materials from the Central Office in her article "Historiographical review: Revising the Holocaust", published in ''

The Historical Journal ''The Historical Journal'', formerly known as ''The Cambridge Historical Journal'', is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. It publishes approximately thirty-five articles per year on all aspects of British, E ...

''. Birn's essays were later published in book form as '' A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth''.Shatz, Adam. (April 8, 1998
Goldhagen's willing executioners: the attack on a scholarly superstar, and how he fights back
''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

''. Retrieved January 4, 2008. along with a critical article, "Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's 'Crazy' Thesis", by American political science professor

(first published) in the UK political journal ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

''. In response to their book, Goldhagen sought a retraction and apology from Birn, threatening her at one point to sue her for

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

, and, according to ''

'', declaring Finkelstein "a supporter of Hamas". The force of the counterattacks against Birn and Finkelstein from Goldhagen's supporters was described by Israeli journalist

Tom Segev Tom Segev (; born March 1, 1945) is an Israeli historian, author and journalist. He is associated with Israel's New Historians, a group critical of many of the country's traditional narratives. Biography Segev was born on March 1, 1945 in Jeru ...

as "bordering on cultural terrorism ... The Jewish establishment has embraced Goldhagen as if he were Mr Holocaust himself ... All this is absurd, because the criticism of Goldhagen is backed up so well." The historian

Hans Mommsen Hans Mommsen (5 November 1930 – 5 November 2015) was a German historian, known for his studies in German social history, for his functionalist interpretation of the Third Reich, and especially for arguing that Adolf Hitler was a weak dictator. ...

describes Birn's criticism as harsh; he writes that, in an effort to refute Goldhagen's assertion that Jews and Gentiles were treated completely differently by the regime, Birn comes "close to obviously unintended apologetics". At the same time, he regrets that Goldhagen reacted to Birn's criticism by threatening her and her editor with legal action, thus choosing this route in order "to silence his academic critics".

: ''Einleitung''. In: Norman G. Finkelstein, Ruth Bettina Birn: ''Eine Nation auf dem Prüfstand. Die Goldhagen-These und die historische Wahrheit''. Claassen-Verlag, Hildesheim 1998, pp. 9–22, pp. 14 & 17

Selected works

In English

*''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth''. With

. New York: Henry Holt, 1998. .

In German

* ''Die höheren SS- und Polizeiführer: Himmlers Vertreter im Reich und in den besetzten Gebieten''. Düsseldorf, 1986. * ''Die Sicherheitspolizei in Estland 1941 – 1944: Eine Studie zur Kollaboration im Osten''. Paderborn, 2006. .

References

External links

Chapter 1 of ''A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth''
via ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' website
Willing Executioners? Essays by two scholars dissect the work of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen.
review of ''A Nation on Trial'' by

Max Frankel Max Frankel (April 3, 1930 – March 23, 2025) was an American journalist who was executive editor of ''The New York Times'' from 1986 to 1994. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for his coverage of Richard Nixon's visit to China. He also brought ...

, ''The New York Times'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Birn, Ruth Bettina 1952 births Living people 20th-century Canadian historians Historians of the Holocaust Historians of World War II Canadian women historians Writers from Stuttgart University of Stuttgart alumni German emigrants to Canada 21st-century Canadian historians