Werner Conze

Eastern Europe as a "Sub-Germanic Space": Scholarship on Eastern Europe under National Socialism

“…133 Dunkhase explains Conze's German orientation and adoption of National Socialist terminology as the result of "seepage" from "the National Socialist weltanschauung." 134 Conze, like so many others, discussed the necessity of urban "deJewification." He did not neglect to mention Jewish Bolshevism and "the destructive powers of the Asiatic East."…”

“…117 Jan Eike Dunkhase's recent work also analyzes Conze's activities and writings before 1939. 118 Though Conze had studied under Rothfels in Königsberg, he did not join those who protested Rothfels' dismissal. As late as 1985, he expressed surprise that Theodor Schieder* had wanted to write his doctorate under Rothfels after Hitler came to power, ignoring Rothfels's Jewish origins.…”

“…135 He did neglect to mention those Polish colleagues who helped him research his habilitation thesis in the acknowledgments to that thesis in 1940. 136 137 If Ingo Haar fails to distinguish between National Socialist terminology-already routine in the late 1930s-and active involvement in planning and operations of the occupying forces in Poland and elsewhere, then Michael Fahlbusch is even less discerning. It is ludicrous to ascribe to Conze an "important role in the planning of ethnic cleansing in the East and the elimination of the Jews."…”

“…140 Dunkhase's learned designation for Conze's behavior after the war is "ataraxia"-equanimity, indifference, and emotional coldness-which hardly shifted despite all the catastrophies he witnessed and participated in. 141 science. To show that his research was indeed "de-Jewified," he marked Jewish authors he cited-and he cited them frequently-with the letter "J."…”