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Two days ago, H-German carried news of an article in the _Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung_, concerning possible legal action involving Ruth Bettina Birn's review of Daniel Jonah Goldhagen's _Hitler's Willing Executioners_. As a follow-up, we are including information below about an interview Birn gave to _Der Spiegel_, which appears in its 10 November 1997 issue. We would like to stress that we have no independent knowledge of the actions discussed in the interview and are only providing information about the contents of the _Spiegel_ article. We feel that H-German's subscribers may wish to consider, and even discuss on our network, the implications for the scholarly community of the events described. In particular, will the mere threat of lawsuits become a more common means of responding to heavy criticism? Will the "chilling effect" so often cited whenever speech is somehow to be limited become a reality in scholarly exchanges? Even as I am typing these words, a cold wind is blowing, and I find myself questioning every possible malign misinterpretation of every word I have written. We're not sure the scholarly world can proceed under these circumstances, and we would be interested in your opinions. We do remind you that the content of Goldhagen's book was discussed thoroughly over a year ago and is not really the issue now. The record of that discussion can be found on our Web site at www.h-net.msu.edu/~german Goldhagen's responses to Birn's review can be found in "The Fictions of Ruth Bettina Birn," _German Politics and Society_ 15, 3 (Fall 1997):119-65. Birn's review of Goldhagen is to be found in the _Historical Journal_ 40, 1 (1997):195-215. **************** The following is a summary of remarks found in the 10 November 1997 issue of _Der Spiegel_ (a two-page article beginning on p. 266). The interview does not appear to be available via the magazine's Web site at www.spiegel.de. Once again, we remind you that this is only information that has appeared already in the _Spiegel_, and we are not asserting that we have direct and independent knowledge of any of the events described. 1. The _Spiegel_ interview introduces Birn, 45, as a recognized expert on the Holocaust who works in Ottawa at the Canadian authority responsible for prosecuting war crimes. 2. When asked if she knows Goldhagen personally, Birn replies that she has indeed known him for 11 years. She states that she apparently was the first to make him aware of the existence of archives at the Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizverwaltungen in Ludwigsburg. She asserts that she had since then had friendly contact with Goldhagen. 3. The interviewer for the _Spiegel_ states that Birn's review of Goldhagen's book had originally been commissioned for the journal "Holocaust and Genocide Studies," but that possible claims for civil damages prevented publication there. The _Spiegel_ interviewer also asserts that Birn's employer has informed her that someone has contacted the employer to try to prevent reprinting of her review. 4. The second half of the interview is largely speculative on the motivations for the strong response that Birn alleges has occurred. Included in this section is the news that, next March, Birn's and Norman Finkelstein's reviews are scheduled to be reprinted together, and Birn asserts that their publisher has indicated that pressure has been exerted to prevent the joint publication. (Finkelstein's review appeared in the _New Left Review_ 224 [July 1997]:39-88) 5. When asked directly if she will take back her criticism as Goldhagen's lawyer has allegedly demanded, Birn states as follows: "Man kann nicht die Wahrheit zuruecknehmen -- daran wird auch Druck auf meinen Arbeitgeber nichts aendern....Und wenn die politische und juristische Einflussnahme, die es hier gegeben hat, Schule macht, dann waere jede wissenschaftliche Kritik in Gefahr."
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