From the Liveblog of
Friday, October 18, 2024
Prominent Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer dies at 98
Prominent Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer died today, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance announces. He was 98.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our Honorary Chairman, Yehuda Bauer. He left an indelible mark on both the IHRA and the field of Holocaust studies, and his moral guidance, insight, and friendship will be sorely missed,” the IHRA says.
Over the course of his almost century-long life, Bauer published over 40 books on the Holocaust and antisemitism, with a focus on Jewish reactions to both. His early research focused on Jewish organized resistance to the Nazi regime, but in his later work, he addressed larger questions of antisemitism and the Holocaust’s historical significance.
In recent decades, Bauer became involved in policy regarding antisemitism and the scholar played an important role in the IHRA since its inception in 1998, and helped draft the organization’s controversial yet popular Working Definition of Antisemitism.
Holocaust research institutions and colleagues mourned his passing.
“His thoughts and words shaped and inspired the academic debate about the tragedy of the Shoah. His work will be continued by all the people engaged in preserving the Memory,” the Auschwitz Memorial posted on X.
UCL Center for Holocaust Education in London hailed him as “one of the greatest Holocaust historians of our time and the most compelling orator and teacher.”
Born in 1926 in Prague, Bauer and his family fled to Mandatory Palestine in 1939, on the day Nazi Germany invaded Czechoslovakia.
