Professor David Bankier

Professional Background

Professor David Bankier received a Ph.D. in Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem where his doctoral thesis focused on German society and Nazi antisemitism between 1933 and 1938. During his fellowship at the Museum, he was the John Najman Director of the International Institute for Holocaust Research, Yad Vashem and the Salomon and Victoria Cohen Professor of Contemporary Latin American Studies and Director of the Holocaust Studies Division at the Avraham Harmon Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Professor Bankier is a world-renowned Holocaust historian who focuses his work on four main areas of research: the relations between Jews and non-Jews in Nazi occupied Europe, the interaction between propaganda and political mobilizations during the war, the emigration of German Jews and the rehabilitation of their communities in Latin America, and the position taken by German anti-Nazi exiles on the “Jewish question.” He has published several books, a number of which he wrote in Spanish as part of his ongoing effort to encourage dialogue about the Holocaust in Latin America. He is author of The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism (Basil Blackwell, 1992) and editor of Probing the Depths of German Antisemitism: German Society’s Responses to Antisemitism (Yad Vashem and Berghahn Books, 2000)—an extensive and impressive collection of essays exploring the deep and complex history of antisemitism in Germany. Professor Bankier has also contributed dozens of scholarly articles and chapters for other publications. At the time of his fellowship he served as one of two Associate Editors of the Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, published by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in association with Oxford University Press. He was also conducting research for his project on the attitudes of German anti-Nazi exiles to the “Jewish question” and the Holocaust, and editing a collection of essays on Jews returning to their countries after the Holocaust between 1945 and 1948. Professor Bankier has been a visiting professor at a number of universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and South America. He has also been deeply involved in establishing centers for Jewish studies in Latin America.

Fellowship Research

While in residence at the Museum, Professor Bankier conducted research on antisemitism and the Holocaust. He gave a public lecture on “The Holocaust and the New Antisemitism” and led a staff seminar on “The Study of the Holocaust in Israel: Major Debates and Schools of Thought.”

Professor Bankier was in residence at the Mandel Center from June 28 to August 15, 2004.