Maxime Steinberg was a Belgian historian and teacher who wrote extensively on the Holocaust in Belgium. He has been described as "Belgium's principal Holocaust historian" and was best known for his three-part history of the subject entitled L'Étoile et le Fusil, published in 1983–87.
Biography
Maxime Steinberg was born into a Jewish family in Brussels, Belgium, on 13 December 1936. His father had immigrated from Poland in 1930. During World War II, his parents were arrested and deported to Nazi concentration camps. His mother was killed. Maxime and his brother were hidden in rural Walloon Brabant. Steinberg studied at the Free University of Brussels under Jean Stengers, initially interested in the history of the Belgian far-left. He worked as a teacher and was himself a communist. Steinberg was also active in Belgium's public sectortrade union. In 1982, he returned to ULB to work as an associate professor at the Institute for the Study of Judaism. He completed his doctoral thesis on the Holocaust in Belgium in 1987 under Stengers' supervision. He was the first historian in Belgium to address the Holocaust directly. His role in Belgian historiography has been compared to that of Serge Klarsfeld in France. Steinberg is best known for his magnum opus on the Holocaust in Belgium, published as L'Étoile et le Fusil between 1983 and 1987 which grew out of his doctoral dissertation. The series "revolutionised historiography on the persecution of the Jews in Belgium". It was published in three volumes, representing the first scholarly narrative on the subject. There had been approximately 66,000 Jews living in Belgium on the eve of the German invasion of May 1940 of whom at least 28,000 were deported and killed in Nazi concentration camps. Only perhaps 4,000 held Belgian citizenship. According to the historian Lieven Saerens, L'Étoile et le Fusil Steinberg was also known as a public historian. He served as a historical expert witness called during the much-publicized trial of Kurt Asche and was on the committee responsible for designing the permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Deportation and Resistance in Mechelen, Belgium in 1995. He was also consulted by the Auschwitz Museum. He was one of the experts consulted on the literary hoax by Misha Defonseca. Steinberg was a member of the Union des Progressistes Juifs de Belgique. He was a vocal critic of Holocaust denial.
Main works
Extermination, Sauvetage et Résistance des Juifs de Belgique, Bulletin périodique de documentation no. 4. Bruxelles: S. Scheebalg, April 1979; Dutch-language edition: Uitroeiing, redding en verzet van de Joden in België, Periodiek van documentatie nr. 4. Brussel: S. Schneebalg, April 1979; 63 p.
'The trap of legality: the Association of the Jews of Belgium', in: Yisrael Gutman, Cynthia J. Haft, Patterns of Jewish Leadership in Nazi Europe 1933–1945. Proceedings of the Third Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, April 4–7, 1977, pp. 353–375. Reprint in: Michael R. Marrus, The Nazi Holocaust; historical articles on the destruction of European Jews, vol. VI-2, pp. 797–820.
Die Endlösung der Judenfrage in Belgien. Dokumente. New York/Paris: The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation/CDJC, 1980.
Le Dossier Bruxelles-Auschwitz. La police SS et l’extermination des Juifs de Belgique. Bruxelles: Comité belge de Soutien à la partie civile dans le procès des officiers SS Ehlers, Asche, Canaris, responsables de la deportation des Juifs de Belgique, October 1980; 224 p. Dutch-language edition: Dossier Brussel-Auschwitz. De SS-politie en de uitroeiïng van de joden. Brussel: Steuncomité bij de burgerlijke partij in het proces tegen de voormalige SS-officieren Ehlers, Asche, Canaris, verantwoordelijk voor de wegvoering van de joden van België, April 1981; 232 p.
Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de Belgique. Bruxelles/New York: Union des Déportés juifs en Belgiques/The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1982; second, revised edition Revised and updated Dutch-language edition: Memoriaal van de deportatie der Joden uit België. Brussels/New York: Vereniging der joodse weggevoerden en rechthebbenden in België, The Beate Klarsfeld Foundation, 1992.
L’Étoile et le Fusil, tome I: La question juive 1940–1942. Bruxelles: Vie Ouvrière, 1983.
L’Étoile et le Fusil, tome II: 1942: les cent jours de la déportation des Juifs de Belgique. Bruxelles: Vie Ouvrière, 1984.
L’Étoile et le Fusil, tome III: La traque des Juifs, 1942–1944. Bruxelles: Vie Ouvrière, 1987; 2 volumes.
'Faced with the Final Solution in Occupied Belgium. The Church’s Silence and Christian Action', in: Yehuda Bauer et al., Remembering for the Future. Working Papers and Addenda, vol. 3, pp. 2745–2758.
Les yeux du témoin et le regard du borgne. L'histoire face au révisionnisme. Paris: Le Cerf, 1990. Dutch-language edition : De ogen van het monster. De holocaust dag in dag uit. Antwerp/Baarn: Hadewijch, 1992; 182 p.
'The Jews in the Years 1940–1944: Three Strategies for Coping with a Tragedy', in: Dan Michman, Belgium and the Holocaust: Jews, Belgians, Germans, pp. 347–372.
Un pays occupé et ses Juifs: Belgique entre France et Pays-Bas. Gerpinnes: Quorum, en collaboration avec le Centre Européen d'Études sur la Shoah, l'Antisémitisme et le Génocide, laboratoire de l'Institut d'Études du Judaïsme près de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1999; 314 p.
La Persécution des Juifs en Belgique . Bruxelles: Complexe, 2004; 318 p.
Transport XX. Mechelen-Auschwitz. Brussels: VUB Press, 2008.
