Nathan Stoltzfus


Nathan Stoltzfus is an American historian and Rintels Professor of Holocaust Studies in the history department at Florida State University. He is noted for his work on protest during the Nazi era, particularly the Rosenstrasse Protest that has sparked debate and discussion about the possibility and impact of protest in Nazi Germany. He was educated at Goshen College and Harvard University, and has authored or edited five books.

Books

One of his books, Resistance of the Heart: Intermarriage and the Rosenstrasse Protest in Nazi Germany was co-recipient of the Fraenkel Prize in Contemporary History. German and French translations carried a foreword by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Fischer wrote in his forward that "The women of the Rosenstrasse will, thanks to Nathan Stoltzfus, take their well-deserved place in the so contradictory history of the German resistance against the brown barbarism." American historian Walter Laqueur wrote in the forward that "Stoltzfus is the first to investigate the events leading to the protest systematically and in depth, not only on the basis of archival material but, more importantly perhaps, on the basis of interviews with surviving participants and eyewitnesses.... and it is to Dr. Stoltzfus's great credit that he has saved from oblivion some of these unsung heroes. For heroes they were.... Their memory, not least owing to Dr. Stoltzfus's study, will live on....Fascinating and moving In Britain it was a New Statesman "Book of the Year". Additionally, it was #2 on the German Bestenliste for nonfiction and a Main Selection of the Swedish Book Club Clio.Die Zeit called it the "standard work" on the protest, which was the center of a little Historikerstreit. As Die Zeit reported on February 27, 2013: After the war the protest action in the Rosenstrasse was a long almost forgotten episode of Nazi history. When U.S. historian Nathan Stoltzfus wrote in 1989 about the demonstration he unleashed an "ongoing controversy."
He has contributed to other books including Social Outsiders in Nazi Germany, co-edited with Robert Gellately; Shades of Green: Environmental Activism around the Globe, co-edited with Doug Weiner and Christof Mauch, Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People, co-authored with five professors of history, political science, and sociology; Nazi Crimes and the Law, co-edited with Henry Friedlander.

Recent works

Nathan Stoltzfus is currently working on the impact of the Cold War and its demise on national memories and representations of World War II in several European countries.