Professor David Bankier

Professor David Bankier (z”l) was the Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research – Yad Vashem from August 2000 to Febuary 2010.  Born in Zeckendorf, Germany in 1947, he pursued his undergraduate and graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was the Jonah Machower Professor of Holocaust History at the Institute of Contemporary Jewry.  Over the years, Professor Bankier served as visiting professor at universities in London, the United States, South Africa and South America, was involved in developing centers of Jewish studies in Latin America, and promoted academic publications in Spanish. In 2000, he was appointed Head of the International Institute for Holocaust Research at Yad Vashem, and Incumbent of the John Najmann Chair of Holocaust Studies.

Professor Bankier was an esteemed scholar with a distinct approach to Holocaust research. The majority of his studies dealt with persecutors and bystanders – an area of research previously studied mainly by Germans and other nationals – but from the viewpoint of a researcher of Jewish history seeking to understand the Jewish dimension within wider developments. Among his topics of interest was how antisemitism became the most central and efficient tool used by the Nazi regime to sustain the flame of its ideology, both in its in its internal regime struggles and in its efforts to recruit the masses. Bankier published 120 scholarly studies, including his notable book, The Germans and the Final Solution: Public Opinion Under Nazism. A recently published book collates a selection of Professor Bankier’s articles that reflect his principal scientific approach: “Hitler, the Holocaust and German Society: Cooperation and Awareness.”

List of Publications of Professor Bankier:

• David Bankier,  The Germans and the Final Solution. Public opinion under Nazism, 1992,  19962, 20013, 206 pp., Basil Blackwell, Oxford and Boston,  (includes revised  chs 2-5 of #1 and see # 3).
• David Bankier, Die öffentliche Meinung im Hitler-Staat. Die “Endlösung” und die Deutschen, Eine Berichtigung, 1995, 299 pp., Berlin Verlag, Berlin, (augmented German translation of # 2, includes revised chs 2-5 of #1).
• Peter Geiger, Arthur Brunhart, David Bankier, Dan Michman, Carlo Moos, Erika Weinzierl,  Fragen zu Liechtenstein in der NS-Zeit und im Zweiten Weltkrieg: Flüchtlinge, Vermögenswerte, Kunst, Rüstungsproduktion, 2005, 302 pp., Chronos, Zürich.
• Peter Geiger, Arthur Brunhart I, David Bankier I, Dan Michman, Carlo Moos, Erika Weinzierl I, Questions concerning Liechtenstein during the National Socialist period and the Second Word War, 2009, 299 pp. HVFL-Chronos,Vaduz, Zürich (English translation of 4.).
• David Bankier, Hitler, the Holocaust and German Society, 2007, 367 pp., Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, (includes revised versions of # 53, 86, 22, 62, 63, 38, 59, 70, 71, 36, 34, 47, 58, 37, 44, 65).
• David Bankier, The Holocaust in the Lithuanian province, Yad Vashem, Jerusalem (forthcoming).

To download the full list of publications of professor Bankier click here.