DANIEL JONAH GOLDHAGEN is the author of the controversial book "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust" (Vintage Books, paperback). In the book he offers evidence that ordinary Germans knowingly cooperated in the Holocaust, that they were motivated by anti-Semitism not by economic hardship, coercion, or psychological pressures, as usually put forth by historians. GOLDHAGEN is Associate Professor of Government and Social Studies at Harvard University. SAUL FRIEDLANDER is the author of "Nazi Germany and the Jews, Vo. 1: The Years of Persecution 1933-1939" (HarperCollins). In the book he examines the period looking at how Hitler's "murderous rage" and ideologies, converged with internal political pressures, and attitudes of German and European societies to create the Holocaust. FRIEDLANDER is also the author of the memoir "When Memory Comes" (Farrar Straus Giroux). He was born in Prague and was seven when his parents "hid" him in a Catholic seminary in France where he took on a new identity. His parents died in the Holocaust. It wasn't until years later as FRIEDLANDER was studying for the priesthood, that he rediscovered his Jewish heritage. FREIDLANDER teaches at Tel Aviv University and at UCLA. (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES THRU THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW)12:28:30 FORWARD PROMO (:29)12:29:00 I.D. BREAK (:59)12:30:00 SAUL FRIEDLANDER interview cont'd.Floating :30 I.D 12:35 and 12:45]SAUL FRIEDLANDER interview cont'd.12:58:30 NEXT SHOW PROMO (:29) PROMO COPYOn today's Fresh air -- re-examining the Holocaust. . .Terry Gross talks with DANIEL JONAH GOLDHAGEN, (pronounced GOLD-hay-gen) author of the controversial bestseller, "Hitler's Willing Executioners" about how ordinary Germans knowingly cooperated in the Holocaust...Then a look at the early days of the Nazi regime and the forces that converged to create the Holocaust. . . with historian SAUL FRIEDLANDER, author of volume one of "Nazi Germany and the Jews." His own parents were killed in the Holocaust, and during the war he was sent to a Catholic seminary where he assumed a new identity. That's coming up on today's Fresh Air.
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