Professor Peter Hayes (Northwestern U.) specializes in
thehistory of Germany in the 20th century, particularly the Nazi
period. He did an admirable speaking job, presenting a dark and
serious topic while dealing gracefully with the challenges of a
late evening audience digesting its dinner and a very noisy,
joyful event happening in the room next door. Learn more about
Peter Hayes at
http://www.history.northwestern.edu/people/hayes.html. Professor
Hayes challenged eight widely-believed "facts" about the
Holocaust, pointing out that when the public thinks it knows
something, scholarship often has trouble making itself heard.
His hope was that the audience at AJL might be more receptive
than many others, and allow new ideas to penetrate. Here are the
eight misconceptions that, when examined more closely, turn out
to be untrue. (From notes scribbled during the keynote address,
please forgive any errors.) 1. Anti-semitism played a major role
in bringing Hitler to power. Apparently we've put the cart
before the ho