Its true function, they say, is to mask other historical crimes and to ascribe an overexaggerated role to the murder of the Jews in German collective memory. This volume seeks to counter such arguments.

Saul Friedländer, Norbert Frei, Sybille Steinbacher, and Dan Diner take different perspectives to show why there is good historical reason to insist on the unprecedented nature of the Holocaust. At the same time, they demonstrate that more space needs to be given to the memory of colonial without pushing aside critical discussions of the Holocaust. Jürgen Habermas opens the volume with a short text "instead of a preface."