Bill Niven

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Bill Niven (born October 28, 1956 in Kilmarnock , Ayrshire ) is a Scottish historian of contemporary German history and author of scientific works. In Germany he became known through his book "Das Buchenwaldkind".

Life

Niven received his PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews in 1984 . From 1993 to 1998 he taught at the University of Aberdeen , then initially worked as a lecturer and since 2005 as professor for German contemporary history at Nottingham Trent University .

The beech forest child

The work gives its title to the story of Stefan Jerzy Zweig , who was brought to the Buchenwald concentration camp as a three-year-old and whose life story was processed by Bruno Apitz in the novel Nackt unter Wölfen . Niven, however, extends the view and deals generally with the “beech forest myth ”, which he describes as a founding myth of the GDR . Niven understands the Buchenwald myth to mean that Buchenwald was liberated by the prisoners themselves.

The book is structured as follows:

  • The rescue of Stefan Jerzy Zweig
  • The creation of the myth of Buchenwald
  • Origin and effect of "Naked among wolves"
  • The movie " Naked Among Wolves "
  • Stefan Jerzy Zweig and the GDR
  • The deconstruction of the myth of the beech forest child

Niven notes that the depiction of Bruno Apitz and the official reading in the GDR differ from the actual events. In particular, he points out the following points (not exhaustive):

  • Stefan Jerzy Zweig was taken to Buchenwald with his father and captured by the SS . He was not secretly smuggled in by a stranger. The father, Zacharias Zweig, was still imprisoned in Buchenwald.
  • The rescue operation began when Zweig was about to be deported to Auschwitz and ended with the fact that he was struck off the deportation list through the deployment of the illegal camp management.
  • A large number of children were imprisoned in Buchenwald at all times.


The work was largely positive.

The Germany radio praises:

“The author knows how to structure and deconstruct the Buchenwald myth with the help of the semi-authentic rescue story. Niven finds a very clear language and evaluates precisely and differentiated. Both the historical policy of the GDR and our current policy, which he defamed as anti-communist, he appreciates very critically and controversially. An exciting, stimulating book about the constant reshaping of history according to the needs of the present. "

The Fritz Bauer Institute writes:

“From the outside, Bill Niven looks at an“ inner-German ”story. This distance enables him to have a moderating tone and to bring him up to the present. Such a critical accompaniment of the national history politics and memory formation is highly desirable. "

The Buchenwald camp work group of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime - Bund der Antifaschisteninnen and Antifascists - expresses itself very negatively :

“Bill Niven claims to reveal truth, fiction and propaganda on the subject. He almost completely disregards two elementary requirements for this. Firstly, the special conditions of the struggle of the German communists, as part of the international anti-fascist resistance front, whose great merit is to have organized themselves illegally, the security of the organization naturally requiring the separation from others, and that they have the opportunities available to them for the interests of the inmates. Second, the political conditions in Germany in the 1950s, which were restored in the FRG through the installation of the political, economic, military and intellectual forces that had survived the trials against Nazi activists and war criminals on the basis of Article 131 of the Basic Law were in office and dignity. "

Works (selection)

  • The reception of Friedrich Hebbel in Germany in the era of national socialism , 1984, Stuttgart, Hans-Dieter Heinz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-880-99146-0 '
  • Facing the Nazi past: united Germany and the legacy of the Third Reich , 2002, London, Routledge, ISBN 978-1-13457-551-0
  • The Buchenwald child: truth, fiction and propaganda , 2007, Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer
  • The Wilhelm Gustloff: History and memory of a downfall , 2011, Halle, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, ISBN 978-3-89812-781-3
  • Representations of flight and expulsion in East German prose works , 2014, Rochester, Camden House, ISBN 978-1-57113-535-3
  • The memory of flight and displacement. A handbook of media and practices , published jointly with S. Scholz and M. Röger, 2015, Paderborn, Schoeningh, ISBN 978-3-50677-266-4
  • Hitler and film: the Führer's hidden passion , 2018, New Haven (Connecticut), Yale University Press, ISBN 978-3-05005-857-3

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://prabook.com/web/bill.niven/146093 Prabook accessed on April 26, 2020
  2. ↑ https://prabook.com/web/bill.niven/146093 Prabook accessed on April 26, 2020
  3. ↑ https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/gestaltung-und-de Konstruktion-des-buchenwald-mythos.1310.de.html?dram:article_id= 193786 Deutschlandfunk accessed on April 30, 2020
  4. ↑ https://www.fritz-bauer-institut.de/fileadmin/editorial/publikationen/einsicht/einsicht-05.pdf Fritz-Bauer-Institut accessed on April 30, 2020
  5. ↑ https://lag-buchenwald.vvn-bda.de/2009/12/02/stellungnahme-der-lag-buchenwald-dora-ev-zu-bill-niven-das-buchenwaldkind-wahrheit-fiktion-und-propaganda -hallesaale-2009 / LAG Buchenwald-Dora eV accessed on April 30, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Niven, Bill
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niven, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British historian
DATE OF BIRTH October 28, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Kilmarnock , United Kingdom