Book excerpt: The modes in which historical research is being shaped have become themselves topics of research. Holocaust historiography - the documentation, depiction and analysis of one of the most horrific events in human history - is today a wide ranging academic field in which Jewish and non-Jewish scholars throughout the world are active. But how did this historiography, especially its Jewish aspect, emerge and by what factors was it shaped? This volume examines the very beginnings of the effort to apply scholarly standards to the understanding of the Holocaust - when World War II was still raging and immediately after it had ended.