Norman Goda | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1961-04-25)25 April 1961 (age 63) |
| Occupation(s) | Historian, author, editor |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Academic work | |
| Era | 20th century |
| Institutions | University of Florida Ohio University |
| Main interests | Modern European history[broken anchor] History of international relations Intelligence operations |
Norman J. W. Goda (born April 25, 1961) is an American historian specialised in the history ofNazi Germany and theHolocaust. He is a professor of history at theUniversity of Florida, where he is the Norman and Irma Braman Professor of Holocaust Studies.[1]
Goda is the author of several books on the international policy ofNazi Germany, the Holocaust, and theCold War. He also serves as a historical consultant for theNazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group of the United StatesNational Security Archive, tasked with reviewing the previously-classified intelligence documents ofWorld War II and its aftermath.[2]
Goda is the co-author of the bookU.S. Intelligence and the Nazis, which was published in 2005 byCambridge University Press and based on materials that were declassified under the 1998Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act.
Reviewing the book in the journalHistory, the historianSteven Casey called the book "remarkable" and noted that book "sheds new light on three controversial aspects of the war and post-war period:" how much US intelligence organisations knew about theHolocaust, the crimes of individual Nazi perpetrators, and the "extent to which US intelligence knowingly collaborated with war criminals during the cold war." Casey noted:[3]
Breitman et al. have used these [declassified documents] to write a series of measured case studies, which, unsurprisingly, confirm that many post-war exculpatory accounts by leading Nazis were highly misleading. Indeed, whereas figures such as SD Intelligence ChiefWalter Schellenberg sought to depict themselves as reluctant Nazis who had tried their best to save the lives of concentration camp victims or to bring the war to a swift conclusion, the new documents confirm that they were actually ruthless individuals who not only had plenty of blood on their hands but also remained wedded if not to the Nazi cause then at least to their Nazi comrades long after May 1945.
