Theory of History vis-à-vis two World Wars and the Holocaust

The author poses two questions: Is there anything new that the two World Wars and the Holocaust introduce to the methodology of history or rather to the self-consciousness of history as a scientific discipline? What do these events change in the way we perceive the importance and function of historiography in culture? The article consists of introductory remarks, main text and conclusions. Key considerations are divided into six parts: 1. The First World War and the Turn to Memory, 2. World War Two and the Question about Theory of History, 3. Political Context, 4. The Ethical Turn, 5. Auschwitz, History, and the Power of Judgment, 6. The Hilberg Case. A reconstruction of the methodological consciousness of history is carried out on the basis of the research categories and attitudes proposed by such authors as Habermas, Ricoeur, Jaspers, and Bourdieu. Using some of these ideas, it culminates in the interpretation of Hilberg’s theory of historiography. The ideas are, among other things, the following: critical theory, ethical turn, power of judgment, non-dualistic epistemology and ontology.