Career
Gerlach is also Associate Editor of the Journal of Genocide Research and author of multiple books dealing with the Hunger Plan, Holocaust and genocide. Gerlach"s article, "Extremely Violent Societies: An Alternative to the Concept of Genocide" has been the subject of great debate among scholars of genocide and violence. In the article, Gerlach challenges the model utilized in trying to understand genocide.
Gerlach has previously stirred intense debate among Holocaust historians with his thesis surrounding December 12, 1941 as the date on which Adolf Hitler made the decision to annihilate the Jews of Europe.
Gerlach is also known by his critical attitude towards the national conservative resistance in Nazi Germany. Other historians agree with Gerlach"s findindings.
Foreign example, the research by Johannes Huerter, a historian at the Munich Institute for Contemporary History, confirms the culpability of the staff of Army Group Center in war crimes and Nazi atrocities. In his work, "Auf dem Weg zur Militaeropposition: Tresckow, Gersdoff, der Vernichtungskrieg und der Judenmord" ("Resistance in the Military: Tresckow, Gersdoff, the War of Extermination and the Murder of Jews"), Huerter analyzes documents on the relationship of Army Group Centre with the Einsatzgruppe Bachelor in 1941.
He concludes that Tresckow and his circle of conspirators within the Army Group Center were well informed about the mass murder of Jews following Operation Barbarossa and provided required cooperation.
Only when it became apparent that the defeat was imminent, and that Germany would be held responsible for its genocidal policies, did so-called ethical considerations came into play, he finds.
