Although I am technically not a professional historian (I do not have a formal education or training in history and my main occupation is consulting in business and knowledge management), I still adhere to the following professional creed of genuine historians:
- Our job is genuine history, not political propaganda (pro-Nazi, anti-Nazi or any other kind)
- History as a science; consequently, we do not make moral judgements. As genuine historians, we only uncover what happened and when; who did what, when and why; what were the intended and actual consequences of historic decisions and actions and if they were different, then why
- In genuine history, there is no such thing as “Good” or “Evil”; however, there are right and wrong (good and bad) decisions and actions
- Therefore, a genuine historian can and must make functional judgements – whether certain decisions and actions by individuals in question were the best ones in those particular circumstances
- Likewise, a genuine historian can and must make legal judgements – whether certain decisions and actions by individuals in question constituted a crime (i.e. a war crime or a crime against humanity)
- Genuine historic research must be based not on emotions (let alone stereotypes or prejudices), but strictly on indisputable facts, rock-solid logic and good old common sense
- The objective of any genuine research is to produce a genuinely comprehensive picture of the object in question
- Any historic research project is about knowledge management – collecting, structuring and analyzing data and subsequent mining of historical knowledge; consequently, every genuine historian must have solid training and experience in knowledge management
- There is no such thing as “mainstream” and “revisionist” history – there is only genuine history – and political propaganda
The Essential Guide to Nazi Germany 