"Goldhagen's book is useless as scholarship." (Finkelstein and Birn, 1998) In light of the public success of Daniel Goldhagen's book, Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. After its publication in 1996, Daniel Goldhagen's doctoral thesis and the book Hitler's Willing. Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust (Goldhagen, 1996) has attracted great fascination and popular interest, almost more than any previous historical research on the Holocaust. His book seemed to hypnotize the public and the press; as "one of those rare new works that deserve the appellation of landmark". (Bernstein, 1996). The book sold eighty thousand German copies in the first month (Adams, 2011) and, as a result, Goldhagen toured the world hosting sold-out debates, featuring in articles in Der Spiegel and Die Zeit and appearing on several television talk shows (Ullrich, 1996) (Spiegel Online, 1997) (Ridderbusch, 1996) However, it also aroused disgust from some Holocaust researchers and encountered other rebuttal works “is not at all a learned investigation; " (Finkelstein and Birn, 1998, p.4) and "[h]is moral theory is radically incomplete" (Smith, 1997, pp. 48-57). ” (Locke, 2007, p.26), “[r ]full of gross misinterpretations of the secondary literature” (Finkelstein and Birn, 1998, p.4) and “simply terrible” (Jäckel, 2007, p.161). a...... middle of paper .......html [Accessed: 13 February 2014].Rieger, B. 1997. 'Daniel in the Lion's Den?'The German Debate about Goldhagen's “Hitler's Willing Executioners.” Smith, R.W. 1997. “Ordinary Germans,” The Holocaust and Responsibility: Hitler's Willing Executioners 'Holocaust. 2nd ed. Pennsylvania: Merion Westfield Press International, pp. 48-57 Online, G. 1997. Holocaust als Andachtsbild. [online] Available at: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-8812232.html [Accessed: 13 February 2014].Ullrich, V. 1996. : Daniel J. Goldhagen in Deutschland: Die Buchtournee wurde zum Triumphzug. [online] Available at: http://www.zeit.de/1996/38/goldhg.txt.19960913.xml [Accessed: 13 February 2014].Weingart, P. and Pansegrau, P. 1998. Reputation in der Wissenschaft und Prominenz in den Medien: Die Goldhagen-Debatte.