Wolfgang Benz wrote the book on anti-Semitism in Germany – several, in fact. The 83-year-old historian has produced an eight-volume standard work as well as popular books explaining the phenomenon to a wider audience. It is thanks to his 1991 Dimensions of Genocide, pulling together 17 regional studies of historical sources, that we have a confirmed Holocaust death toll of between 5.29 and 6.1 million. After decades shaping German memory work on the Nazi era, however, Benz tells The Irish Times he is “a little frustrated that it was all for nothing”. He worries the October 7th Hamas attacks have...