Contributor(s): Professor Timothy Snyder | The opening of borders and archives has permitted a much fuller acquaintance with the victims of the Holocaust as well as with the motivation and behaviours of the German perpetrators and the East Europeans who aided them in the murder. Must the national history of Eastern Europe now collapse into nothing more than a prehistory of catastrophe? Timothy Snyder is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2013-14.