but wrote that: “It is to be hoped that Ernst Nolte's suggestion that we should remain more keenly aware of the various million-fold mass murders of this century bears fruit. When one seeks orientation about this-and about the role of mass murder in history-one is surprised by how difficult it is to find. This would appear to be an area that historical research should look into. By pursuing these questions, one can recognize more precisely the peculiarity of our century-and certain similarities in its “liquidations”. But Nolte's hope to be able to attenuate this distressing aspect of our Nazi past will probably not succeed. If we, and much speaks for this, to prevent National Socialist history from becoming an enduring negative myth about absolute evil, then we will have to seek other paths”. Meier praised Nolte in his article “Standing Things On Their Head” for speaking to “modify” the thesis that he had introduced in “The Past That Will Not Pass” about the “causal nexus” by claiming the “causal nexus” only existed in Hitler's mind”. Meir expressed his approval of Jäckel's argument for the "singularity" of the Holocaust, writing that "industrial extermination" by Nazi Germany was a "qualitative leap". In response to Fest's argument that it was racist not to compare Germany with Cambodia, Meir stated that Germany by being a First World nation had "duties" that a Third World nation like Cambodia did not. Meir wrote the Historikerstreit was really about the future, namely how to "live with a past that is so deeply anchored in our consciousness?". Meir wrote that historians are always influenced by the present and historians "should also be able to discern uncomfortable truths". About Stürmer's call for history as an unifying force to hold together West German society for the Cold War, Meir wrote that Habermas had the right to challenge him, but did not understand the Atlanticist Stürmer was not an advocate of Germany as a Central European power as he alleged. Meir called Stürmer's theories as "probably not...illegitimate", but argued that a democratic society was always going to have diverse opinions. Meir ended his essay that the problems faced by Germans was: "How are going to live with this history and what conclusions can we draw from it?...We will make no progress if we use the Nazi past as a club in partisan disputes...But it is to be wished that the center,