Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (born 1959) is an American political scientist most famous for his book, Hitler's Willing Executioners, which hypothesizes that all ordinary Germans were actively in favour of the holocaust because of the supposedly unique and virulent "elliminationist" anti-semitism that was a part of the common consciousness in Germany throughout history. He claims that this special mentality cannot be fully understood by non-Germans and that it was unique to Germany; Elliminationist anti-semitism grew out of medieval attitudes that were religiously based. Later they became more secularly based, but the anti-semitism remained the same.

The book was published in 1996 and caused a great deal of media interest. The debate about his theory has been intense; most other historians reject Goldhagen's thesis. The most common complaints are that the theory is simplistic, unprovable, and his arguments are based on a very limited number of sources. Some critics believe that Goldhagen made factual errors, such as in his claims about the attitude of the church toward the Nazi party. Others doubt the throroughness of his research since some claims he makes seem to be intended to revolutionize the field, but have already been made. Still another problem is his lack of comparison to other countries: Germany is treated as an isolated case, but many of the same phenomena were observed in France, Hungary, and other countries. The fact that Jews were highly successful and that the country had some of the most liberal Jewish laws in Europe in the late 19th century is also raised as a counterpoint to his theory.

His book has been fairly well received by many in the public at large and it remained a best seller for many months.