Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust Language, Rhetoric and the Traditions of Hatred

by Griech-Polelle, Beth A.

• ISBN13: 9781472586926
• ISBN10: 1472586921
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2017-01-26
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust surveys the history of the Holocaust whilst demonstrating the pivotal importance of the historical tradition of anti-Semitism and the power of discriminatory language in relation to the Nazi-led persecution of the Jews.

The book examines varieties of anti-Semitism that have existed throughout history, from religious anti-Semitism in the ancient Roman Empire to the racial anti-Semitism of political anti-Semites in Germany and Austria in the late 19th century. Beth A. Griech-Polelle analyzes the tropes, imagery, legends, myths and stereotypes about Jews that have surfaced at these various points in time. Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust considers how this language helped to engender an innate distrust, dislike and even hatred of the Jews in 20th-century Europe. She explores the shattering impact of the First World War and the rise of Weimar Germany, Hitler's rhetoric and the first phase of Nazi anti-Semitism before illustrating how ghettos, SS Einsatzgruppen killing squads, death camps and death marches were used to drive this anti-Semitic feeling towards genocide.

With a wealth of primary source material, thorough engagement with significant Holocaust scholarship and numerous illustrations, reading lists and a glossary to provide further support, this is a vital book for any student of the Holocaust keen to know more about the language of hate which fuelled it.

Author Biography

Beth A. Griech-Polelle is Associate Professor of Modern European History at Bowling Green State University, USA. She is the author of Bishop von Galen: German Catholicism and National Socialism (2002). She is also the editor of The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial and Its Policy Consequences (2009) and the co-editor, along with Christina Guenther, of Trajectories of Memory: Intergenerational Representations of the Holocaust in History and the Arts (2008).

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Varieties of Anti-Semitism
3. The Shattering Impact of the First World War and the Rise of Weimar Germany
4. Hitler in Power and the First Phase of Anti-Semitic Actions
5. The Outbreak of the Second World War and the Creation of Ghettos
6. The Invasion of the Soviet Union and the Einsatzgruppen
7. The Creation of Death Camps
8. The Death Marches and a Search for Justice
9. The Impact of Liberation
Glossary
Index