Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust: Language, Rhetoric and the Traditions of Hatred(Perspectives on the Holocaust)

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, a 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.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures 1. Introduction: 'Us' versus 'Them' 2. The Rise of Religious Anti-Semitism 3. The Rise of 'Modern' Anti-Semitism and War 4. Hitler's Rise to Power and the Radicalization of Anti-Semitic Policies 5. Turning Points 6. Resettlements, Deportations and Ghettos 7. Einsatzgruppen, Executions and 'Evacuation' to the East 8. The Final Solution Glossary Select Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Beth A. Griech-Polelle is the Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies and Associate Professor of History at Pacific Lutheran 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).

Review :
“[A] close, conscientious and absorbing examination of Jewish life from the time of Jesus onward … Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust deserves a place in any Holocaust student's library, since it makes crystal clear just how and why the Holocaust happened. This volume would also make a marvelous textbook for any course on anti-Semitism or Jewish history. As a textbook, Antisemitism and the Holocaust comes with a number of pedagogical tools. Most importantly, every chapter contains two primary document excerpts each of which has a short, helpful introduction as well as very useful questions for the reader to consider. [A] great introduction to the subject matter and a good choice for undergraduates. For any student or member of the broader public who would like to have a thoughtful and well written introduction to how the most extraordinary horror of the 20th Century came to be, this book offers precisely that. Here the reader can track beliefs and myths, policies and deeds, over the centuries on the path from the split of Christianity from Judaism to the termination of all moral values in the Holocaust. In her study, Beth Griech-Polelle brings together both revelatory primary sources and cutting edge scholarship to offer a compelling and highly readable narrative that focuses on the central role that antisemitism played in nurturing the annihilative ideology of National Socialism. She convincingly shows the link between Christian antisemitism and Nazi racial antisemitism. Her prose is eloquent, insightful and engaging. The book will draw in students and readers alike to understand the complexity of the period surrounding the Holocaust and the Second World War. I highly recommend this immensely valuable work. This succinct yet remarkably comprehensive survey of the transformation of a long tradition of anti-Jewish stereotypes, rhetoric, and imagery into an antisemitic ideology, and its culmination in a vast genocidal undertaking, will serve as an outstanding tool for teaching and studying the history of prejudice, racial hatred, and violence. Using the most updated scholarly literature and carefully selected documents, Beth Beth Griech-Polelle's Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust successfully introduces an immensely complex episode from the darkest recesses of human history not only from the perspective of the ideologues and perpetrators but also by giving voice to the victims they had hoped to silence. A wonderful achievement. Griech-Polelle presents a tightly wound narrative and addresses important aspects of how Hitler and the Nazi regime were able to draw from historical traditions to build a system which normalised antisemitism ... a worthy introduction to the topic [which] leaves readers wanting more.