Abstract
The term “Nazism” is both a symbol and synonym of antisemitism, specifically antisemitism expressed as genocidal violence against Jews. Nazism relied on a polymorphous image of “the Jew” and merged the possibility of destruction with the power to carry it out. By using state power and war to turn anti-Jewish ideas into policies and practices on a massive scale, Nazism transformed what antisemitism was and could be. This process is analyzed in three stages: antisemitism as ideology, antisemitism in power, and antisemitism as a product of the Holocaust—a cause and also a consequence of annihilation.
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Notes
- 1.
Parts of this chapter are revised from Bergen (2010).
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Bergen, D.L. (2021). Nazism. In: Goldberg, S., Ury, S., Weiser, K. (eds) Key Concepts in the Study of Antisemitism. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51658-1_14
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