Nazi antisemitism was novel for demanding genealogical proof, not for its slogans

Evidence

Among a host of competing antisemitic groups and in an atmosphere rife with antisemitism, Nazi propaganda developed a method of treating this subject which was different from and superior to all others. Still, not one Nazi slogan was new—not even Hitler’s shrewd picture of a class struggle caused by the Jewish businessman who exploits his workers, while at the same time his brother in the factory courtyard incites them to strike. The only new element was that the Nazi party demanded proof of non-Jewish descent for membership and that it remained, the Feder program notwithstanding, extremely vague about the actual measures to be taken against Jews once it came to power. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 835

Categorization

• DEFINE: Arendt isolates the mechanism that distinguishes Nazi antisemitism from prior antisemitic opinion: genealogical self-definition through membership screening.
• XREF: Connects forward to the Islamophobia readings on how exclusionary movements operationalize identity via imposed descent/lineage tests. — connects to: Berlin’s genealogy tainted positive liberty by associating it with dubious sources — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 103