The commonsense antisemitism-explains-Holocaust causal link collapses under scrutiny.

Evidence

There appear few causal links more transparent than that between antisemitism and the Holocaust. The Jews of Europe have been murdered because the Germans who did it, and their local helpers, were Jew-haters. The Holocaust was the spectacular climax of a centuries-long history of religious, economic, cultural and national resentment. This is the explanation of the Holocaust that first comes to mind. It ‘stands to reason’ (if one is allowed to indulge in paradoxes). And yet the apparent clarity of the causal link does not survive closer examination. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 114

Categorization

• XREF: The critique of the ‘stands to reason’ explanatory reflex parallels Foucault’s genealogy method and anticipates later work questioning commonsense causal accounts of exclusionary violence. — connects to: Antisemitism acted as a catalyst for Nazi rule, world war, and genocide; Antisemitism was added to Pan-German program rather than foundational to it; Antisemitism peaked after Jews had already lost economic influence (+10 more)

Related

• Antisemitism was added to Pan-German program rather than foundational to it (similarity 0.88)
• Antisemitism acted as a catalyst for Nazi rule, world war, and genocide (similarity 0.87)
• The scapegoat and eternal-antisemitism theories mirror totalitarian denial of human agency (similarity 0.84)
• The Holocaust fused antisemitism with social and political mechanisms of an entirely different character. (similarity 0.82)
• Traditional antisemitism negatively correlates with willingness to perpetrate genocide (similarity 0.81)
• Popular antisemitism contributed to the Holocaust chiefly through induced apathy. (similarity 0.81)
• The Holocaust must be read as integral to modernity, not as its aberration. (similarity 0.81)
• Historical scholarship increasingly supports the functionalist view of Holocaust causation. (similarity 0.80)
• The Holocaust should not define what antisemitism across history looks like (similarity 0.80)
• Nazi ideology encompassed antisemitic views that blamed Germans rather than Jews (similarity 0.80)
• Modern antisemitism is a learned theoretical product, not raw experience. (similarity 0.80)
• Heterophobia and boundary anxieties do not directly cause genocide. (similarity 0.80)
• Analogizing all oppression to the Holocaust is analytically counterproductive. (similarity 0.80)
• The Holocaust’s moral categories grew more contested after consensus about the facts settled (similarity 0.79)
• Theoretical antisemitism matters through its link to state social-engineering ambitions. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Traditional antisemitism negatively correlates with willingness to perpetrate genocide #corroborates (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 521
• Historical scholarship increasingly supports the functionalist view of Holocaust causation. #corroborates (0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 306