The Holocaust’s perpetrators were ordinary educated men of their era, not deviants.

Evidence

The truth he does show brings no comfort. It is unlikely to make anybody happy. ‘They were educated men of their time. That is the crux of the question whenever we ponder the meaning of Western Civilization after Auschwitz. Our evolution has outpaced our understanding; we can no longer assume that we have a full grasp of the workings of our social institutions, bureaucratic structures, or technology.’ — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 236

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the core scaffolding claim: bureaucratic/technological civilization, not individual pathology, enabled the Holocaust.
• XREF: Connects to the genocide definition debates that distinguish Holocaust uniqueness from its bureaucratic normality. — connects to: Holocaust perpetrators were ordinary citizens acting without personal anti-Jewish resentment. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 682; Holocaust perpetrators were normal and their institutions socially non-pathological — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 89; The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 82 (+2 more)

Related

• Holocaust perpetrators were normal and their institutions socially non-pathological (similarity 0.88)
• Holocaust perpetrators were ordinary citizens acting without personal anti-Jewish resentment. (similarity 0.88)
• Every ingredient enabling the Holocaust was normal for modern civilization (similarity 0.87)
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm (similarity 0.84)
• The Holocaust must be read as integral to modernity, not as its aberration. (similarity 0.84)
• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure (similarity 0.84)
• The Holocaust required neutralizing popular attitudes, not mobilizing them (similarity 0.84)
• The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. (similarity 0.83)
• All Holocaust scholarship is ultimately a debate over modernity’s self-image. (similarity 0.83)
• Modernity’s institutions actively enabled and supplied the Holocaust (similarity 0.83)
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust question must keep its full weight and horror (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust rendered Western civilization itself incomprehensible, not just the event. (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust is a by-product of runaway modernist design (similarity 0.82)
• The Holocaust resulted from distinctly modern social and political conditions (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 82
• Modern antisemitism is a learned theoretical product, not raw experience. #qualifies (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 229
• The Holocaust required neutralizing popular attitudes, not mobilizing them #responds-to (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 522