The Holocaust’s unbelievability and Western inaction drove Horkheimer from revolution theory to civilization theory.

Evidence

Nazi anti-Semitism was constantly intensifying and being aggravated by unbelievable actions, which most people for a long time did not, in fact, believe. The Western democracies made no resolute protests or large-scale efforts to assist. The Soviet Union was an exception, but had been Hitler’s ally until he attacked. Influenced by these facts, Horkheimer’s interests turned finally from the theory of the absent revolution to the theory of an absent civilization. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1294

Categorization

• XREF: Directly sets up the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s core thesis — connects to any material on the Enlightenment-barbarism paradox. — connects to: Horkheimer shifted revolutionary hope from the proletariat to criminals and the insane. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1473