The Holocaust rendered Western civilization itself incomprehensible, not just the event.

Evidence

It is not the Holocaust which we find difficult to grasp in all its monstrosity. It is our Western Civilization which the occurence of the Holocaust has made all but incomprehensible – and this at a time when we thought we had come to terms with it and seen through its innermost drives and even through its prospects, and at a time of its world-wide, unprecedented cultural expansion. If Hilberg is right, and our most crucial social institutions elude our mental and practical grasp, then it is not just the professional academics who ought to be worried. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 238

Categorization

• XREF: Inverts the usual framing of “understanding the Holocaust” — a move that carries into colonial-genocide readings. — connects to: The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 256; Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 71; The Holocaust was unimaginable because existing categories could not comprehend it. — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 240 (+5 more)

Related

• Comprehending the Holocaust requires breaking its own unfamiliar code (similarity 0.92)
• The Holocaust failed to transform sociology’s self-understanding of modern civilization. (similarity 0.89)
• Historical explanation of the Holocaust does not yield comprehension of its meaning for modernity. (similarity 0.89)
• The Holocaust must be read as integral to modernity, not as its aberration. (similarity 0.89)
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm (similarity 0.88)
• All Holocaust scholarship is ultimately a debate over modernity’s self-image. (similarity 0.88)
• The Holocaust reveals sociology’s inadequacy more than sociology explains the Holocaust (similarity 0.88)
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. (similarity 0.87)
• The Holocaust was unimaginable because existing categories could not comprehend it. (similarity 0.86)
• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure (similarity 0.86)
• Both dominant readings of the Holocaust leave sociology’s theory of modernity unchallenged (similarity 0.86)
• The Holocaust question must keep its full weight and horror (similarity 0.85)
• The Holocaust is a by-product of runaway modernist design (similarity 0.85)
• Every ingredient enabling the Holocaust was normal for modern civilization (similarity 0.84)
• Exceptionalist Holocaust readings let the rest of the world off the hook. (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• The Holocaust was a product of modern civilization, not merely its failure #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 256
• The Holocaust was unimaginable because existing categories could not comprehend it. #corroborates (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 240
• The Holocaust was a product of modernity, not pre-modern barbarity. #expands (0.85) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 82
• Modern civilization was a necessary but not sufficient condition of the Holocaust. #qualifies (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 71
• The Holocaust failed to transform sociology’s self-understanding of modern civilization. #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 242
• Historical explanation of the Holocaust does not yield comprehension of its meaning for modernity. #corroborates (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 629
• Comprehending the Holocaust requires breaking its own unfamiliar code #expands (0.80) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 15
• The Holocaust is a possibility modernity contains, not its paradigm #qualifies (0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 49