The Holocaust was not the logical culmination of prior antisemitism

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 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Vandalizing cemeteries is anti-Semitism’s essence, not an excess — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 142; Goldhagen claimed anti-Semitism alone but sufficiently explains the Holocaust at every level — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 314; Inferiority alone cannot justify genocide; danger claims are required — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 2160 (+22 more)

Broader Connections

• The commonsense antisemitism-explains-Holocaust causal link collapses under scrutiny. #corroborates (0.95) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 114