Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Understanding the Nazi Genocide
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1999) 7-25
Keywords:
Marx, Karl,
;
Auschwitz (Concentration camp)
;
Nazi concentration camps
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1945
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Socialism History 20th century
Abstract:
Describes Nazi Germany's ideology of antisemitism, how Auschwitz became the major site for the killing of Jews and how the word Auschwitz became a synonym for the Holocaust, and postwar Marxist and socialist writers' attitudes toward the mass murder, which most of them insisted on viewing as just another event in the war. Proposes to adopt the term Auschwitz as a paradigm, because it arouses a vision in the mind of the horror of the Holocaust, whereas the words Holocaust and Shoah have become a generalization. States that Auschwitz requires that we reread Marx critically, and that we make a qualitative distinction between the different theoretical traditions that his founding work engendered. At the same time, Marxism will not be able to renew itself if it turns out to be incapable of understanding Auschwitz, the modern barbarism.
Note:
Appeared previously in French as "Auschwitz, Marx et le XXe siècle" in "Critique communiste" 143 (1995) and in his collected articles "Pour une critique de la barbarie moderne" (1997) 75-98; in German as "Auschwitz, Marx und das 20. Jahrhundert" in "Ausblicke auf das vergangene Jahrhundert" (1996) and in his collected articles "Nach Auschwitz" (2000) 13-33.
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