Language:
English
Year of publication:
1999
Titel der Quelle:
Holocaust and Genocide Studies
Angaben zur Quelle:
13,2 (1999) 252-271
Keywords:
Sartre, Jean-Paul,
;
Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah.
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
Abstract:
In "Hitler's Willing Executioners, " Goldhagen advances the "cognitive" thesis that Germans who participated in the Holocaust were motivated primarily by their false belief that Jews, by their very nature, were harmful to Germany and thus deserved to be eliminated. Paradoxically, this thesis mitigates the moral culpability of the perpetrators - those who believed that they killed for the well-being of their country cannot be accused to the same degree as opportunistic killers. Besides, Goldhagen's thesis fails to explain how "ordinary" perpetrators could sustain their false beliefs in the face of horrific contrary evidence. Sartre, in whose conception antisemitism is a passion rather than an idea, and who considers knowing and not-knowing to be a matter of individual free choice, provides a better explanation of how the perpetrators could sustain their belief and action and preserve moral culpability.
DOI:
10.1093/hgs/13.2.252
URL:
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