Language:
German
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Vergegenwärtigungen des zerstörten jüdischen Erbes
Angaben zur Quelle:
(1997) 271-284
Keywords:
Scapegoat Case studies
;
Antisemitism History
;
Jews History
;
Christianity and other religions Judaism
;
Christianity and antisemitism
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
Abstract:
A speech delivered at the Universität-Gesamthochschule Kassel in July 1996. Examines various aspects of the phenomenon of scapegoating in Germany - psychological, religious, economic and political. Notes that the Jews have played the role of scapegoat in Christian society throughout history. Enumerates four conditions for the development of a scapegoat: he has to be easily distinguishable, he has to be accessible, he must not be able to fight back, and he must have already served as a scapegoat at an earlier time enabling a slight incident to immediately arouse a strong aggressive response. The Jew meets all of these expectations. In Christian anti-Jewish polemics, the negative feelings are not directed against a real group of Jews but against an abstract image of the Jew. Within the Christian Church, the believer can express his "forbidden" aggression against the scapegoat on a different, tolerated level.
Note:
Appeared also in "Aus der Geschichte lernen? Chancen der Aufklärung nach Auschwitz" (1997) 65-88, in "Jüdische Selbstwahrnehmung" (1997) 27-43, and in his collected articles "Kein Plädoyer für eine Luftschaukel" (2011) 95-118.
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