Shoah, antisemitism, war and genocide: Text and context

Abstract

The chapter seeks to discuss the differences between the two totalitarian regimes, Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union, with regard to World War II and the Holocaust. Antisemitism was at the core of the Nazi project, and was a central motivation for the very Nazi desire to start a war. It proposes to differentiate between the core of the Holocaust and its nearer and wider contexts, and suggests an approach that is basically a global one. Among the wider contexts is the issue of a comparison between the Holocaust and other genocides.