[5/5] “At the origins of anti-Semitism”: Nazi Germany and the Shoah

2024-02-17T04:10:42.022Z

Highlights: In the last episode of this special series on the origins of anti-Semitism, Virginie Girod receives Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat, historian, specialist in the Shoah. The idea that Jews form a race appeared in the second half of the 19th century, in the wake of naturalists' efforts to classify and prioritize species. In a Germany ravaged by the economic crisis of 1929 and the defeat in the First World War, the Nazi party made the Jew the scapegoat. During the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, a handful of Nazi officials set the terms for rationalizing the extermination of a people.

Adolf Hitler's Third Reich made anti-Semitism one of the foundations of the Nazi regime. These racial theories established as state doctrine in the 20th century led to the greatest genocide in history: the Shoah. In the last episode of this special series on the origins of anti-Semitism, Virginie Girod receives Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat, historian, specialist in the Shoah and project manager in the Memory and Citizenship Department of the National Office of War Combatants and Victims . The idea that Jews form a race appeared in the second half of the 19th century, in the wake of naturalists' efforts to classify and prioritize species. The French politician Arthur de Gobineau is one of the precursors of this racial anthropology with his Essay on the Inequality of Human Races in 1853. “We are going to move from Christian anti-Judaism to anti-Semitic biological racism” explains Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat "It is not based on any scientific logic. These theorists are guided by a form of ideology." Adolf Hitler nevertheless took up these racial theories to gain power. In a Germany ravaged by the economic crisis of 1929 and the defeat in the First World War, the Nazi party made the Jew the scapegoat. Having become chancellor, the Führer established anti-Semitism as a state doctrine. “It is one of the foundations of the Nazi regime. The laws will control, stigmatize, exclude then lead to assassination” develops the historian. On November 9, 1938, the Kristallnacht pogrom left around a hundred victims. “It is a manifestation of popular violence. We have a German society which, for part of it, is ready to come to blows with its Jewish neighbor” says Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat. "Between wanting the death of all Jews and carrying it out, there is a line. Those who will carry out the Shoah throughout Europe are a criminal elite of 4,000-5,000 men: those from the mobile killing units and those who supervise the killing centers". During the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, a handful of Nazi officials set the terms for rationalizing the extermination of a people on the scale of a continent. “Ideology and adherence to anti-Semitism is the main driving force,” judges Pierre-Jérôme Biscarat. In total, it is estimated that nearly 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. Themes covered: Shoah, Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany, Second World War