Holocaust as Public Policy: The Third Reich

Abstract

Genocide as public policy appears directly connected to the maintenance of the nation-state, but the Holocaust is a specifically German phenomenon. The Nazis defined the Jews as nonhuman and proceeded in their highly industrialized state to liquidate nearly this entire group. The features relevant to the German case are: an extended history of anti Semitism, an extremely stressful situation during the Weimar years, resulting in increased aggression coupled with a documented virulent prejudice, and, finally, the metamorphosis of the state founded on legally defined rights and duties into a state based upon Hitler's personal will. Psychological and bureaucratic dynamics served as the foundation for this transition.