Goldhagen’s Point of View

The traditional interpretation of the Holocaust considers Hitler and his followers responsible of the massacre of the Jewish race. Daniel Goldstein, in his book “Hitler’s willing executioners”, supports this thesis stating that “The Holocaust originated in Germany, then it is mainly a German phenomenon…Who wants to understand the Holocaust must conceive it as an evolutionary phase of German history” (http://www.olokaustos.org/saggi/saggi/gold-fink/gold-fink3.htm)}. Goldhagen insists on the guilt of Germany saying that “the Holocaust would have never been possible without Nazis and Hitler. Then he considers the Holocaust the combination of three factors. Firstly, in Germany the most wicked and criminal anti-Semites of mankind’s history came to power. Secondly, the holocaust took place in a country in which people tolerated and then took part in the persecution of Jews. Lastly, the Third Reich had such a strong military power that the regime did not have to fear anyone who would try to oppose the slaughter of Jewish race.

Goldhagen’s point of view differs from Finkelstein’s because first of all it considers the Holocaust a true phenomenon and indeed it attributes the guilt of the massacre of the Jews to the third Reich. Finkelstein does not justify the Nazis regime for this dreadful event. According to his theory, the Holocaust should not be considered a “unique historical event”, because this would place Jewish people in a position of superiority. Eventually, anti-Semitism turns to be the consequence of the Holocaust, not the cause as Goldhagen maintains.