The Politics of Hate: Anti-Semitism, History, and the Holocaust in Modern Europe

By John Weiss

Book Overview

For educated and tolerant Westerners, it is extremely difficult to imagine the dangerous power that anti-Semitism has enjoyed in modern Europe and impossible to grasp how it could have led to the unique horrors of the Holocaust. To study the origins and history of anti-Semitism by itself helps little. To fully grasp the dangerous potential of racism we must also know the relationships between the fantasies of the anti-Semites and the long-term historical development of various nations. In The Politics of Hate, John Weiss shows how anti-Semitism and racism developed as a major element in the European political process from the late nineteenth century to the Holocaust. Concentrating on the experience of Germany, Austria, France, and Poland, Mr. Weiss traces the combination of ideas and national cultures that brought venomous consequences to political life and spelled difficulty and then doom for Jews. In a separate chapter on Italy, he explains why anti-Semitism never took hold there, and why even during World War II, under Nazi control, Jews in Italy were relatively protected. The reasons for these developments-why Germany initiated the Holocaust, why the Austrians supplied so many killers, why a million French fascists could not damage the Jews until the Vichy government came to power, why anti-Semitism was far stronger in Eastern than in Western Europe-help us understand why the politics of racial hate succeed and what can be done about it.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 156663492X
• ISBN13: 9781566634922
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

An excellent analysis of Anti-Semitism in Europe.

The book is well-balanced and easy-to-understand exploration on Anti-Semitism in Europe, especially in Germany, Austria, Poland, France and Italy. In the opening chapter, the author points five origins of Anti-Semitism, that is, confrontation with Christianity, commercial reasons, denunciations of Jewish liberal and progressive movements, (biased) influences of Anthropology (Eugenics), and ethnic nationalism; however, the author offers an excellent account of the histrical process of Anti-Semitism from late nineteenth century to th Holocaust. It is also interesting that the author explains why and how Anti-Semitism made a difference among countries mentioned-above; what seems to be the most significant is the reasons why only in Italy Anti-Semitism did not prevail. Far from any prejudice, a very lucid work!