10. The Holocaust

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the Holocaust, focusing in particular on: (i) Hitler’s personal beliefs, including his view that Germany had lost the First World War because of a Jewish conspiracy; (ii) the depth of Hitler’s hatred of Jews, as seen in the exceptionally aggressive and violent language of his memoir/manifesto, Mein Kampf; (iii) the anti-Semitism of the rank and file of the Nazi movement; (iv) the raft of anti-Semitic legislation that is enacted almost immediately after the Nazis seize power; (v) the importance of the Nuremberg Laws (November 1935) and the Night of the Broken Glass (November 1938); (vi) the extent to which the situation had deteriorated for Jews by the time the Nazis had conquered huge swathes of eastern Europe; (vii) the increased influence of Himmler and the SS in the sphere of Jewish policy; (viii) the extent to which, for Hitler, the war represented a culmination of everything he and his regime stood for; (ix) the extent to which eastern Europe provided a ‘testing ground’ for genocidal violence, which escalated from the use of ghettos, to forced labour camps, to mass shootings, to extermination camps; and (x) the extent to which commitment to the ‘Final Solution’ extended down from Hitler not only into the SS but into broad sections of the army, the police, the civilian administration and society at large.

Course

In this course, Professor Neil Gregor (University of Southampton) explores several aspects of Nazi Germany, 1933-45. In the first module, we think about the ideology of the Nazi Party, before turning in the second module to consider Hitler’s rise to power. In the third module, we think about the nature of the Nazi government, before moving on in the fourth module to consider Nazi foreign policy in the period 1933-41. In the fifth module, we think about German opposition to the Nazi regime, while in the sixth module we consider the role of terror in overcoming this opposition. In the seventh module, we think about the extent to which ordinary Germans supported Hitler and the Nazi regime, before turning in the eighth module to consider the role of treatment of women in Nazi Germany. In the ninth module, we think about Nazi education and culture and its importance in promoting Nazi ideology, before turning in the tenth module to the Holocaust.

Lecturer

Neil Gregor is Professor of Modern European History at the University of Southampton. His research interests range widely across twentieth-century German history, and have encompassed, at various points, aspects of business history, social history, cultural history and literary studies, along with historiography. His recent publications include (as editor) Dreams of Germany: Musical Imaginaries from the Concert Hall to the Dance Floor. (2019) and How to Read Hitler (2014).