Holocaust

[rj]

Mitchell:
>Holocaust scholars tend to include the genocide of the Gypsies.  The idea is
>this.  Many groups were systematically targeted by the Germans and 
>their allies,
>and murdered in the concentration camps. Yet, only in the case of the Gypsies
>and Jews were groups targeted with the explicit aim of exterminating an ethnic
>group.
>

They were intent on wiping out all "undesirables", ethnic and otherwise,
in order to "cleanse" the Aryan race, weren't they? This included mental
patients, the disabled (?), Slavs, homosexuals, as well as Jews and
Gypsies.

Mark:
> in Nazi ideology religion equated not
> merely to ethnicity but to the concept of Race, and the exploitation of
> an historical/hysterical fear of corruption through contact.  This
> follows on a centuries-long, pan-european history of antisemitism
> manipulated by various parties toward varied political ends.  Absurd
> physical stereotypes have been refined through the ages in an ongoing
> effort to define a clear physical mark by which the righteous and the
> clean might infallibly recognise their hated adversaries.

The average German's anti-Semitism was based on stereotyped notions of
the Jews' socio-economic status and conduct, wasn't it? Rumours of
unfair and exclusive business practices, higher-priced and poorer
quality merchandise for Gentiles, profits sent out of the country etc.
The religious and philosophical justifications devised by the Nazi
intelligentsia were secondary, and subsequent(?) to the economic
perception. It was the Depression, more devastating in Germany than
anywhere else, which tipped the scales against the Jews in the eyes of
the German public.

best