Genozid und Heilserwartung : zum nationalsozialistischen Mord am europäischen Judentum

Asserts that antisemitism was the central element of Nazism and that it continued a long religious and secular-religious chiliastic tradition. Traces this tradition from ancient myths of sacrifice and from the gnostic war between good and evil which entered into early Christianity, where the Jews were accused of sacrificing Christ and were identified with the Antichrist. In later periods (e.g. during the Black Death) the Jews were sacrificed as a means of purification. The Romantics in 19th-century Germany (especially Fichte) secularized the myth; the Volk now became the deified instrument which would save the world by eliminating the Jews. Protestant political theology of the Weimar period embraced similar ideas, and thus was not armed against Nazism, which translated the myth into reality: the extermination of the Jews was seen as an act of sacrifice and redemption. Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-285). 285 pages ; 21 cm