Sociology and the Holocaust

Ronald J. Berger is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He is the author of The Holocaust, Religion, and the Politics of Collective Memory (2012) and Surviving the Holocaust (Routledge, 2011).

“Berger’s work will play a significant role in any future investigation of the Holocaust from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Readers of this book will realize how lacking the new field of Holocaust Studies is without the contribution of sociology.” - Dr. Shay Pilnik, Director, Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Yeshiva University"In the context of explaining the Holocaust, Berger attempts to bring sociology back in. He succeeds admirably by discussing the relevance of the sociological classical theorists Marx, Durkheim, and Weber. For example, he addresses Weber’s thought on bureaucracy in the context of the organization of the Nazi killing apparatus. His analysis includes collective memory of the historical events and their victims – highly recommended."- Lutz Kaelber, Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Vermont, Faculty Committee of the Carolyn and Leonard Miller Center for Holocaust Studies

• Preface1 Personal and Professional RootsA Second Generation Perspective Terms of the Inquiry The Indifference of a Discipline 2 On the Shoulders of GiantsSociologists of the 1930s and 1940s The Trifocal Lens of Classical Theory A General Theory and Case Study of Structure and Agency 3 Antisemitism and Pseudoscientific RacismThe Development of Christian Antisemitism The Confluence of Antisemitism and Racism Nazi Eugenics and the Medicalization of Genocide4 The Class Composition and Economics of NazismNazi Party Membership and Election Studies Economic Exclusion, Aryanization, and Mass Theft Nazi and Corporate Enterprises 5 The Nazi State, Bureaucracy, and Response of the JewsThe Inner Circle of the Nazi State Nazi Cultural Organizations From the Nuremberg Laws to the Final Solution Ghettoization Open-Air Shootings and Concentration Camps6 The Response of the AlliesThe Prewar Period The Wartime Period The Immediate Postwar Period7 National Collective Memories of the Holocaust The Federal Republic of Germany Israel The United States Poland8 It Is Happening HereThe New Authoritarianism The Question of Fascism The White Power and Patriot Movements The Radicalization of the Republican Party Concluding Reflections on Contemporary Antisemitism ReferencesIndex