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On the Uniqueness of the Holocaust

David Bernstein | 7.20.2026 8:24 AM

A colleague on an academic list asked if I agreed that the Holocaust wasn't unique, but just one of a series of modern genocides. Here is how I responded:

On the contrary, I'd say that

(a) the Holocaust was not unique only in that genocide is not unique;

(b) all genocides are unique, as each has its own causes and trajectory; and

(c) that there are unique aspects of the Holocaust that differntiate in ways that make it worth studying, for example (some of these are more important than others, but all are interesting):

(1) Unlike the typical genocide, it involved multiple countries, governments, and the participation of dozens of different cultural, religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups as perpetrators;

(2) it had the basis in almost 2k years of religion-based hatred, though its ultimate ideology was ironically explicitly anti-religious;

(3) it involved the active, enthusiastic........

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