The Holocaust, Genocide, and the Origins of the Commensurability Problem

doi:10.1017/9781108913614.007

4 - The Holocaust, Genocide, and the Origins of the Commensurability Problem

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 May 2025

A. Dirk Moses

Edited by

Mark Roseman and

Dan Stone

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Mark Roseman: Affiliation:
Indiana University
Dan Stone: Affiliation:
Royal Holloway, University of London

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Summary

This chapter explores the relationship between Holocaust and genocide, beginning with the the emergence of the concept of genocide and its relationship to prior law on war crimes. The chapter offers a close examination of Lemkin’s evolving thinking, and that of other contemporaries on the relationship between the Jewish experience under Nazism and other mass atrocities. It argues that Lemkin’s genocide concept blurred some critical distinctions, notably whether genocide necessarily implied biological extermination. This ambiguity was, however, critical to its political utility in the early postwar context, but the resulting law and terminology has become a political weapon, often obscuring the reality of the violence it purports to describe.

Keywords

Holocaust genocide Nazism Raphael Lemkin “Axis Rule in Occupied Europe”Genocide Studies Hague Convention Holocaust comparisons World Jewish Congress United Nations

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Holocaust , pp. 74 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108913614.007 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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References

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