9 - From Persecution to Genocide

Summary

The Holocaust began eighty years ago, and yet disagreements persist on such crucial aspects as the decision-making process that resulted in increasingly brutal policies leading up to indiscriminate murder. While the different escalating measures are clearly identified, there are still difficulties in agreeing on the precise moments of transition from one policy to another. Many factors account for this, not all specific to this singular historical event. First, there are various modalities of the crime of genocide. Different measures such as the Convention spelled out – killing; inflicting bodily or mental harm; measures leading to the ‘physical destruction in whole or in part’ of the group; impeding reproduction; and child abductions – could be implemented concurrently. Their combination multiplied the genocidal nature of the policy pursued. Moreover, if we focus on the way in which Nazi leaders conceived anti-Jewish policy globally, we can observe the succession of various increasingly radical schemes. Additionally, one can identify the contingencies of German anti-Jewish policy: several proposed programmes were barely initiated or dropped altogether, with the exception of the last one – mass murder.