When Antisemitism Became Genocidal:

Why did antisemitism, which for centuries had been a justification for persecution of Jews, become a justification for genocide from 1939 to 1945? In "When Antisemitism Became Genocidal: The 'Jewish Enemy' in Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust," Jeffrey Herf draws on his 2006 work, 'The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust' to examine how the Nazi's antisemitic interpretation of World War II justified policies of mass murder. At the core of that propaganda, presented in newspapers, posters, and statements made on the radio, the Nazi leadership claimed that the anti-Hitler coalition led by the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union was directed by an international Jewish conspiracy. The purpose of what the Nazis denounced as "the Jewish war" was to exterminate, that is, murder, the German people. Hitler, Goebbels and others repeatedly and in public asserted that as a massive act of national self-defense, the Nazi regime would "exterminate" and "annihilate" the "Jewish race in Europe." Despite decades of excellent scholarship on the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, 'The Jewish Enemy', published in 2006, was the most detailed and comprehensive examination of the connection between this propaganda, the war and the Holocaust.