ABSTRACT
One of the most challenging issues confronting historians of the Holocaust is the ideological, political, and economic context within which it happened. The problems are obvious: if we examine the “Final Solution” in isolation from the events that surrounded or preceded it, we are in danger both of gaining only a very partial understanding of the event, and of dehistoricizing the Holocaust to the extent that it would acquire the characteristics of a unique, mythical affair with no links to the rest of the annals of human history. However, if we historicize the Holocaust and view it as inherent to a larger historical context, we may lose sight of its specificity and unprecedented aspects, and end up relativizing and banalizing it as simply one more mass murder in a long history of human massacres and atrocities.
