ABSTRACT
This chapter develops Arendt's material analysis of the Holocaust by underlining the role played by the anti-Jewish legislation, the legal status of victims and the extent to which the Nazi government had infiltrated and controlled a territory. Implicit in this approach is the perspective that one cannot begin to understand territorial differences during the Holocaust by taking a determinist approach that favours a single explanation, i.e. evil as a banal phenomenon. Any serious analysis must shift away from totalities and engage across a range of distinctive moments. While not comprehensive, Arendt's chapters on the deportation of Jewish victims provides important clues. The success of subsequent deportations from the Reich was assisted by the gradual implementation of anti-Jewish legislation and the numerous exemption categories that protected prominent Jews. Another key factor that determined the fate of Jewish people was their citizenship status and whether they were members of a national community.
