The Second World War and the Holocaust

The Second World War (1939-1945) was the deadliest conflict in history and the setting for the Holocaust, the systematic genocide of six million Jews and millions of others.

Definition

The global war of 1939-1945 between the Axis and Allied powers and the Nazi-led genocide, the Holocaust, carried out against Jews and other groups during that conflict.

Scope

This topic examines the global Second World War and the Holocaust: the war's origins in fascist aggression and the failure of the postwar order, its theaters from Europe to the Pacific, the experience of occupation and total mobilization, and the Nazi genocide of European Jewry and other victims. It surveys the historiography of the war's causes and conduct and the central debates in Holocaust history over how and why genocide occurred, treating these grave subjects analytically and with care.

Core questions

• What caused the Second World War and how did it become a global conflict?
• How did the Holocaust unfold, and how did a modern state organize genocide?
• What motivated the perpetrators of mass murder?
• How should the war and the Holocaust be remembered and explained?

Key concepts

• total war
• genocide
• the Final Solution
• perpetrators and bystanders
• memory and testimony

Key theories

The destruction process

Raul Hilberg analyzed the Holocaust as a bureaucratic 'destruction process' carried out by ordinary institutions of the German state, foundational to the field of Holocaust studies.

Ordinary perpetrators

Christopher Browning argued, through the case of a reserve police battalion, that ordinary men became mass killers through conformity, authority, and circumstance rather than fanatical ideology alone.

History

The war began with German and Japanese expansion in the late 1930s, became global by 1941, and ended in 1945 with Allied victory and the atomic bombings. Within it, Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews and millions of Roma, disabled people, prisoners, and others. Holocaust historiography developed from Hilberg's work into rich debates over decision-making and perpetration.

Debates

Intentionalism versus functionalism

Historians debate whether the Holocaust resulted from a long-held Nazi plan (intentionalism) or evolved through cumulative radicalization of the regime's institutions (functionalism).

Explaining the perpetrators

Scholars dispute whether perpetrators were driven mainly by ideology and antisemitism or by situational pressures of conformity and authority, a debate sharpened by Browning's study.

Key figures

• Raul Hilberg
• Christopher Browning
• Saul Friedlander
• Gerhard Weinberg
• Ian Kershaw

Seminal works

• hilberg1961
• browning1992
• friedlander1997

Frequently asked questions

When did the Second World War take place?

It is usually dated from the German invasion of Poland in 1939 to the surrender of Japan in 1945, though fighting in Asia began earlier and historians debate the precise starting points.

What was the Holocaust?

It was the systematic, state-organized genocide of approximately six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, alongside the mass murder of Roma, disabled people, and other targeted groups.