The purpose of this thesis is to examine Holocaust denial and professional historiography. Although much has been written about both subjects, the issue of distinguishing between them seems to have been largely ignored. They are, however, linked because of the way deniers conduct their business: in the attempt to make credible the claim that the Holocaust never happened, deniers mimic the styles and conventions traditionally employed by professional historians. Using footnotes and writing in the third person, deniers hope to get the surface right and make their readers believe their work. But appearances are deceiving, for deniers do not do history and are not historians. Theirs is a claim that defies morality and any sense of historical reality. Professional historians, while undoubtedly recognizing the moral bankruptcy of deniers and certainly not accepting their work as historical writing, have failed to make evident enough that deniers are not historians. Moreover, those who have attempted to refute deniers and not often have these been professional historians have usually done so on the basis of evidence: they have gone back to the data and shown how deniers have falsified or misrepresented it. While there is nothing necessarily wrong with that method, my own tack is different. At the same time as I take for granted the fact that deniers are not historians, what I aim to do is show how that is the case. Thus, this is partly a way beyond factual analysis, and partly the framework for factual refutation should it ever become necessary. Until deniers do history, however, evidence-based refutation is not necessary, and this very recognition should be implicit and explicit in any examination of Holocaust denial. My hope is to make this clear in three distinct but nevertheless related chapters. The first is about the evolution of Holocaust denial and how deniers have, especially in recent years, attempted to convey the appearance of legitimate scholarship. In the second, I focus on competing narratives as part of my effort to show that the appearance of denial literature is just part of deniers mode of deception. There is a major difference between competing narratives that are compatible historical narratives vs. historical narratives and between competing narratives that are incompatible historical narratives vs. denial literature. Drawing comparisons between the two should make more evident the genre-specific characteristics of history-writing and Holocaust denial. They are not, and can never be, the same, no matter how much deniers may try to convince us otherwise. But what to do about this dichotomy? That question is largely the basis for my third chapter. It is my contention that turning to the evidence cannot be the only method by which to distinguish between history and denial. More is required to convince others of the falsity of deniers claims, and for me this is a larger issue, one that must take into account not just how but also why we write about the past. Lost is the sense that there is an ethical component to history-writing, specifically as this relates to events like the Holocaust, the issues surrounding which seem to require no less than a general notion of right-wrong. Judging between accounts thereby takes on a more meaningful role in the sense that focusing solely on issues of true-false tends to minimize the importance of the Holocaust as lesson. So, too, I think, does this lend itself rather easily to the disconcerting placement of post-modernism/relativism and Holocaust denial under the same sign. That is, Holocaust denial is untrue, and because post-modernists are often condemned precisely because they question the very notions of truth and objectivity in historical writing, deniers and post-modernists are often linked. However, such a narrow focus risks missing the forest for the trees. Instead of looking solely at how post-modernism threatens the truth, history would be better served through the use of post-modern concepts in order to make more evident the ethical component of the discipline of history. In fact, this is what a number of scholars from other disciplines have suggested, for it is in the meaning of the Holocaust the Holocaust as lesson that we have the best prevention against denial. Our discipline, after all, is comprised of much more than facts. The more effectively we impart this to students and readers, the better the chance they will understand who historians really are, what they really do, and why it is important. This alone should make clearer the idea that deniers are not historians, and that what they say is wrong on much more than just a factual level.

The prime objective of this thesis is to grasp the terms of continuity and discontinuity between classical fascism and the contemporary extreme right in Western Europe. With respect to a hypothetical ideal type of fascism, the study will exclusively focus on French Front National case and try to unveil its historical and ideological linkages to the fascist rules in Italy and Germany during the inter-war years. While doing this, the transformation (if any) which certain elements of the extreme right rhetoric went through, will also be examined.

Georgia statesman Thomas E. Watson is best known as a Vice-Presidential and Presidential candidate for the People’s Party, the progressive third party movement of the 1890s and 1900s. As a Populist candidate, Watson advocated a racially progressive platform in order to appeal to African American voters. But following a series of electoral defeats and the collapse of the Populist Party, Watson retreated from politics and began a career as the publisher of his own weekly and monthly periodicals. As a publisher, Watson utilized his editorial space to express bigoted attitudes towards African Americans, Catholics, and Jews, that greatly contrasted with views he espoused as a Populist. But Watson’s rhetorical shifts occurred during the industrialization, urbanization, and immigration of the South. These radical transformations inspired fear and anxiety for thousands of rural white southerners. Within this context, Watson, as the proprietor of a profit-driven enterprise, offered opinions about the era’s numerous social, political, and economic upheavals that his readership appreciated. Throughout his career, Watson’s rhetoric shifted with the ebb and flow of contextual variation and in this period of intense economic, social, and political change, the context was favorable for the bigoted opinions that he expressed.

The thesis examines Serbian conspiracy culture at the time of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999. During the war, conspiratorial themes became a regular occurrence in Serbian mainstream media, as well as in pronouncements by the Serbian political establishment. For the most part, conspiratorial explanations focused on the machinations of transnational elite organisations such as the Bilderberg group or, more generally, on the conspiracy of 'the West'. However, conspiratorial accounts of the war occasionally invoked themes which were previously deemed to be beyond the boundaries of acceptable opinion, such as the allusion to a Jewish conspiracy or to the esoteric and occult aspects of the alleged plot. The thesis outlines the history of conspiracy theories in Serbia and critically reviews psychological approaches to understanding the nature of conspiracy theories. It suggests that the study of conspiratorial discourse requires the exploration of the rhetorical and argumentative structure of specific conspiratorial explanations, while paying special attention to the historical and ideological context within which these explanations are situated. The thesis is largely based upon the examination of the coverage of the war in the Serbian press. Recorded conversations with two well-known Serbian conspiracy theorists are also analysed. The study suggest that conspiratorial interpretations of the war drew upon a longstanding conspiracy tradition of explanation which has a strong anti-semitic legacy and is rooted in right-wing Christian ideology. Analytic chapters explore the discursive and ideological dynamics by which the anti-semitic and mystical aspects of the conspiracy tradition emerged briefly in Serbian mainstream media and political discourse. The thesis concludes by examining the status of conspiracy theories in Serbia in the aftermath of the political changes in October 2000.

abstract: Relevant literature was analyzed alongside interview data from participants concerning issues of anti-Semitism, Israel affiliation, and Jewish identity. Qualitative coding and theme identification were used to determine possible relationships among the variables, with special attention to the role anti-Semitism plays in influencing Israel affiliation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 young American Jews (18-24) currently enrolled as undergraduate students in universities. The results revealed that continuity of the Jewish people is a core value for many American Jews. Anti-Semitism is often under reported by young American Jews, but for some anti-Israel sentiments are conflated with anti-Semitism. It was also observed that knowledge of anti-Semitism plays an integral role in shaping Jewish identity. Finally, it was found that Israel affiliation polarizes the Jewish community, often resulting in the exclusion of left-leaning Jews from the mainstream Jewish community. These results were analyzed within racial, social, and political frameworks. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Justice Studies 2018

A tese propõe-se explicar as peculiaridades do conceito de ideologia na obra de Adorno, entendo-o como conceito central na filosofia adorniana. Para tanto, procura-se em primeiro lugar apresentar uma reinterpretação da articulação entre mito e Aufklärung tal como exposta no livro Dialektik der Aufklärung, a fim de se caracterizar o quadro histórico geral em que se coloca o problema para Adorno. A partir disto, são então analisados os fenômenos principais da reversão da Aufklärung em mito: o antisemitismo e a indústria cultural. Quanto ao primeiro, discutem-se os textos de Adorno produzidos no âmbito do Projeto de Pesquisa sobre o Anti-Semitismo e os Elementos do Anti-Semitismo buscando-se obter as bases psicológicas e sócio-econômicas do fenômeno e, através disto, o diagnóstico adorniano da contemporaneidade. Os resultados deste trabalho são então utilizados na análise da indústria cultural como forma por excelência da ideologia no capitalismo tardio. / The thesis proposal is to explain the peculiarities of the concept of ideology in Adorno s works, understanding it as a central concept in the Adornian philosophy. To do so, first it is presented a reinterpretation of the articulation between myth and Aufklärung as it is explained in the book Dialektik der Aufklärung, in order to define the general historical frame in which the issue presents itself to Adorno. After this, anti-semitism and culture industry, the main expressions of the reversion of Aufklärung to mythology, are then analyzed. Regarding the former, the texts written by Adorno within the Research Project on Anti-Semitism and the Elements of Anti-Semitism are discussed, in order to search for the psychological and socio-economic basis of both Fascism and anti-semitism and, through this, present the Adornian diagnosis of the contemporaneity. The results of this work are then used in the analysis of the culture industry as the main form of ideology in the late capitalism.

O presente estudo procura compreender Edith Stein (1891-1942), personagem emblemática do século XX, através de uma perspectiva histórica, psicanalítica e de um método hermenêutico. De origem judaica, nascida em Breslau, Prússia, dedicouse aos estudos filosóficos e ao magistério. Foi aluna de E. Husserl e realizou importantes investigações fenomenológicas, em várias áreas. Discriminada por ser mulher e judia, não pôde seguir uma carreira acadêmica, apesar de suas importantes contribuições teóricas. Converteu-se ao catolicismo tornando-se monja carmelita descalça. Foi presa pela polícia nazista e assassinada em Auschwitz, na câmera de gás, em 1942. Beatificada pelo Papa João Paulo II em 1998, tornou-se co-patrona da Europa. Neste trabalho busquei, através de seu idioma pessoal, as raízes que fecundaram o seu pensamento e a maneira como tentou responder às questões cruciais que a habitaram como mulher, filósofa, judia-católica, vivendo a tensão entre o judaísmo e o catolicismo. As principais fontes utilizadas foram sua autobiografia, cartas, obras e escritos diversos, assim como a literatura produzida sobre ela e sua época, além de material iconográfico. / The focus of this research is to understand Edith Stein (1891-1942), an iconic XX century figure, using historical and psychoanalytical perspectives as well as an hermeneutical method. From Jewish origin, Stein was born in Breslau, Prussia, studied with E. Husserl and developed important phenomenological investigations, in education, womanhood, philosophy, theology and mystic. However could not be an academic because of discrimination against both women and Jews. Subsequently she converted to Catholicism and even became a Carmelite monk, neither of which was enough to escape persecution of the Nazis. She flew to Holland, but was arrested by the Gestapo, taken to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1942, where her life ended in a gas chamber. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1998. This work examines the roots and influences of her theoretical contributions as well as the way she answered the fundamental human questions that she dealt with during her lifetime as a woman, a philosopher and a Christian-Jew. The main sources are Steins autobiography, letters, writings and other literature dealing with her life and times.

This master diploma thesis is concerned with Hitler's stay in Vienna during the period from 1908 to 1913 and the way in which his experiences from this period influenced the anti-Semitic views presented especially in his crucial work, Mein Kampf. The first, introductory chapter describes Vienna at the turn of the 20th century and also factors leading to the emergence of the specific atmosphere of this period, called fin de siècle. The focus of the second chapter is put on the issue of Jewish population in Vienna, i.e. a growing number of Jews in the city, the difference between the two basic groups of Jews (east and west), and especially the sorts of anti-Semitism which could be encountered in Vienna at that time. The third, last chapter is dedicated to Adolf Hitler, his life before his arrival to the capital, and his way of life and occupation in Vienna. The last part of the chapter is focused on the anti-Semitic quotations in Mein Kampf and their probable sources in Hitler's Viennese experiences. The aim of the thesis is to determine how Hitler's stay in Vienna influenced his later anti- Semitic attitude.

This diploma thesis deals with Jewish institutions in Lower Silesia during the period of 50's and 60's of the 20th century. The area of focus is the Socio-Cultural Association of Jews (Towarzystwo Spoleczno-Kulturalne Zydów), which was historically the only Jewish association in Poland that was allowed to exist. The main aim of this thesis is to track down and analyse relationship of the representatives of the group with the communist party and its ideology in detail, since the party was not particularly inclined towards Jewish culture due to Israel's affinity with the West. Furthermore, after the introduction and analysis of the main sources and literature, the thesis briefly introduces a topic related to the restoration of life within the Jewish community after the World War II. After that, it concentrates on the formation and development of institutions and it follows the way members were educated in the spirit of socialism as well as how the Jewish culture was formed. The fundamental sources necessary for the study of this problematic are primarily files that came into existence as a result of certain activities of institutions, such as meetings of their bodies, documents informing about social life (invitations to events), repatriation records of the USSR saved in Archive of The Jewish...

This study examines how teachers view their teaching about anti-Semitism in the subject of social studies in Swedish upper secondary schools. To analyze teaching on anti-Semitism, this study develops an analytical framework that makes it possible to describe and discuss the content, challenges, and didactic tensions found in this type of teaching. The applied method in the study is qualitative interviews. Two main results were drawn from the study. First, the study shows that anti-Semitism is often understood and taught from a historical and individualistic point of view. Second, that general teaching about racism is often prioritized over specific teaching on anti-Semitism of today. In sum, teaching on anti-Semitism in social studies seems characterized by a notion of that the issue belongs to another time, place, or school subject.