The Frankfurt groundbreaking work on social beliefs in postwar School’s Germany toward Nazi past provides crucial findings on the Germany’s criminal meaning of deep-seated political and cultural legacies after Nazi rule and the genocide against European Jewry. The Critical studies also advance Theorists’ critical insights into specific new dynamics of secondary antisemitism. Such new antisemitism absorbs various anti-Jewish tropes—from presumed revenge fantasies to myths about conspiratorial Jewish power and control over media and images of Jews ruthlessly pursuing their own material benefits. These tropes emerge in ever new configurations. They are itself the product of modern antisemitic legacies (and as such point to an unprocessed Nazi past), they and can be linked to specific socio-psychological needs—namely, the pressing wish to split off and trivialize Holocaust memory, to whitewash national Germany’s history, and to downplay the crimes, guilt, and responsibility. country’s In this context, Jews once again become the target of hate. Jews often become identified with the whole murderous complex of the Holocaust and the unpleasant, unwelcome feelings it may cause. By splitting feelings of guilt and superego functions from self, one may project these feelings onto Jews. one’s According to Adorno, this projection, which is not just an individual perception but carries social force, represents a particular socio-psychological defense mechanism: the wish to repress the memory of the German atrocities helps reproduce the resentment that has caused these crimes. Such a wish may be especially strong among citizens harboring unprocessed guilt feelings, among
The Frankfurt School’s groundbreaking work on social beliefs in postwar Germany toward Nazi Germany’s criminal past provides crucial findings on the meaning of deep-seated political and cultural legacies after Nazi rule and the genocide against European Jewry. The Critical Theorists’ studies also advance critical insights into specific new dynamics of secondary antisemitism. Such new antisemitism absorbs various anti-Jewish tropes—from presumed revenge fantasies to myths about conspiratorial Jewish power and control over media and images of Jews ruthlessly pursuing their own material benefits. These tropes emerge in ever new configurations. They are itself the product of modern antisemitic legacies (and as such point to an unprocessed Nazi past), and they can be linked to specific socio-psychological needs—namely, the pressing wish to split off and trivialize Holocaust memory, to whitewash Germany’s national history, and to downplay the country’s crimes, guilt, and responsibility. In this context, Jews once again become the target of hate. Jews often become identified with the whole murderous complex of the Holocaust and the unpleasant, unwelcome feelings it may cause. By splitting feelings of guilt and superego functions from one’s self, one may project these feelings onto Jews. According to Adorno, this projection, which is not just an individual perception but carries social force, represents a particular socio-psychological defense mechanism: the wish to repress the memory of the German atrocities helps reproduce the resentment that has caused these crimes. Such a wish may be especially strong among citizens harboring unprocessed guilt feelings, among