The essays in this book reflect on the significance of the Holocaust sixty years afterwards. In this time it has become embedded in collective memory This book explores the idea that even thought the tenets of Nazism--racism, dictatorship, expansionism --have become unacceptable in the western world, little has actually changed. Since 1945 crimes against humanity and human rights have occurred throughout the world. The Holocaust thus pre-figures a "death-drive" in contemporary culture: the idea that the ability to deliver death is the supreme expression of self-affirmation.

Since the 1990s scholars have focused heavily on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and have presented a complex and heterogeneous picture of perpetrators. This book provides a unique overview of the current state of research on perpetrators. Contributions approach the topic from various expertise (history, gender, sociology, psychology, law, comparative genocide), and address several unresolved questions. The overall focus is on the key question that it still disputed: How do ordinary people become mass murderers?

Since the 1990s scholars have focused heavily on the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and have presented a complex and diverse picture of perpetrators. This book provides a unique overview of the current state of research on perpetrators. The overall focus is on the key question that it still disputed: How do ordinary people become mass murderers?