"Weltanschauliche Erziehung" in Himmlers Machtapparat und der Mord an den europäischen Juden
"Ideological Education" in Himmlers Power Structure and the Murder of European Jews

Summary/Abstract: In the absence of major monographic studies on the interrelation between ideological indoctrination and the perpetration of the Holocaust, this article analyses the means, methods and manifestations of mental standardization within the key group of Holocaust perpetrators: Himmler’s SS, police and Waffen-SS. The focus is on the content of antisemitic indoctrination and group formation since the mid-1930s and the question of its relevance for mass killings of Jewish men, women and children performed by Himmler’s men after the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union. Instead of brainwashing and direct impulses for murder, “weltanschauliche Erziehung” provided a framework for genocide to be performed on a habitual basis.

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