William Thomas

Notes on the Final Solution (Euphemism) William Thomas

Is it enough to insist that Germans were free, ultimately, either to refuse or go along with the Nazification of their society -- holding up as evidence of this freedom the relatively few who did attempt to subvert the process? Should the Holocaust itself be attributed to ideologically-driven will, on individual and collective levels? Can the conditions for its occurrence be traced to political "choices" made in the course of Germany's development, in its national character-formation?In short, is there a moral culpability here that can be identified and set into its proper categories, the roots of the evil named and thereby differentiated from forces of "Life"?Or is the Final Solution in fact a window onto some more fundamental or general catastrophe?In these Notes, William Thomas examines how interpretation of the Holocaust usually functions as a conceptual-moral buffering, e.g., in using it as an occasion for the reaffirmation of favored ideological or philosophical views -- as if we might after all gain a certain benefit from it... But there is no benefit, Thomas suggests; the catastrophe is endless -- thus no affirmation of life is possible now, without "euphemizing" the impact of the Final Solution and what was revealed in it...