De la spécificité de l’antisémitisme à l’unicité de la Shoah : des structures universelles de la haine ?

Abstract

Is there an incommensurability of antisemitism that could explain the reactivation, in different times and places, of the mechanisms of rejection of the Jews? And does this possible incommensurability make it possible to think about the Shoah and justify the claim that this genocide is unique? Without erasing the specific features of each instance of racial hatred, the author considers that colonial racism and genocidal racism obey the same logic. He makes blood purity statutes the matrix process of racialisation. In the same way, although the Shoah was not simply a continuation in Europe of colonial undertakings, it can be analysed as the matrix for understanding the suffering of others. This presupposes a rejection of both incommensurability and uniformity. This is why the hypothesis of an elementary structure of racism, based on the fear of miscegenation, without denying the singular characteristics of each racism, is of great heuristic value. It also lends credence to the idea of an anti-racist struggle based on common causes rather than singular revolts.

Keywords

• genocide
• antisemitism
• Shoah
• incommensurabiity
• exceptionalism
• specificity