Bauman Zygmunt. Modernity and the Holocaust / translated from English by Kateryna Dysa. Kyiv: DUKH I LITERA, 2022. 344 p. (in the original Revisiting Modernity and the Holocaust: Heritage, Dilemmas, Extensions)
The book Modernity and the Holocaust by the renowned sociologist and philosopher Zygmunt Bauman occupies a special place among the numerous works on the tragedy of European Jewry.
The author consistently disproves the thesis that this genocide was a proof of the fragility of civilisation, and instead suggests that the Holocaust should be seen as evidence of its powerful potential. Zygmunt Bauman demonstrates that the roots of the genocide go back to the very nature of modernity, whose important features are nationalism, the construction of an artificial social order, rational bureaucratic management, etc. The author refuses to limit the study and understanding of the Holocaust to Jewish history, while offering an in-depth analysis of the aspects that have a "modern flavour" and make this genocide different from others. According to Zygmunt Bauman, "The Holocaust was a legitimate resident of the house called modernity".
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