Between Sacred and the Profane: Holocaust Collaboration and ‘Political Religion’

Abstract

This article interprets the genealogy of the concept of 'political religion' in Holocaust research from the fundamental division between 'sacred' and 'profane' understandings of traditional religions. It argues that 'political religion' is understood as 'sacred' and unique when associated with Nazism, whilst its application to European fascism more generally has had a character of understanding religion as comparative and measureable from a 'profane' set of criteria. Yet, in light of research on Nazi ideology and fascist collaboration in the Holocaust, which effectively imply an interaction between Nazi and fascist agencies, the article finds that 'political religion' needs a re-theorization that can accommodate for the integration between the sacred and the profane.

Beyond Confession? ‘Political Religion’ and Ideological Incorrectness in the Study of Nazism

“…That said, the scholarly potential of ‘theological incorrectness’ has yet not been explicitly discussed in research on Nazism. All the same, the transgressive nature of National Socialist ideology is increasingly emphasised vis‐à‐vis both traditional conceptions of political ideologies and institutional Christianity (Wennberg ). Indeed, scholars often portray National Socialism as transgressive in the sense that its world view rested upon principles of violence and action that naturally challenged the idea of dogmatic constraints.…”

“…Previous studies have either discussed the genealogy of ‘political religion’ in historiography (Shorten ; Wennberg forthcoming ) or, more generally, debated empirically whether National Socialism was in fact a ‘political religion’ (Kurtz ). The position of ‘political religion’, understood as either ‘ideology’ or ‘culture’, however, is less covered in these studies.…”