Secondary antisemitism
Secondary antisemitism is stated to be anti-Semitism caused by the Holocaust. Stated examples include negative views caused by payments to Jews and Israel for the Holocaust (see the Holocaust industry) and negative views due to blaming Jews for to some degree being responsible for anti-Jewish actions by National Socialist Germany (see Holocaust motivations). The term was coined by Peter Schönbach, a Frankfurt School, co-worker of Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, based on their critical theory.
History
Secondary antisemitism is said to have appeared after the end of World War II. It is often explained as being caused by — as opposed to in spite of — Auschwitz, pars pro toto for the Holocaust. One frequently quoted formulation of the concept, first published in Henryk M. Broder's 1986 book Der Ewige Antisemit ("The Eternal Antisemite"), stems from the Israeli psychiatrist Zvi Rex, who once remarked: "The Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz." The term itself was coined by Peter Schönbach, a Frankfurt School co-worker of anti-German Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer.
Adorno, in a 1959 lecture titled "Was bedeutet: Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit" (published in his 1963 book Eingriffe. Neun kritische Modelle) addressed the fallacy of the broad German post-war tendency to associate and simultaneously causally link Jews with the Holocaust. According to Adorno's unsubstantiated critique, an opinion had been readily accepted in Germany according to which the Jewish people were culpable in the crimes against them. Jewish guilt was assumed to varying extents, depending on the varying incarnations of that antisemitic notion, one of which is the idea that Jews were (and are) exploiting German guilt over the Holocaust.
Initially, members of the Frankfurt School spoke of "guilt-defensiveness anti-Semitism", an antisemitism motivated by a deflection of guilt. The rehabilitation of many lower and even several higher-ranking Third Reich officials and officers is stated to have contributed to the development of secondary anti-Semitism. Several controversies ensued early in post-World War II Germany, e.g., when Konrad Adenauer appointed Hans Globke as Chief of the Chancellery.
