Rejection of Guilt

HolocaustHolocaust-related rejection of guilt (Schuldabwehr) is an argumentative strategy that aims to absolve three groups of people from guilt: (1) perpetrators, (2) people who benefited from the Holocaust (3) those who did not oppose the Holocaust. The rejection of one’s own guilt or that of others serves as a moral and legal exoneration. It seeks to make it possible to leave the past, bad conscience, shame or horror behind, and to live in an undisturbed social normality. It serves to enable continued identification with a group that supposedly behaved with integrity during the Nazi era, facilitates perpetrators’ escape from criminal prosecution and looks to resurrect pride in a nation untainted by its historical crimes. Rejection of guilt is a form of antisemitism because it trivialises or denies responsibility for the biggest antisemitic crime in history and thereby attempts to absolve those involved in the HolocaustHolocaust in one way or the other or to minimise the extent of their participation. Moreover, it is a mockery of the victims of a crime, in which no one wants to have been involved.