За что Гитлер не любил евреев: фольклорные версии истоков Холокоста

Judaic-Slavic Journal. 2021. № 2(6). С. 155–172.

Moroz A.

Based on field data, the article discusses folkloric versions explaining Hitler’s
hatred of Jews. The texts in question were recorded mainly in the territories that were
part of the Pale of Settlement, from older people who either themselves had contacts
with Jews, mainly before the World War II, or heard a lot about them from their parents.
The versions use one of three explanatory strategies: among the closest relatives of
Hitler or his colleagues there was a Jew, who has greatly offended Hitler and for this
reason he began to revenge on the entire people, or the hatred was caused by the national features of the Jews themselves, who are (according to the ethnic stereotypes of
the Slavs) more intelligent, more cunning, lazier than the Germans and Slavs, and can
also understand German. Finally, the Holocaust is explained by the Gospel events. In all
three cases, the stories about the causes of the Holocaust use the traditional mechanisms
of interpretation the surrounding world: ethno-confessional stereotypes, plot clichés of
traditional quasi-historical folklore prose, combined with attempts at individual interpretation
 

Keywords: евреи, Jews, легенды, Holocaust, folklore, фольклор, этнокультурные стереотипы, народная религиозность, ethno-cultural stereotypes, popular religiosity, Холокост, legends

Publication based on the results of: Inside and Beyond the Frontiers of Folklore: Tradition, Innovation, and Memory (2022)