Holocaust. Intercultural Premises and Consequences

The Holocaust signifies an immense human failure. Historians are now very open to the way other disciplines can illuminate areas of the past and of past behavior. The difference between historical and intercultural approaches is less problematic than it once was, due to recent research regarding national cultures and cultural dimensions. We consider that intercultural analysis has a great deal to offer to Holocaust studies. Indeed, the intercultural issues have received relatively little attention in relation to the study of the Holocaust. A classical taxonomy—perpetrator, victim, bystander—has long dominated studies of the Holocaust, genocide, and other mass atrocities. We specifically chose to study these aspects, from the point of view of the interculturalist, and show that a person is not by nature—born or preordained—to be one or the other. A person becomes a perpetrator, a victim, or a bystander. Our paper reveals that individuals behavior depends on cultural values (especially uncertainty avoidance and collectivism) and cultural practices (languages, felt and attributed identities, interpretations of history), which affect the ideology of the majority. This article investigates the connection between cultural dimensions and human behavior using intercultural analysis. Thus, an intercultural perspective suggests that cultural dimensions influence behavior.