What made Nazi antisemitism different from earlier forms of hatred, and how did it become the driving force behind the Holocaust? In this compelling lecture, we will examine the rise of antisemitism in Germany between 1933 and 1945, exploring not only the events themselves but the radical ideology that fueled them. Drawing on Saul Friedländer’s powerful concept of “redemptive antisemitism,” this session will show how Nazi thinking cast Jews not simply as enemies, but as a poisonous force whose removal was imagined as a form of national purification. By probing the motives, ideas, and moral collapse at the heart of the Nazi project, we will confront the disturbing question of how such a doctrine could take hold in one of Europe’s most cultured societies and where, within that process, the Holocaust became tragically imaginable.