I kind of want to say it's and. The holocaust was about racism; but it was also about hate. I want to point out that Hitler was committing genocide trying to murder an entire group of people he considered a race. He clearly also hated Jewish people. However, let's also recognize that other people were murdered in the holocaust who weren't even Jewish. LBTGQ people were also murdered, people with disabilities were murdered. People with mental health issues were murdered. He considered them deserving of death because they were different. He also murdered travelers (gyspys? not sure the politic correct term please excuse me if I am using the wrong one) I think the holocaust was about both hate and racism .And yes, many more jewish people were murdered than the above groups, but they were still murdered.

I remember studying the holocaust in a German literature class in college, and my professor made a powerful point. As we were reading different texts, we found seeds of antisemitism in other areas. I remember he explained that the holocaus, wasn't just about WWII. The antisemitism, violence, and genocide had been happening for millennium prior, and in many ways it still happens today. There were thousands of programs terroist attacks on Jewish communities, antiseptic laws, stereotypes, harassment, and general hatred and racism against jewish people, communities, and gatherings. The hatred, genocide and (dare I say racism?) against jews is something that had been ongoing, ingrained in culture.

After learning about that, I started studying the way American culture does that to black people. I found so many ways as a culture for hundreds of years the messages of racism and genocide against black peole are so engrained in American culture, I as a white person have been trained not to see it. People aren't born deciding we want to murder and entire population, we are endocternated into it through so many levels, and then we end up passively taking part in it, much like what happened during the holocaust. As a white person, I am doing my best to learn as much as I can and call out the racism I am being taught without my knowledge or consent. I don't want to end up taking part in my own modern-day holocaust of not noticing while I laugh at a joke or fall in line with the dominant thinking.

I guess what I am saying, is in learning about the holocaust, I learned a lot about racism. Events like the holocaust are crescendos brought on by racism, and hate. Maybe racism is a subset of hate, or racism leads to hate, is a type of hate, it connected to hate, and example of hate, ect.