In this wide-ranging and reflective interview, Richard Koenigsberg, director of the Library of Social Science, discusses his psychoanalytic approach to understanding Hitler, National Socialism, and political ideology. He argues that the Holocaust was a function of warfare, with Hitler justifying genocide through a logic of sacrifice, connecting the deaths of German soldiers to the destruction of the Jews. Koenigsberg delves into the psychological roots of ideology, particularly the fantasy of an omnipotent object—like the nation—internalized by individuals and leaders such as Hitler.
