i’m looking for books on the holocaust. ones which are more philosophical/analytical about the holocaust, not just a retelling of history (for example i don’t want “we calculated that 21 million people were victims to the holocaust”). something similar to Hannah Arendt’s work. so books that attempt to understand why the holocaust happened, nazi philosophy/ideology, how people could have supported the nazis, the implications of the holocaust and why it’s a unique genocide.
ofc, a single book probably doesn’t cover all that but any recommendations would be appreciated:)
As you might have expected, I don't think there's really a one-stop shop for all of this. The closest thing I can think of that covers much of this in a single, recent book is Peter Hayes' Why? Explaining the Holocaust (W. W. Norton, 2017), which is essentially a distillation of his Holocaust-related courses at Northwestern and addresses a lot of the "why" and "how" questions you've mentioned above. I found it to be a pretty interesting read, even as someone who's studied the subject for years, so I think it might suit what you're looking for.