Research into the Holocaust has largely been understood and performed as collection of data, i.e. as documentation. The term “research“ is justified here only in its unscientific connotations. Scientific research aims at arriving at abstract concepts. In this sense, Holocaust research hasn't started, yet. In what follows it is given a first try. We need to start with the causal chain the last link of which connected to the Holocaust. The very premise of a causal chain being there rests on the scientific axiom of “nihil fit sine causa,“ an axiom purely empirical documentation can do without, ofcourse.