A shadow fell across Europe during Walter Benjamin's lifetime (1892-1940). That shadow can be called, variously, National Socialism, the Nazi Party, Fascism, the Holocaust or the Shoah. There are other names, but these are among the most significant. 'Shoah' can be translated as 'destruction' or 'catastrophe': it is the word often used to refer to the Nazis' 'Final Solution' of 1941-45. Walter Benjamin took his own life in the year in which the Nazi euthanasia programme was being rigorously implemented by medical staff and others. This book explores Benjamin's work - first in relation to some elements of German and Judaic culture, and second in relation to modern aesthetics. It explores, first, a historical-theoretical approach to Benjamin situating him as a 'contrapuntal thinker' in Pieper's sense, and second, the question of form in Benjamin applied to examples in the visual arts and literary criticism.