"Blech. People make way too much out of this damn quote. Heidegger was trying (in usual sensationalistic style) point out the what he viewed as the inhuman nature of mechanized agriculture, not apologize for the death camps. And to assert that the essence behind each -- that is, mechanization in general -- is the same."
Blech and double blech to you. Heidegger knew what he was saying, and was canny enough to have the comparison pulled from the published version. Any view that the 'essence' behind agriculture and gas chambers is the same is a triumph of empty formality. The essence is the same in that both are activities undertaken by people, or things that happen on planet earth, or any other such formal abstraction. But the thing that makes both important is precisely what separates them: agriculture gives life, gas chambers take them away. It is a mark of Heidegger's anti-humanism that he could elide the essential difference so shabbily. And this, of course, from someone who had been a member of the NSDAP from 1933 to 1945. (How much wiser was Auden's comparison of trenches and agriculture, checking himself that the former was a perversion of the latter.)
-- James Heartfield The 'Death of the Subject' Explained is available at GBP11.00, plus GBP1.00 p&p from Publications, audacity.org, 8 College Close, Hackney, London, E9 6ER. Make cheques payable to 'Audacity Ltd'