Abstract: For the phenomenon of the modernized holocaust, Adorno thinks that it has imposed a new categorical imperative on people. At present the modernized holocaust happens at times, Adorno’s reflection on Auschwitz undoubtedly has contemporary relevance. Different from traditional explanation of modernized holocaust, Adorno thinks that the holocaust is not merely the production of human irrationality or the outcome of disorder of social system which called moral factory. On the contrary, its emergence was accompanied by modernity. Apathy, closely related to the formalization of sense, is regarded as the core principle behind modernity. Therefore, holocaust is not the outcome of irrationality, but “The Banality of Evil” of modern “rational” people. Adorno’s new categorical imperative not only targets people’s behavior in normal society, but also directs at the way people think. The new categorical imperative needs not rational foundation since the possibility of its existence lies in individual’s possession of “ethical additions”.

Key words: Auschwitz, moral factory, apathy, new categorical imperative