12

Antisemitism in the Nazi Era

Duris L. &rgm
of H.loc<>ust;-
To d.csc:ribe anriscmirism in the Nazi era might seem to be a s.unple .
During World Wax II, under Hitler's ka!krship, Germans and thor
around murd<:ttd 6 million Jews. They destroyed Jewish commUDl':'es
thaI dated bock to ancienr Rome and almost completely eliminared the Jewish
= from Amstttdatn to Athens, Zagreb to Zhyromyr. The Nazis had other
bur: dq unleashed their fulkst fury the whom
hunI.d across e>-ay bo<dcr, imo hiding p1ace, In a sy=maoc, rotal drive
for .nnihibrioQ. What other than deep, widesp=d, deadly hatted of Jews could
accounr for such p=is=tt and tampam slaughter? . ' .
This lQgic notwithstanding, even contemporanes had difficul.ty assessmg
the b-d of. nri",mirism within Nazi Germany and analyzmg how Ir connecred
ro insrirurionalizcd arrack and mass murder. The combinacion of familiax prej-
udices with the unprecedenred scope and of the Nazi on
Je .... s confounded understanding. Under HIder s leadership,. ano-JewISh aUl-
rudes became concrete acrions against Jews, sancuoned and mdeed mandared
by the = and enforced by irs courts, irs police, its bureaucrars. This
uan.sformarion-from anrisemitism as an idea to anusemJtlsm as policy and
practice-proved disorienting for even the most astute observers. .
Vietor Klempe=, a pro&ssor of French lirerature in Dresden, proVides ..
in point. Klempe=, the son of a rabbi, convetred ro Prorestanr Chrisuaruty,
married. Genrue. won the Iron Cross for service in World Wax J, and IdentIfied
fully with German culrure. Under Nazi law, however, he coun'Cc:d as a Jew. In his
derailed and insightful diaxy, one of the issues thar preoccupied him was whar
he referred to as the !lOX did "ordinary GetmaIiS" -thar is, the non:
Jewish G= around him-think of Jews? Whar did they make of N:w
anci-Jewish measures? How anrisemicic were they? Berween 1933 and 1945, Klem-
perer wenr back and forth on these quescions, onen within the same diaxy entty,
unable rO mm up his mind. Yer he understood one thing nom the outser:
harred of Jews was the cenrer of Hider's woddview, and the Nazi rise to power
spelled disaster for Jews everywheIe.
"utin lJoieA people.; pubHc opinion
Anti.snnitism in Nazi Era 197
In his infamous speech of Ocrober 1943 ro SS leaders in Posen, Heinrich
Himmkr gave voice ro the centrality of annihilaroty ancisemicism ro Nazi
German practices of conquest and domination. Ar the same time Himm1er
raised quescions abour how ideological commitments linked ro mass murder.
Everyone presenr knew whar he was talking abour, he told an audience of hard-
ened killers:
The extermination of the Jewish people. It is one of rhose things which are easy ro talk
about. "The Jewish people will be =minared," says every party comrade, "It's clear,
it's in our program.. Elimination of the Jews. extermination and we'U do it," And then
they come along. the wonhy eighty million Germans. and each one of them produces
his decent Jew. It's dear the ochers arc: swine. but this one is a 60e Jew. Not one of those
who talk like that has watched it happening, not one of them has been through it.
(Noakes and Pridham 2001, 3:617)
To Strengthen his listeners' resolve, Himmler offered a grab bag of antisemiric
possibilicies. Jews had caused the defear ofGetmany in World Wax J, he warned;
they were behind the Allied air raids on German cities; they were "bacteria,"
"Bolsheviks," masters of disguise, and sexual predarors. Himmier introduced
only one original poinr, bur ir was a crucial innovation thar exrended anrisemitism
nom living Jews ro the dead. The task was almost done now, he reassured his
men: only a few Jews were len. By Oerober 1943 rhar boasr was rrue, ar leasr for
Europe. Yer the Jews remained a threat, Himmler axgued, because any mercy
shown would endanger later generacions of "Aryan" Germans. And even the
piles of Jewish corpses threarened to rurn the killers soft wirh remorse or weak
with horror unless rhey kepr in sighr the morral danger posed by "the erernal
Jew." In Himmlec's system, antisemitism constituted more than a reason to kill
Jews; ir offered a justificarion for killers aner the facr.
Scholars ofNarionai Socialism and the Holocausr have paid surprisingly lirde
attention to antisemitism. There is a noticeable disjuncture between the popular
and commonsensical assumption that antisemitism was [he direct and indeed
only morive for rhe genocide of Jews, and scholaxly analyses, which look else-
where for the forces thar drove Nazism. In 1996, Daniel Goldhagen's anempr to
bring these posirions together produced a bestseller Willing Execu-
tionm), but Goldhagen remained an outsider to the academic establishment.
Saul Friedlander's prize-winning srudy, Nazi Gnmany and the Jtws, posits
"redemptive antisemitism" as the cenrer of Nazi ideology and pracrice. Even
here, anrisemitism, p:uadoxica1ly, plays a more prominenr role in the firsr volume,
which deals with Germany nom 1933 ro 1939, than ir does in Volume 2, The l'<ar.r
ofExt<rmination, Raul Hilberg's monumental work, The Destruction of
the EuropeanJtws, opens with reflecrions on the concinuiries of anti-Jewish srereo-
types and behaviors from the medieval period [0 World Wax II bur rerurns ro
thar theme only rarely in the hundreds of pages thar follow. The ubiquity +of
;. presence .. ve"jwhere.
";""'-'m-, in tho ru .... $ awnhinrd..;m as apIasn-e fo.ce. scans m dd"y
pesb qfd.n m look dsc.lk1e lil papc:namts' ....,.n"CS: m pOOr_
;".I, SOC:OIog;c.l, and psycI.%g:cJ bcrocs, hom peer pressure '0 opporrunism,
disc-. ",., ..... and cu=ism.
In this dis.-u";"" I t:ake a diIfcrmr rack from <he linear equation onen
a
w uDed
(e::x:rmne aoriscmirism Nazism Holocaust) to consider instead
how .nci...",irism funaioncd widlln the Nazi sysccm of d.strucciOD. Hccc
antisemitism must be nnckrnnod as DOE only a sa of convicrions and. riru2ls bur
2S specific policies and p<2aio:s char =gc=I Judaism and Jews, individually
and coII=ndy. We em Mknrify ducc =ges ofNazi anciscmicism, each of them
anchoccd in 2 =in chroooIogical period yo: building on and subsuming +
cadi.<r cb-dopm<m:s, and each playing a panicuIac role in the pasccurion and
murdcc of Jews. The fu.. c:::m:gocy deals ..;m anciscmicism as ideology, tha, is,
aorisemirism as a force and an input inoo procc:sscs of pasccurion.
Hac the focus is on the period prior m I933, that is, before Adolf Hidcc became
ch.nceI.".. of Germany.
The second can be calkd anci...",icism in power." No< only was
anriscmirism a component pan: of the Nazi woddview, bur once Hitler came to
powa, a nrisemirism itsd.f was shaped duough of insrirurionalization,
kg:>lizarion, impbncm2Iion, and descrucrion that occurrcd. from 1933 [0 1945. In
chis period, 'nci...",icism spread rapidly, through propaganda and education bur
also through official measures and actions char implica,ed ever more individuals
and groups of people in anacks on Jews and gave mem """ed intccestS in
upholding a sysccm char sought to diminace Jews, whemcc or nOt me Gentiles
im-oh-ed shared that goal The dllrd antisemicism as a pmduct of me
Holocaust, from the second.. Vioknce against Jews pmdueed and
promoced panicuIac forms of barred, resentment, and d.struccion (including
erasure and dcnial) that began during me Holocaust and continued [0 exist and
muracc aftcc it ended with the d&ar and collapse of Nazi Germany in 1945.
ANTISEMITISM AND NAZI IDEOLOGY:
MOTIVATIONS AND INPUTS
Antisemitism constituted. the core of Hitler's worldview and the cencec of
National Socialisi*Ideology nom me parry's formation in 1919. For Hitler me
[WO notions of race and space-racial purification and spacial expansion-were
inextricably intercwined. To achieve me world dominance i, supposedly deserved,
the "Aryan" Grace. Hitler reasoned in Social Darwinist fashion, had to be in a
state of increase. Such reproduction required land, and conquest of
territory meant wac. In Hider's eyes, because me Jewish race was me monal
enemy of the Aryans, any war would be or become a wac against me Jews. *
Ind .. <I, Pf !'lui mmIic.l were drhcr puppers and dupes of or masks
+ _ tnc.(uoinq _
:f: Hati"""\ 5o<i",li st = N,,"Z.
o ".Inii::e..-.I<in n
e
cA) wTth bland n.ur, 5V-pposedlJ f "pu.re"
tnOTe. -\han <!fhnic 'Ccn"""titicn..,. -tills w.>S "'"
...,.,r of pl, .. ,,,,-b>f<.( d,....ensKlns and u/ti",A
Anti.s<mitism in mt Nazi Era 199
for Inrcmacional Jewry. For Hider and omers who shared his views, the notion
mar Gccmany bad lost me G= War"because of a "stab in me back" from a
treacherous homefront led by cowardly Jews meant that driving Jews out was
necessary in order to win the wars to come. .
Saul Fried.lander's conception of "redemptive antisemitism" is useful for
attempting to understand Hider's radical antisemitism. According to Hitler,
defeating something called "me Jew" was me only way to save Germany from
disaster. Characteristic of redemptive antisemitism was a religious zeal mat
linked fighting Jews and destroying so-called Jewish influence to me struggle
against evil. In Mtin Kampf, Hider claimed that when he attacked me Jew he
was doing God's work. At me same rime, redemptive antisemitism built on
racialist notions: Jewishness, it assumed, was in me blood and could not be
removed or undone cbrough religious conversion, legal emancipation, or culrwal
assimilation. Indeed, proponents of racial antisemitism reviled mose processes as
masks that concealed me Jewish cbrcat so it could catch its victims off guard.
Redemptive antisemicism also sounded a nore of urgency. It was almOst tOO late,
Hider and lilre-minded orarors intoned, for me Aryan race to save itself nom me
corrupting forces that had already de61ed its Only rapid and
violent action, mey insisted, could stOp me Jew.
An amalgam and accumulation of many forms ofJew-batred, redempcive anti-
semitism appealed to people wim a wide variccy of agendas. It was not necessacy
to buy intO me entire package to find co=on ground wim Nazism. The legacies
of older, narrower kinds of antisemitism provided points of contact to Nazism's
redemptive brand mat bom borrowed from and fed on memo Christian anti-
Judaism was one such pre-existing form. The notion that Jews were children of
me devil who had becrayed and crucified Jesus prepaced me way for me accusa-
tion that Jews were perfidious traitors to me fumerland. The image of Jews as
enemies ofChristianiry merged wim charges of Jews as me masterminds behind
atheist communism.
Political, economic, and social stereorypes about Jews that predated me emer-
gence of National Socialism meshed wim Nazi antisemitism as did cultural
anxieties and sexual fears. Srarring in the 1920S, Julius Streicher's newspaper Der
StUrm" and omer propaganda instruments played on images of the Jew as the
racially inferior male predator, me ugly yet fantastically fenile female, and the
devious temptress who led unsuspecting Aryans to their doom. These sexualized
figures echoed and reflected racist and imperialist minking at me same time as
rhey connecred different sets of target populacions in mutually reinforcing stere-
orypes. Jews were blamed for spreading homosexualiry and profiting from a gay.
subculture that purportedly undermined German strength. People suspicious of
Gypsies pointed out that, like Jews, Gypsies had no homeland, perhaps me'result
of a divine curse that somehow revealed meir innate criminaliry. '"
The antisemitism preached in Nazi speeches and tracts was rife wim contra- .
dictions. Jews, anrisemires insinuated, bad invented Christianiry to make meir .
+ ...... orld War I
o
.. haJ lots at'
,.,..,....;.. cd: =Ii -a; ya io: -. Jews, dq cIwge:I. who IriIIaI Jesus and
..... <:::!lc"xli n,n..,;,.,. - - - -'---'---'
.., -- i."'WZZI a mJ9 .. nunsm oc:piClOl Jews as at 000:
00.0""",:.11 =d -a _ iIIW"'SJIMli'{dICninnr mm, rmsruline womenJ_ To
anriymires jews Wtte bodt capitalists and comm11oistS; congcnita.Uy infe-
no< ya cpabIc of mounring a diabolically cb-.:r conspiracy ro rule me world;
= able ro c:ooceaI <heir <rue =>Ce ya hiding cvaywh=
Instead of me power of Nazi antisemitism, such conuadicrions
sucngthc:oed it. Th<y provid<d an inlinD:e nwnI>er of places ro connea wim
h2a.d and be of Jews. =ding ro an individu..Js anxieries and desires.
Nazi anrisemirism simulrmcously 2mOrpbous yet absolmdy
and spcci6c. All d.= confticring i.mages c:ame rogetbcr in rq>resenco-
aons of Je .. us gams and p,.. " i - mdl invisibk dUngs rh2< are neverthe-
less <2IS: ubiquirous. dirty. ugly. con<emprible. cunning. and
!Tl<mOng Also common was dqKcrion of me Jew as hiding behind a mask or
,-.:iJ rh2< needed only ro be rom away by some asrure obscrver-propaganda
= Josepb GocbbeIs was rbe supreme c:nmple-.:o reveaJ me Jewish periJ
lurking behind iL
Anrisemitim pro--ided an organizing principle fur azism. an adbesive mar
conneaed various c:ompooans of rbe party's plarform. How would Nazis end
"'" cncUdonem of Gc.many by inirmariona/ enemJs? By exposing <be Jews
"'!'o_ p!oaed ro keep Gc.many from irs proper pl= in rbe world. How would
add.r= domestic including unemploymenr. poverty. and
public inclcocrocy? By =>ovmg Jews from public life, of cowse. What was me
"posim" O!tisrianiry" rh2< Nazism officially espD'.J. A Chrisrianiry .. --'
of aII)ewish e/cmmrs
b - d
a program. ur If Des
seem ro hz\-., pb}-.:d a major role in bringing Hirler ro powtt_ Here we see an
imba6 ...... rh2< dnws aamrion ro rbeways powttwouJd rransfOrm anrisemirism
afrcr '933- Hider ne\tt concealed his antisemitism. bur be did downplay ir until
he c:ame ro _power. when <be opponuniry presented itself ro score pointS
\\''? a audience. He,jieeded respectabiliry. and prior ro ''lJ3. radical
annsenunsm was nor good furm in respectable German circles_
By all accoUDCS. Hider was a true believer in the redemptive antisemitism
he espoused. mcrdy a charismaric manipulator of populaI senDmen<_
Indeed. he ani his associares had ro work ro educare me German public abour
mepurponca'<ianger mar Jews and Judaism posed ro me Aryan race_As Nazi
anQSelQ1res leatned after 1'lJ3. meir strong= ally in rhis rask was power irsclf.
enabled implementation of antisemitic ideas that before 1933 had been .
more man The f.ill from power ended Hider's reign bur
did nor change hIS _lDlnd: In April 1945. in a bunker under Berlin. as he.
prepared ro end his Hider wrOre his lasr rcstaIDenr. blaming me Jews for
me_ war and all ItS lDlscnes and admonishinl me Germans ro uphold me
racial laws_
'lll41ities b:rlh sexes
<> Suppo..-t .. d
-* bebvi01"
d"i11le.d <> u--r<a;n'3
Antisanitism in the Nazi Era 201
ANTISEMITISM AS A WEAPON OF SOCIAL DEATH
Power instirurionalized Nazi anriscmitism and diffused ir rhIougbour sociery in
ways wat mCIged itS oruaordinaty force and vchemence .... wim me ?rdinaty.
banal manifestacions of everyday life_ In me first SIX years of Nanonal Soaalisr
rule in Germany. a series of laws and regulacions isolared German Jews and
produeed whar historian Marion Kaplan has called meir "social _
On January 30. 1'lJ3. Hider became Cbancellor of Germany_ Inmally he did
nor command a majoriry in me Reichstag; his cabiner included ouly fWO omer
members of me Nazi parry. and non-Nazis occupied key posirions as president
and vice-chancellor_ Nevcrmdess. Hider still found ways rO targer Jews. The
number of German Jews was small: in 1'lJ3. approximately 500.000 lews cons-
cirured less man 1% of me whole populacion_ DisproponionarelY"i>resenr in
some highly visible areas of me economy-publishing. medicine. me performing
am-German Jews were noriceably under-represenred in me higher ranks of
me military. judiciary. governmenr bureaucracy. police. and agriculrure_ In
April '933. in an effon ro highlighr me Jewish presence in rhe economy and
osrraciU+German,Jews. me Nazi leadership proclaimed a boycort of Jewish
businesses.
This first public act of organized antisemitism turned out to be a failure, or at
least a disappointmenr ro Hider and Minister of Enlightenmenr and Propa-
ganda Joseph Gocbbels_ Old-fashioned antisemitism alone. ir rurned Our. was
not strong enough to cOunter non-Jewish Germans' habits of consumption. Even
some $rormrroopcrs and Nazi Parry members violated me boycort ro frequenr
shops convenienr fur mem. In any case, whar constiruted a Jewish business? If
me issue was Jewish ownership. whar abour Aryan employees? What abour
enterprises owned joindy by Jews and non-Jews? To Nazi leaders. me April 1933
boycort revealed how righdy Jews were woven inro me fabric of German
economic life and proved me need ro isolare Jews before mounring a direcr
artack_ *
Those lessons infurmed me nex< step. which also occurred in April 1933- Nazi
authorities introduced a law to remove Jews from the German civil service. This
measure met with much more success. Non-Jews, the regime learned, preferred
anri-Jewish measures mar mey perceived as improving meir lives over rhose rhat
inconvenienced mem_ Firing Jewish civil servantS. from lowly clerks to high-
profile professionals. opened up posirions fur non-Jewish Germans. or ar leasr
held OUt the promise of doing SOJ and provided opportunities for self-serving
initiatives that sometimes went beyond the law. Ambitious university professors
raIgered unpopular colleagues by denouncing mem as converfS from Judaism to
ChIiscianiry or married ro Jew4/> women and requested mat mey roo be .
from meir postS_ The civil service law. cuphcmisricaHy labeled me Law for me
Rc:storation of the Professional Civil Service, was a crucial step in transforming
+ Il.""_oti",,.al l"-1:e.m*'j
" bori"1) doLL _
"* Iltort.. would he- mm- -thd,. ove.ra11 "hUmber;-
isolate.
:!lIZ Dtms L Bap
" jg' :00 ... .m.x.:Ie ma. mqai=I members of the public ro sb= N2Zi
=0" wide of.aiam ma. did DOL
Th In-e yeatS brougl.t countless measures large and small char
buih: up the f""SS'= OIl German Jews and cur rh<m offfiom the around
rh<m. The Nwaubag Laws of 1935 furbadc marriage bawCll Jews and so-caIkd
Ary2ns and criminalUcd =I n:brioos ba"een rbcm. banned people who
conmrd 2S Jews fioro flying the D2riooal Bag 0[ hiring Aryan women under tbe
"' of fOny-In", ro ..od: in their bomcs. and $I I it",.<d Jews of most of the rights
and p .. "o;cioos of German cirizmship, Subsequcm regubrions ddined as Jew"
those who h2d rh= 0[ fOur g=>dpar=s of the Je"Wish rdigion.
These sripubrions sparked a w,n.", of im-=igarions and prosccurions. Even
Clui";'os ",ilo harboral no parricular ill will rowan:! Jews discovem:I ir was
dangaous ro "<socia,,, wirh them. Displays of affinion or friendship could
resulr in charges of de6kmmr-<>r in public humiliation.
Policcrncn. bw)-=. and jodg<s detaikd resriroonies fiom men and
....,.:nal accused of violating laws againsr =I conracr baween people who
tbemsch"" deemed mcmbas of diffi=n: CICCS, evm though they lived
side by side. spoke the """'" language. and looked more or less the same. Convic-
tions meant long senn:nces in prison or concc:naarion camps, and. even acquit-
rats kft tq>W2rions dam:zg.ed and careers sIwteraI. Srormttoopccs and other
drugs harassed and abused Jews and oon-Jcws "nspecrai of violaring the race
bws, by bearing rh<m up or furcing chan to srand in the = wearing sand-
wich boanls with degrading messages.
This cornhinorion of official measures and public bullying poisonous
for Jews and uncomfonabk: fur their Gcnrik: <datives and friends. An endless
= of resuicrions and prohibitions heaped injustices, indignities, and hard-
ships one on rop of the ocher and further separated Jews fiom their neighbors.
Jews "'= furbidden fiom using public swimming pools; owning radios, rde-
phones, and 'YJ>"'Vri=; a[[ending school, pracricing medicine, wearing dirndls-t
and shopping other chan ar specified rimes, and giving the "Heil
Hirler!' grecring. Hundrals of such prohibitions eorrnenred and stigmatized
Jews by uanslaring antise.mitic ideas into everyday routines that required no
effort whatsOeVer from most non-Jewish Germans.
The Chris.rian churches played a significanr role in funhering and legiri-
manng ISOlanon oflews. Nazi law required Germans in a wide range of profes-
sional and even vo1unreer positions eo prove their "Aryan blood" byesrablishing
the religion of therr fOrebears, and records of baptism ineo the Roman Catholic
or Protestant churches were me only way to do so. There is no evidence thar the
priesrs, and church workers who Spear long hours combing through
dusry tomes and our,ll2.lI1es and dates of births, baptisms, and marriages
were hardcore Na2.l an=res. Probably mose of thern were JUS[ doing a job.
Bur theirwock was essMUja! for idmrifyingand tmrgioalizingJews. Meanwhile,
.he e'\ieen ... of Chri"i.n lcode,,> l\Qrnilll Gatllolic and frorestant. to maintain
+ or sE14ht"
o -tx.-.lit iar.a I G-..nna'r\
iOT,\"- 10""'5
AntismUtism in the Nazi Era 203
good rdarions wirh the Stare added to a dynami2char made the churches effeceive
normaIizers of Nazi antisemitism.
Some church people rook a more proactive role. Calling themsdves the
"Storrnrroopers of Chrisr; a pralominanrly Prorcsranr group known as the
"German Christian' movemenr arracked every aspecr of Chrisrianity rdared co
Judaism. Members rejecred pans or all of the Old Tesramenr, revISed
Tesramenr, and denied char Jesus was a Jew. Because the German Chnsnans
considered Jewishness rO be racial, they refused accept conv:rsIons from
Judaism rO Christianity as valid. A sign displayed 11l Wesrphalia 11l stare?
their position with crude clariry: "Baptism may be qWte useful, but lr doesn r
srraighren any noses." . .
At the national and local levels, German Christian spokespeople and aCOVlSrS
were obsessed with Chrisrians of Jewish background and used every co
harass thern, their families, and their few supporters. In many congreganons,
German Christians organized campaigns, including physical assaulr, agamsr
pascors, members of church councils, musicians, and parishi?ners wh,o had
Jewish ancesrors, were married co Jews, or expressed empathy the plighr of
Jews in Germany, For all their enthusiasm, the German Chnsnans were nor
mere pawns of Nazism, and somcrimes they initiated measures nor mandared by
the scare. In lare '933, they demanded removal of of Jewish
from Pcoresranr pulpirs, going beyond whar even Hlrler s regtme was Willing co
risk. In some cases, Aryan Proresranrs came rO the aid of their fellow-church
people, bur implicitly and even many <?hriscians outside the move-
menr endorsed German Christian goals, If nor theu methods.
By early 1939, Nazi aggression had pushed almosr half of Germany's Jews out
of the counrry. Yet anrisernirism conrinued co intensify. Many Aryan Germa.ns
who acquired homes, businesses, jobs, or promotions to the expropna-
cion or emigration of Jewish Germans discovered compellIng reasons hate
Jews or ar leasr co support policies against them. The Widespread percepnon of
Jews as fabulously wealthy. meant even Gentiles who not yet from
persecurion and expulsion could hope to do so and thar of the
regime might cost them their share of the spoils. GIven cIrcum,Stances,
debates about how antisemitic ordinary Germans were can mISS the pOInt. The
Nazis in power offered porenr incentives for people co behave like antisemires
even if they did nOr share thar worldview. !)
In late 1938, as .Hirler and his inner circle planned the dismembermenr .of
Czechoslovakia and the invasion of Poland, both of which followed in 1939, they
also engineered a massive assaulr on the Jews of the German Reich, whose
numbers had been newly enlarged by rhe annexation of Austria. This offensive
culminated in the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 9-10, 1938. Hitler's regime
benefired in numerous ways from chis purarivd?,sponraneous bur carefully
coordinared arrack on Jews, Jewish properry, and sires of Jewish worship and
communa1life. Impatient Nazis satisfied their thirst for violent action, German
-t- ... zrt.,,,,,,o",, -thsrt ,,,,,,jor cAan9"'''
0([. I''''lnt "fWo, ove-rio.;k.,d in of "\h. N8z1 re<J11!\e
* belie-vel in be,
A, TISEMITISM AS WARTIME DUTY
the 0UISeI: Nazi ideology and linked atacks on Jews wtth prepa_
ranon fOr W2L In Masch J935, Hider aollOf'nccd full German =01"
Wttks, German Jews were banned from miliW;
SCIVlCe. This exdusion impIicd that Jews were dishonorable, unfit ro be soldiers
and in league enemies. In 1936. a wave of propaganda prepared
Germans. for m the Spanish Civil War by painring defenders of
the Span.JSh Republic as bloodchirsry atheisrs. anarchists, communists. and
Jews. This reversaJ of reaJities-p=enringJews as if they were vicious aggres-
sors rather chan victims of Hider's Germany-became a hallmark of Nazi
antisemitism at war.
Even the assault on theJewswasunderway. "Europe
find peace until the Jewish Question has been solved," Hider told the
Rcichsc.g on January 30, 1939. less chan chree monw after thugs torched syna_
gogues and pilbged the homes and b"sj"=es of Jews all over Germany. War,
Hider had already decided, would scm that year. "In the course of my life I have
often been a prophet," he proclaimed, "and have usually been ridiculed for
Ie. Now, he concluded, things were diflerent:
Tod.y I will ooa. more be:. prophet if <he int<marionaI Jewish financiers in 2.Od outSKk
Europe: .should succee::f in plunging dlc: nacions once ino:o II. world war, chen the
Antismtitism in th, Nazi Era 205
n:suIt will nor be: <he bolsheviring of <he earth, and thus the viCtory of Jewry, but the
annihilarion of the Jewish race in Europe! (Noakes and Pridham 2.001, 3:+41)
Later Goebbds and others often quoted chis prophecy. which they consistently
misdated to coincide with the German invasion of Poland on September I,
1939. That "mistake" revealed a sieight-of-hand, an attempt to cast Hider's
words as self-defense. a response to attack. rather than a declaration of
murderous intent.
War raiso:I rbe stakes of Nazi antisemitism in every possible way. MoS[ obvi-
ously, it multiplied almose tenfold the number rule. TI.'e
conquesr of Poland in Seprember 1939 pur appro=tely 2 milIion Polish Jews m
German hands (after June 1941, rbe number rose to 3 milIion). and Nazi ideology
plus years of antisemitic rheroric and action inside Germany made rbose Jews
rargers against whom anyrbing and everyrbing was permitted. To rbe Germans
in Poland, Jews erohodied borb rbe racial rbreat to Aryan blood and a major
obstacle to German order.
Malleable +stereorypes meant Jews were easily linked to orber opponents
and targets. Higb-level German policies and letters ftom Wehrmacht soldiers
alike conJlateJ'i>oles and Jews as Asiatic barbarians, filrby, barely human, and
unwotthy of consideration. Insinuations chat Poles and Jews fougbt dirty and
shot from concealed positions led ro assaults on civilians, including rbe taking
of hostages. ransom, rape, rbeft. murder, and destruction of synagogues, on
rbe pretext rbat snipers operated from inside rbem. In autumn 1939, rbe
Germans' first prioriry may have been destroying rbe Polish intelligentsia
(Gentile and Jewish), but attacks also singled out Jews, especially rbose who
looked distinctive. in particular Otthodox men.
German practices in conquered Poland reinforco:l notions of Jews as dangerous
and created new proof of Jewish inferiority. Ghettoization ofJews began in late
1939. According to the official line, Jews had to be: confined to preserve German
safety and prevent the spread of disease. In faCt, gbettoiution facilitated stealing
Jewish property and drove a wedge between Polish Jews and non-Jews. Alrbough
rbe German leadership hoped to capitafue on"\ntisemitism in Poland. it did not
trUSt rbe Poles and preferred to pit Polish Gentiles and Jews against one anorber.
Like orber Nazi antisemitic measures. gberroization functioned as a self-fulfilling
prophecy. Locked up under conditions of terrible shorrage-of food, housing,
sanitation. and everyrbing else needed ro live-Jews in rbe ghettos of occupied
Poland sank into desperation. Starving. begging. dressed in rags. and dying in
the meet, they erobodied rbe opposite of rbe Aryan ideal. No wonder Germans
shot movies in rbe gbettos. mose fiunously. The Eternal J=. which juxtaposed
inIages of swarming rats wirb crowds of emaciated Jews.
During wartime as before, antisemitism conneCted Nlli prejudices and poli-
cies and provided. coherence where there was none:. After the German and Soviet
foreign ministers signed a Non-Aggression Pact between their countries in
+ ad2>pb.ble
o combined. lrttP one..
-K p ,..cf.t -ftom
""",,=;.;,.,, 1PUPined theooly cnosam in Nni ideology. Hitkr's
Cal ,..;m ScJi::, bIochd amH-omD'DJDisr q.. '--"IS and 4Ctions (fOr the rime
b:::r: the JJO<ioIII of i wmpiucy mI1'im1 his lOraI abour-face.
stepped-up viokoce Jews became the accepto:! W2)' to solve
problems. When Himm!cr's R2ce and Serrkmenr mthoriries beg:on bringing
ahnic G=ns &om = Europe -home into the Reich; thar is, resettling
<hem in occupied Poland. they = into =jor difficulties. Where could they
bouse the hundreds of to be miIliollS-<>f people they
h2d lured in with promises of prosperity and comfOrt? Tbci.r answers invari-
ably =gtted Jews. In l.6di, SS men wmt door-to-<loor through Jewish neigh-
borhoods, cIcnw.ding people rheit homes wiclUn hours. In Germany,
when municip:iliries ran short of money, they CUt Jews off &om public assist-
ance, e>m befOre the conaal gmttnlllenr in Berlin requested they do so.
Antisemitism <=bled ambitious G=ns to ' work roward the FUhrer" while
sening rheit own schemes, and Nazi prnp4g.iJld. made clear the advancages of
such behavior.
During the war, anti-Jewish viokoce merged with :macks on other enemies.
In bre _ Nazi G=ns beg:on s)'str"",,;c.lly killing disabled people inside
the G= &icb. As the h.isrorian Henry Friedlander h4s shown, Nazi geno-
cide originared in this eupbanisrically"'bbded Fmlm ... ia Prognm. Here Nazi
b:lers bmed bow to =mit and aain professional killers, aplait ..
cb-dnp means of killing I:uge IIWllbers of people, and
rheit bodies. Amisemirism did mwders, but it remained apparent.
PlOponems of this son of killing accused Jewish doctors of luving purposely
the Germm race by 0lC0UrlIging softness toward people deemed
And e>m the rursory =minarions that identified prospective
>"leruns singled QUI pru;enrs defined as non-Aryan fOr killing.
. In
1
940,. the Germms invaded France. There roo the war broughr 'mass
killing, thIS ome of black French soldiers. In May and June 1940, Germans
caprured thousands of French African soldiers and killed moSt of them imme-
<liardy, White French soldiers did not f.tce the same tre4rment. Racism and old
itnperialist accusarions played a role, as did a prop4g.iJld. campaign urging
Germms co show no mercy co these supposed defilers of whire womanhood,
Echoes of anti-Jewish charges were audible here, too. A reminder thar Jews as
the. ruthless enemies of Germany h2d caused defear in Wodd War I thereby
laymg open the &.thed=d to occupation by soldiers of color was employed as a
warning for the presen,- The same charge thar had been used againsr Jews and
in 1m-thar they were cowardly sneaks who shor from concealed posi-
nons and then mutilared the bodies of then victims-reemerged in
1
940 against
black French soldiers, again as a justification for Germans co indulge in mass
killing. 0
. As Hannah Arendr poinred our in Eidmumn in Jausakm, the perpetrators of
N2ZJ OUDes were DOr abnorma.L Under the Nazi system as elsewhere, it was
" -fa:,.{'1 ;"o-ffe...sive -to h'de.
Or si-h.0hon
o (I.e.. ,-the.. Y<\css btltnq of of black Atnc&r!
sold.,er,s -preceded -th.,,- -m. ... 55 killil\j of Jo.,s)
Antimnitism in th. Nazi Era 207
normal co obey the laws, support the national war efforr, and prorecr one's
sdf-inreresr-in other words, to do one's dury. Yet doing those normal things
made people part of the machinery of destruct!0n. A German
have to be a f.tnatic antisemire to hdp herd jews mco a ghetto. Nor did his wife s .
enjoyment of the silver candlesticks he sent her requite any particular harred of
Nazi anti.semicism was pervasive but it was neither unavoidable nor
Unposed on innocent non-Jews. SriIl, co resist doing one's dury in rhe matter of
antisemitism required awareness and courage.
ANTISEMITISM AS ANNIHILATION
By the middle of 1941, Nazi Germans were systematically murdering jews.
Special killing squads followed the Wdrrnracht into Soviet rerrirory where they
rounded up Jews of all ages and killed them, usually by sboonng them mco mass
graves. These actions, carried out by the so-called Einsatzgrupptn, the German
Order Police, and non-German auxiliaries, also targeted non-jews-Roma and
Sinti (Gypsies), high-ranking Communists, and inmares of menw hospiws-
bur mose of the 1 million victims they anrassed by the end of 1941 were Jews.
In Ordi1l4ry Mm, his srudy of a reserve police battalion, ChriStopher
Browning argues that antisemitism was not a major motivation for this group
of German killers. Bur how can we know for certain? MoSt of the available
sources are posrwar trial records. Defendants can be expected to say what
they think puts them in rhe moSt favorable lighr, and even if rhey were nor
lying, who can reconstruct their own complicated motives years after the
fact ? Antisemitism may well have functioned as a scripi'"ro make the killers'
job easier and to justify it after the fact, even if it was not the sole or prime
motivation.
After the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, antisemitic themes became
even more prevalenr in German propaganda as Goebbels and his underlings
found endless grist for their mills in the notion of aJewish-Bolshevik conspiracy.
When the war was goingwdl for Germany, propaganda trumpeted the itnpending
defear of the diabolical foe. When military setbacks started coming, they only
served co prove how fearsome the Jewish enemy was. Against the ally of the
hammer and sickle and the power drat pulled the suings of the puppets, Churchill
and Roosevelt, the most extreme measures had become this view
of the wodd, no Jew was innocenr, and any appearance of harmlessness was jusr
another cunning ploy. This ideology and the war ir fuded created a deathtrap for
Jews. The police regulation of September 1941 requiring all those inside the
German Reich who were defined as Jews to wear a Star of David badge rein-
forced the obvious: stigmarized as enemies, Jews everywhere were open targetS .
Systematic transports of jews &om Germany and western Europe for killing in
the East began the next month.
+ reas",,- offered fi,.r ""\ ,.d:i
on
o ab ..
208
.. - - - -'- -+.
li.'"ii!D ?r"EJ'9""I""DSm 1IF.ZS DOtva.u.r p!iiasik71[ ,i agi .'5 As the Gc:nn:a.ns
iIXD wi".;' s c qw.' b",be Soria Unioo and fnrtba imo Soria
I=ds. d.:y rr-s "F"< '""",; iI'g IociIlbOiiliittIl3 for dJeir
own pwposcs- Some iod.igenoos anri"""jrcs .-!cd lirde goading. In the
s"mmer of '94', in J jrbJ!2Dia and pans of eastern Poland, per=urion of Jews
expIod<d imo = dw: emiIe commllniries. In July 1941, Polish
GemiIes in Jcdw.boe killed hund!eds of their Jewish ncigbbolS- Only a h:andful
of jc.. .. 211 of them rescued by ODe Polish woman- Almost of the
200,000 Jews of J jrbnania ....,.., IllIUdaed in the first th= months of German
ocnrpninn many of them by J jrbn.nian militia and poIia under the dirttrion
of the I jrhmnian Provisiooal Gowmmenr Inside R(WD3o ja Germany's
.. rrbnrirics for=i Jews 2ClOSS the borda imo Ukr2ine, wh= tbcy were sl2ugh-
n:red in the Icilling fields ofTI2IISIlisaia- For Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians,
and <><hers who b2d endur<d Soria rule, arradringJews provided a way to take
=-cnge for their suffaing, "''''' though Jews b2d shared 211 the terrors and
:abuses ofS", linism At the same time, assaulting Jews gained German approval
and disrraaed ar=rion from oon-Jews who themselves had collaborared with
the So.;as. For IWmanians and people in Slovakia, Croatia, Italy, and Hungary,
awcks on Jews became a way to curry favor with the Gennans and to position
thc:mseh-es fo.- p<e<em and linwe
For Gennans and annih;larory anrisemicism acted like a
!ll2gnet, puIling initiariv<:s of 211 kinds in the same di=riOIL Material =rds
2Wai!ai those who killed Jews and supporred the killing through their work-
P"", encouraged participario<L Promotioos and the approval of supe-
riors came to those who sbowod panicular iniriarive and effectiveness in
desuoying Jews.. Antisemitism did nor compete with those other morivacions
bur rather fused with them and bound them together in a deadly consensus.
In 1942, ar the height of German milirary SllCCCSS, the killing of J"'" reached
its peak. Nazi Gennans also mwdered hundreds of thousands of Gypsies in the
ghettos and Icilling cenrers esrablished to desrroy J"",.In '943, although German
power began slowly to wane, killing 00"", did not ease up. Instead German
forces concentraTed in the western Sovier Union (Belarus) and Poland executed
the so-called second sweep, hunting down those Jews who remained in work
camps, in hiding, and in rumpghettos and killing thero on the spot. To Nazi
killers, increasing evidence of Jewish resistance only confirmed their fears of
Jewish in cahOOtS with GernIany's enemies. At the sarne time, prac-
nces of and dehll roll! n izi og their victims fed m.e killers' contemp[ of
as little more than beasrs who deserved to die- The moostrous scope of the
kiIImg meanr many Germans grew accustomed to seeing Jews as corpses who, if
.they were not yer dead, soon would be. Thar inIage bled into a stereotype of the
passive Jew who a1mosr asked for death and sometimes literally did. Such
notioos, feeding upon the .ongoing destruction. facilitated the killing of Jews.
even O\--mges of discomfon. like those evident in HimmJers October
+ ?res=t
o beo=us<z- h ... lf -emrtlt
I
Amismlitism in th. Nazi Era
209
194} speech, added to the kiIIexs' desire to see the Jews eradicated. Who wants
living reminders of their own b2d conscience? ... . .
Himm!er's speech points to another component of Nazi tn.the
stage of annihilation: guilt, and reIared to it, shame. For all thelr brutalizanon,
most of the killers and their accomplices reroained "normal" people who longed
for the comfortS of f.unily life and thought of themselves, to use HinImler's
word, as "decent-" How could they cover over the guilt of killing old
women, children, and men who had done nothing to thero? Here the
inversiot came intO play, with its accusatioos of Jews as evil personified, coosprr-
arors against everything German and good- As the HolocaUSt inteosified, anti-
Jewish propaganda rerreared from open as in The
Eurnol JI!W and simiIar filros, and instead used 1inked to
defense. This was the antisemitism of a had coOSCIence, calibrate<fOto Jusofy
participation in atrocities without admitting their narure and extent.
By the last stage of the war, killing Jews had become normal for people from
many parrs of Europe. As German forces retreated westWard after
and eastward after D-Day, administrators and guards at camps and killing
centers began to evacuate the reroaining prisoners and march them toward terri-
tories still in German h:ands. Daniel Goldhagen contends that these death
marches prove the antisemitic zeal of Germans who, even in the face of defeat,
refused to surrender their victims. Gerhard Weinberg offers another explana-
tion: self-preservation. By the end of 19# the safest place any German could be,
Allied bombs notwithstanding, was inside the admirredly rapidly shrinking alea
under German control Columos of srarving, haIf-dead Jews and other prisoners
represented ticketS toward home. Without them. a German man would I>:.sem:
to the &ont- To refuse That perilous duty meant to desen, and German OIlhrary
authorities shot some 30,000 German men accused of deserrion and defeatism,
most of thero in the last months of the war.
Goldhagen's and Weinberg's argunIents need not be mutu2lly exclusive if we
consider the narure of Nazi antisemitism. By the time of the death marches,
antisemitism was utterly familial, inseparable &om other aspeers of life: the
German war effort, cowardice, careerism. common sense. It was not that ordi-
nary Germaos" were merely silent or indifferent to Jews. Under of
institutionalized, annihilatory antisemitism, indifference was not an apnon,
even when choosing a topic for a-doctoral disserDtion or a narne for a child.
Who between 1933 and 1945 in Germany would call their girl Sara?
ANTISEMITISM AS A PRODUCT OF THE HOLOCAUST
Defeat and collapse of Nazi Germany, it is ofren pointed out, discredited
ancisem.itism. At the same time, however. aspects of Nazi antisemitism survived
the Holocaust and even thrived under postwar conditions. For individuals and
+ of fa/sa,OG'J into 'ltruth"
o adju.sW
* (1:"- -\he.. decisiv<:. Soviet- -v,cQ,('1 .. t '::;tal;"qrad, 19 -4 3 J
. " -..... who bad I ... fm " Iium the diS;W .... "",... of Jews by aking tbcir
!?<"P"" .m ! ..... . ts "OOsrmirism ofii:Rd a "'7f lOr jusrifying and DOml2.!-
mo..:.as. The bid iIkd liIr ir, ibc ItmIing wm: rbty 100
rich. they &iled to . ssjrnib... they had DO( resiswi. H=a:I ofJcws and posrwar
viok:oce 2g2inst Jewish smvivo<s scrvd to drive <hem out and remove painful
"""indas of the compIiciIy and f2iIuce of non-Jews. Politicians used posrwar
20riymirism roo: Commnojsrs eager m oonsolidarr in casrc:m Europe
rdU=:I to acknooooiedge Jewish saHmng under Gcnnan ocO!paOOn in 0"'''' ro
highlighr tb<ir own martyIS and win ova local populations. Oppon<:nts of
Ziomsm ><XUS<d Jews of proIiring from vV-rjrninOO" in ooder to gr.tl> resrirurion
WWi5 to finance acarion of a Jewish =
In his book Fazr, j2Jl Gross examines poscwa.r :mriscmirism in Poland.. Thro:
million Polish Jews w= murtI.=d in the Holocaust. and only a few hundred
thouS2Dd ,...",.incd on Polish soil in May 1945, wbm the Allie; declared victory
in Europe. Less Ihan cwo years 12=, IllOS[ of IhaJ r=nanI was gone toO, hounded
om by .-ioIcm neighbors, hostile local administtarors, in<Iifk=lr authorities,
and indfecruaJ ditts. The July J946 pogrom in Kidcc was the most d=naric
poscwa.r arack on Jews, bur it was neither unfu= nor unique.
The situation in Poland stands out because of the size of the prewar Jewish
popubrion, the roaliry of irs desaucrion berwttn 1939 and 1945, and the final
=sure in the years following the W2L But c:ompaI2hIe phenomena occurred
dsc.mae. In her memoir Chrtkr tl Crud StaT, Heda Ko.aIy describes the antag-
onism she f..ced as a Jewish surID"Or in Prague. VICtor Kkmperer, who lived in
Ot=kn under Sm-iet ocOlpariool and then in East Germany until he died in
1960. was OIl< of few Jews who was in a position ro =r the posrwar waters
in Gcnnany_ His derision nor to =eaJ the existence ofhis diary suggests char he
knew it would nor be wdI recci>-ed.. Ouzside Europe toO, survivors often mer
with suspicion, acrusarions of &ilure, denial, and indifference.
The massive violence and desrrucrion of the Holocaust left a stigma on
Judaism and Jews- In the face of radical evil and unbearable loss, observers,
including some Jews, found comfon in the sense char anyone who suffered such
carasrrophe must somehow be ro blame:. One of the crud legacies of the Holo-
caust is an image of Jews as eternal vierims, who nor ordy arrract suffering bur
profit fcom it. Though sometimes mixed with philosemitic dedarations of admi-
ration and fascinacion, this norion constitutes anomer form of anci.semirism.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Arendt. Hannah. EicJmuznn in j<rusalnn, A &port on th, Banality of Evil (New York,
Viking. 196 .
Bankier. David, Th< G=s and th< Final SobcUm, PJ,1ic OpinUm wukr Nazism
MAc B2sil BIackwdI. """l_
Anrisonitism in the Nazi Era
211
Bergm. D . Twiswl C""" Th< Gmna.n Chrisrian MOV<711DIt in th, Third &ich (Chapd
Hill Univernrv ofNorrl> Carolina Press. 1996)-
Browning, Ordinary Mm: &sav< Police BanaIion IOI and th, Final Solu-
tion in Poland (New York: HarperCollins, 1992) .
Bukey. E'nIl. Hitler,Aumia (Chapel Hill: UniversityofNorrl> Carolma Press. 2000).
Friedlander. Saul. Nazi Gamany and th, jews. vol. 1: Th, of Pmmmon. Ij>j3-I939;
voL 2: Th, Ytan of ExterminatWn (New York: HarperCoIlins. 19'J7. waJ) .
Fricdlander. Henry. Th, Origins of Nazi GtnDCiJe, From Euthanasia to th, FtnalSobmon
(Chapel HilllLoodoo: Univernty ofNorrl> Carolina Press. 1m)
Goldhagen. Danid J . Hitler, WtIling Executionm, Ordinary Germans and th, HokcaUJt
(New York: Knopf. 1996). . . .
Gross. Jao. Far, Anti-SmUtism in Poland after Auschwitz, An Essay tn Htstoncallnur-
praariDn (New York: Random House, wo6).
Herf. Jeffrey. Th, jewish E"""" Nazi Propaganda during World War II and th, Hokcaust
(Ca,ru,ridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2006). .
Hilberg, lUul. Th, Dmruction of th, EUrDfta1l jews. rev. edo (New Haven: Yale Uruver-
sity Press. 2003) . . .., (N Y. k-
K2plan. Marion. Bawml Dignity and Dapa", jewuh Lift tn Nazt Germany ew or .
Oxford University Press. 1998).
Klempc:rer. Victor. I Will &ar Wi""",.A Diary of th, Nazi Ytan. '933-'945. 2 vols (New
York: Random House. 1998)
Kovily. Heda Margolius. Undn- a C .... I Sra" A Lift in PrafJ" I94I-I8 (New Yo"':
Holmes aod Meier. 19'J7). . .
Noakes.J.. aod G. Pridham (eels). Nazism: A Docummrary&tukr. vol. 3: Fomgn Polley.
War and Racial Extermination (Exeter: University of Exeter Press. 1988. rev. edo
2001). (r- -b 'A_
Sronweis. Ahn. Studying Scholarly Antisnnitism in Nazi Germ4ny "-'<lUI nus'-'
MA: Harvard Univernry Press. wo6)- .
Szob ... Patricia. "Telling Sexual Stories in the Nazi Courts of Law: IUcc Defilement In
Germany. 1933 to 1945," in Dagmar Herzog (ed.). S=lity and German FasCt.rm (New
York: Berghahn. 2005). 1Jl-63 . .
Weinberg. Gerhard. G=ny, Hitler. and World War Il(New York: Cambndge UnIver-
sity Press. 1m)