Shelby Holland Dr.

Jan Rieman English 1102 4/26/12 Xenophobia: Germany, England, and France The term xenophobia originated from the Greek word xenos, meaning foreign or strange and phobos meaning fear. Xenophobia is relevant in the post-World War I era, because the great power nations needed a scapegoat for the intense depression experienced in the western nations. George Orwell paints the scene in Paris and London in Down and Out in Paris and London, showing the foreigners in Paris and the beggars in London as the obvious scapegoats. Germanys chosen ones were the Jewish population, later creating of the largest genocides in history, the holocaust. Xenophobia is unconsciously used in all three countries as a way of unity, and in Germanys lead into World War II. Orwell starts Down and Out in Paris and London in Paris, France, describing the unique Hotel X and all of its foreign residents (1). There is a specific difference throughout the novel in the types of xenophobia in Paris compared to London. The narrator of the work is an Englishman, who is very conscious of the foreigners in Paris (7). Being an outsider himself, it is portrayed how foreigners were dealt with and looked upon. The majority of foreigners portrayed in the Paris episode were hard-off in poverty. The French refrained from coming in contact with them, unless hard-off themselves. They were the part of town the French stayed far away from and preferred to not acknowledge at all (5). Orwell talks specifically of the Red-haired Jew, a haughty fiery man with a furious temperament. He shows the stereotype of the Jew tricking poverty-stricken people out of their money (3). The foreigners in Paris were obvious outsiders and highly looked down upon.

Shelby Holland Dr. Jan Rieman English 1102 4/26/12 The other type of xenophobia exemplified in Down and Out in Paris and London is through the beggars and tramps. Shown a slight bit in Paris through pawning clothes for money and borrowing back money you had one leant (15), beggars were the predominant scapegoat of London (31). The beggars of London could be anything: street acrobats and street photographers, organ-grinders, screevers (sidewalk artists), or typical beggars. The typical beggars would sell matches, bootlaces, anything to look under the pretense of selling something so as not to be arrested for begging. If you make a nuisance of yourself, you are held to be following a legitimate trade and not begging (32). The other type of xenophobia in London was of the tramps. The Londoners held tramps under the stereotype of drunken criminals (36). The misconception is in that tramps are in poverty. To access alcohol or any sort, one would have to have money. Also, a tramp cannot afford to be a criminal, because they risk death, which they are already fighting by tramping. A tramp tramps, not because he likes it, but for the same reason a car keeps to the left; because there happens to be a law compelling him to do so (36). The law required tramps to only be allowed to stay in the casual wards one night of the month. So unless the person wants to sleep outside, he must keep moving to the next ward that will accept him, forcing all tramps into a nomadic lifestyle of tramping (36). In London, the beggars and tramps were the obvious scapegoats and seen as lazy. Orwell hints at ways that he would change the system if he were in charge (36). In both London and Paris, the basis on xenophobia lies within the foreigners and the poor, without much impact on the economic and political structure. It does unify the middle class in both countries, by giving them a scapegoat.

Shelby Holland Dr. Jan Rieman English 1102 4/26/12 Germany is well known for the xenophobia experienced after World War I. the economic depression and the defeat in WWI was placed in the blame of the Jews (Legge 3). Propaganda was responsible for the German belief that this group of people was responsible for the depression, because they took advantage of it, hording all of the money (Legge 5). Pre-World War I, Germany has broken out into youth movements, young people rebelling against their parents. These groups later became unified as the Nazi party (Kuhne 31). Comrade was the primary word used to unify the German population, specifically against Jews. Adolf Hitler used the general xenophobia of the Jewish community to create a mass genocide of six million Jews (Kuhne 78). The German people wanted Volksgemeinschaft, meaning a peoples community (Kuhne 38). Hitler used comradeships to assemble unity in Germany in every possible structure. For example, college students met in a specific comradeship, instead of a fraternity. Through the comradeships, the German community gradually found a common domestic enemy: the Jews (Kuhne 33). Comrades found unity through the Endless propaganda, decisive legislation, constant harassment, and brutal terror [that] transformed assimilated Jews into a German menace (Kuhne 38). National belonging throughout the population was achieved by excluding Jews, and essentially executing them. It could even be said that xenophobia was displayed through the fear of the Nazi Party. The term volksverrater meant a German traitor who associated with Jewish people (Kuhne 38).

Shelby Holland Dr. Jan Rieman English 1102 4/26/12 It is very obvious that the German Nazi party used xenophobia to slowly push the German people to cut all ties to the Jewish Population. Although there was general hesitation at the beginning of the exclusions, it was not hatred, but indifference toward them- a silent or passive complicity- that established mass support of the Nazi racial politics in the 1930s (Kuhne 40). Hitlers party used xenophobia and the concept of the outsider to bring community, and essentially complacence to the holocaust, to the German people, creating a genocidal community. In all three countries xenophobia is displayed, some more drastic than others. In Paris, the concept of foreigners was the xenophobic population. Being blatantly ignored by the French community, xenophobia created unity between them. In London, it was the beggars and tramps that were avoided. There was a widely transmitted stereotype that they were doing it because they were lazy or had criminal intent. Orwell showed that the assumptions were in some cases true, but the majority was not. However, xenophobia is most evidently displayed in Germany, where the unity of the German community comes at the price of the Jews. The holocaust is xenophobias result in the most extreme form. Bringing unity to various communities, xenophobia is shown in the post World War I years in Germany, France, and England.

Shelby Holland Dr. Jan Rieman English 1102 4/26/12 Bibliography Kuhne, Thomas. Belonging and Genocide: Hitlers Community, 1918-1945. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. 2010. Print. Legge, Jerome S. Jews, Turks, and Other Strangers: the roots of prejudice in modern Germany. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. 2003. Print. Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. San Diego: Harcourt. 1933. Print.