Blaming Jews For Acting Like Nazis

This book concentrates on the strange occurrence of Jews whose legacy is the comparison of Israelis with Nazis, a tendency that is becoming prominent among Jewish Western intellectuals, involving artists, scholars, journalists and politicians -- and the dangers this comparison poses to Israeli society and to the Jewish people.

"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is almost certainly fiction, but its impact was not. Originating in Russia, it landed in the English-speaking world where it caused great consternation. Much is made of German anti-semitism, but there was fertile soil for "The Protocols" across Europe and even in America, thanks to Henry Ford and others.

Madman, tyrant, animal—history has given Adolf Hitler many names. In Mein Kampf (My Struggle), often called the Nazi bible, Hitler describes his life, frustrations, ideals, and dreams. Born to an impoverished couple in a small town in Austria, the young Adolf grew up with the fervent desire to become a painter. The death of his parents and outright rejection from art schools in Vienna forced him into underpaid work as a laborer. During the First World War, Hitler served in the infantry and was decorated for bravery. After the war, he became actively involved with socialist political groups and quickly rose to power, establishing himself as Chairman of the National Socialist German Worker's party. In 1924, Hitler led a coalition of nationalist groups in a bid to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich. The infamous Munich "Beer-hall putsch" was unsuccessful, and Hitler was arrested. During the nine months he was in prison, an embittered and frustrated Hitler dictated a personal manifesto to his loyal follower Rudolph Hess. He vented his sentiments against communism and the Jewish people in this document, which was to become Mein Kampf, the controversial book that is seen as the blue-print for Hitler's political and military campaign. In Mein Kampf, Hitler describes his strategy for rebuilding Germany and conquering Europe. It is a glimpse into the mind of a man who destabilized world peace and pursued the genocide now known as the Holocaust.

Summarizes the history of antisemitism from ancient times until 1933. Queries whether antisemitism is primarily the product of fantasies about Jews that were engendered by pre-Christian and Christian beliefs, or whether there is something about Jews themselves that has provoked hostility against them; emphasizes that explaining antisemitism does not justify it. Suggests that there is a middle ground between blaming the Jews and blaming the non-Jews. The relationship between the two is an interplay of fantasy and reality on the part of both. Many wild fantasies of antisemites were sometimes fed by realities. Notes that the Jews were not always a persecuted minority. In some periods their situation was good; in other periods, conflicts between Jews and non-Jews did not exceed "normal" conflicts of the time. Chimerical beliefs concerning the Jews (including racism and "Jewish communism") could be not only antisemitic but also philosemitic. Antisemitism surged in 19th-century Europe as a by-product of Jewish demographic, economic, and political expansion. World War I and the Russian Revolution brought on myths about the Jews' striving for world power - a myth that had a touch of reality. Objects to applying the Nazi paradigm to pre-Nazi antisemitism. No anti-Jewish writer of the late 19th-early 20th centuries can be regarded as a proto-Nazi - none of them called for the extermination of the Jews.

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD • The prescient founder of The Free Press delivers an urgent wake-up call to all Americans exposing the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in this country—and explains what we can do to defeat it. “A praiseworthy and concise brief against modern-day anti-Semitism.”—The New York Times On October 27, 2018, eleven Jews were gunned down as they prayed at their synagogue in Pittsburgh. It was the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. For most Americans, the massacre at Tree of Life, the synagogue where Bari Weiss became a bat mitzvah, came as a shock. But anti-Semitism is the oldest hatred, commonplace across the Middle East and on the rise for years in Europe. So that terrible morning in Pittsburgh, as well as the continued surge of hate crimes against Jews in cities and towns across the country, raise a question Americans cannot avoid: Could it happen here? This book is Weiss’s answer. Like many, Weiss long believed this country could escape the rising tide of anti-Semitism. With its promise of free speech and religion, its insistence that all people are created equal, its tolerance for difference, and its emphasis on shared ideals rather than bloodlines, America has been, even with all its flaws, a new Jerusalem for the Jewish people. But now the luckiest Jews in history are beginning to face a three-headed dragon known all too well to Jews of other times and places: the physical fear of violent assault, the moral fear of ideological vilification, and the political fear of resurgent fascism and populism. No longer the exclusive province of the far right, the far left, and assorted religious bigots, anti-Semitism now finds a home in identity politics as well as the reaction against identity politics, in the renewal of America First isolationism and the rise of one-world socialism, and in the spread of Islamist ideas into unlikely places. A hatred that was, until recently, reliably taboo is migrating toward the mainstream, amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy that threatens us all. Weiss is one of our most provocative writers, and her cri de coeur makes a powerful case for renewing Jewish and American values in this uncertain moment. Not just for the sake of America’s Jews, but for the sake of America.

The sheer magnitude of the Holocaust has commanded our attention for the past sixty years. The extent of atrocities, however, has overshadowed the calculus Nazis used to justify their deeds. According to German wartime media, it was German citizens who were targeted for extinction by a vast international conspiracy. Leading the assault was an insidious, belligerent Jewish clique, so crafty and powerful that it managed to manipulate the actions of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Hitler portrayed the Holocaust as a defensive act, a necessary move to destroy the Jews before they destroyed Germany. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, and Otto Dietrich’s Press Office translated this fanatical vision into a coherent cautionary narrative, which the Nazi propaganda machine disseminated into the recesses of everyday life. Calling on impressive archival research, Jeffrey Herf recreates the wall posters that Germans saw while waiting for the streetcar, the radio speeches they heard at home or on the street, the headlines that blared from newsstands. The Jewish Enemy is the first extensive study of how anti-Semitism pervaded and shaped Nazi propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust, and how it pulled together the diverse elements of a delusionary Nazi worldview. Here we find an original and haunting exposition of the ways in which Hitler legitimized war and genocide to his own people, as necessary to destroy an allegedly omnipotent Jewish foe. In an era when both anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories continue to influence world politics, Herf offers a timely reminder of their dangers along with a fresh interpretation of the paranoia underlying the ideology of the Third Reich.

A popularly written and illustrated history of the Holocaust. Deals with all of the victims of the Nazis' genocidal campaign: communists, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, Poles and other Slavs, and Soviet POWs, as well as the "racial enemies" - Afro-Germans, the mentally and physically disabled, Gypsies, and Jews. Jews were regarded by the Nazis as the foremost "racial enemy". Pp. 110-156, "The Holocaust", deal specifically with the destruction of the Jews - from the first Nazi anti-Jewish measures in Germany, through the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and murders of Jews in Poland and the USSR, to the total mass murder in the death camps.

That Adolf Hitler spoke out against the Jews is banal in the extreme. But that this is the first book ever to compile his remarks on the Jews is nothing short of astonishing. Of the thousands of books and articles written on Hitler, World War Two and the Holocaust, virtually none of them quote Hitler's exact words on the Jews--virtually none. The reason for this is clear: Those in positions of influence in media, government and universities have an incentive to present a simplistic and highly-sanitized picture of Hitler as an insane Jew-hater, a blood-thirsty tyrant and the embodiment of evil. This caricature of the truth is extremely useful--if for no other reason than to batter all "racists," "neo-Nazis," "anti-Semites," "bigots," and generally anyone unfriendly to Jewish, Zionist, or Israeli interests. This caricaturization, in turn, only works if the public is presented with a carefully-controlled and manipulated view of Hitler's take on the Jews. His real words and his actual ideas are far more complex and sophisticated than most authorities would like you to think. Hitler was an intelligent and well-read man. He had a broad and largely-accurate knowledge of history, culture, religion, human biology, and social evolution. His knowledge, depth, and insight put to shame most any present-day world leader. But this fact does not suit those in power today. They need the public to think of him as a semi-literate, foaming-at-the-mouth demagogue. And to accomplish this goal, they need to ensure that no one reads his actual words. Until now, they have succeeded. Now, for the first time, this objective has been defeated. Here, one can read nearly every idea that Hitler put forth about the Jews, in considerable detail and in full context. This book is not merely of historical interest. It's not just for experts and specialists in World War Two. Hitler's analysis of the Jews, though hostile, is erudite, detailed, and largely aligns with events of past decades. There are many lessons here for the modern-day world. Thomas Dalton, PhD, is author, editor, and translator of several books and articles on Hitler, the Holocaust, and National Socialism. His books include Debating the Holocaust (2015), The Holocaust: An Introduction (2016), and the forthcoming works Eternal Strangers: A Critical History of Jews and Judaism (2020); The Jewish Hand in the World Wars (2020); and Goebbels on the Jews (2020). Dr. Dalton has also produced new translations of Mein Kampf, and edited a compilation work, The Essential Mein Kampf (2019).