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)
(Oxford Series On History and Archives) Jockusch, Laura - Collect and Record! - Jewish Holocaust Documentation in Early Postwar Europe-Oxford University Press (2015)