Download The Antisemitic Background to Jewish Persecution in Europe, and

WEEK 1
The Antisemitic Background to Jewish Persecution in Europe, and
Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
Prepared by Tony Joel and Mathew Turner
Week 1 Unit Learning Outcomes
ULO 1. evaluate in a reflective and critical manner the consequences of racism and prejudice
ULO 2. interpret the political, social, economic, and cultural factors that enabled the
Nazi Party to come to power in Germany
Introduction
This learning module is divided into two sections. We commence by examining the
historical background of antisemitism in Europe prior to the Nazi period. Section 1
identifies and explains three forms of antisemitism: traditional (or religious-based)
antisemitism; modern (or “scientific”) antisemitism; and Nazi antisemitism. The first
section concludes by considering the role of antisemitism in shaping Hitler’s
worldview (Weltanschauung).
Section 2 explores Hitler’s emergence as a leading political figure in Germany following
the First World War, and the Nazi Party’s rise as a popular movement and an electoral
force. It starts by setting out the relevant historical context, tracing the various political
and economic crises that plagued Germany between 1918-32 and led to Hitler coming to
power. The Nazi Party emerged within this context, establishing its political platform
and developing its methods of propaganda and intimidation through violence.
Ultimately, the Nazis became by far the single most electorally popular political party in
Germany. Section 2 questions whether this happened in spite of, or perhaps because of,
Hitler and his Nazi Movement being so open in their hatred of Jews.
This learning module concludes by inviting you to reflect on some important
questions. To what extent was antisemitism a core idea of Nazism? What role, if any,
did antisemitism play in the Nazis’ growing popularity and electoral success leading
up to Hitler becoming German chancellor? What does this tell us about the possible
motivations of German voters who supported the Nazis?
After completing this learning module, you will be in a position to begin evaluating, in
a reflective and critical manner, the consequences of racism. Furthermore, you will be
able to interpret the political, social, economic, and cultural factors that enabled the
Nazi Party to come to power in Germany.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 1: The Historical Background of Antisemitism in Europe
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SECTION 1. The Historical Background of Antisemitism in
Europe prior to the Nazi Period
In this section of the learning module we consider whether there was something different
about Nazi antisemitism that contributed to the Holocaust. To attempt to answer this
question, we start by tracing the evolution of European antisemitism from the Middle
Ages until the rise of Nazism. In doing so, this section distinguishes between two main
forms of antisemitism: first, what is termed traditional antisemitism, which was based on
religious prejudice against Jews; and, second, modern forms of antisemitism, which were
secular in nature and had originated from eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinking and
then drew on later-nineteenth-century racial theories. Finally, this section looks at Nazi
antisemitism and the ways in which an irrational hatred of Jews helped to form Hitler’s
worldview as he embarked on his political career in the 1920s.
a) Forms of Antisemitism: Traditional Antisemitism
Although prejudice against or hatred of Jews had been a common feature of European
culture for centuries, it went without a general name until the late 1800s when the
German editor and publicist Wilhelm Marr popularised the phrase “antisemitism”
(German: Antisemitismus). In 1879, Marr produced a pamphlet entitled The Path to Victory
of Germandom over Judaism (Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum) in
which he employed the scientific-sounding term “antisemitism” as a euphemism for the
general German term Judenhass meaning a hatred of Jews.
Portrait of Wilhelm Marr (c.1860) and a facsimile of the cover of his 1879 pamphlet in which he
popularised the term “antisemitism.”
Sources: “Wilhelm Marr,” DadAWeb. http://www.dadaweb.de/wiki/Wilhelm_Marr
[Accessed 25 January 2017]
“Der Weg zum Siege des Germanenthums über das Judenthum,” Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek.
https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/36QVBH2DYA5AFVK3UZTPPU7EZXIOJ7NW
[Accessed 25 January 2017]
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The emergence of the term antisemitism was indicative of the resurgence in anti-Jewish
agitation and accompanying theories designed to explain perceived Jewish failings that
followed German unification in 1870-71. Common sense suggests that without the
development of such antisemitic theories the Holocaust would be inconceivable.
Despite centuries-long widespread hatred and persecution of Jews across Europe,
however, nothing like the Holocaust had occurred.
A detailed medieval woodcut depicting an alleged Host Desecration carried out by Jews in the
German town of Passau in 1477.
It depicts Christian hosts being stolen and sold to local Jews who pierce them in a ritual. When
questioned by guards, the Jews unsuccessfully attempt to burn the hosts who are subsequently saved
when they are transformed into an infant carried away by angels. Once proven guilty, the Jews are
arrested, tortured, and beheaded and then burned while the Christian who sold the hosts to the Jews is
punished, too. The final tile shows Christians kneeling and praying outside a church.
Source: “Host Desecration,” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_desecration
[Accessed 25 January 2017]
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In the medieval and early modern periods (roughly 900-1500 AD) hatred and
persecution of Jews was justified on religious grounds. Catholicism (the dominant
intellectual force of the Middle Ages) vilified Jews as the killers of Christ. Jews were
portrayed as the devil incarnate, as witches, as unscrupulous moneylenders and
subjected to ongoing harassment and even expulsions. As early as the twelfth century,
Jews were accused of blood libels (ritual murders) of Christians in both England and
France. During the plague of the fourteenth century, across Europe Jews were accused
of poisoning wells and forced out of towns where their communities may have been
located for centuries. “The Jew” was perceived as symbolising evil and, moreover, as
embodying a danger beyond social control.
READING EXCERPT: Please read the short excerpt by Anna Sapir
Abulafia
entitled “The
Theological
Sources
of
Modern
Anti-
Semitism.” Abulafia describes how, in the context of the Crusades
that began in the eleventh century, Christian thinkers increasingly
rationalised the hatred of Jews by equating “the Jew” with animal,
baser instincts that stood in stark contrast to Christian “reason”
that acknowledged Christ as the saviour.
In the medieval imagination, Jews became fantastic creatures who allegedly desecrated
sacred Christian religious symbols, sucked the blood of Christian children, and
purposefully spread disease. In times of crisis, Jews were scapegoated. At best, they were
segregated from the Christian community, marked with special badges, and forced to
limit their occupations to trade and commerce. At worst, Jews were expelled.
A German medieval woodcut of “the Jew-Pig” (die Juden-Sau) dated c.1465-1480. According to
Judaism, the pig is an unclean animal. Here Jews, identified by their pointed hats they were forced to
wear by medieval law, are suckling from a sow and eating its excrement. The scrolls contain
messages that mock Jews.
Source: “Die Juden-Sau,” Virtuelles Kupferstichkabinett: Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
http://wolfgangcapito.wordpress.com/category/modern-thinking/ [Accessed 25 January 2017]
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Such religiously-based prejudice persisted long after the Middle Ages, despite the
spread of Enlightenment ideas. In the years prior to the outbreak of the First World
War, a wave of violent attacks (pogroms) on Russian Jews was precipitated by claims
that Jews were murdering Christian children in order to use their blood as part of
Passover celebrations. (Passover, or Pesach, is the festival commemorating the Jews’
release from Egypt. Because the Last Supper of Christ was a Passover meal, Easter
typically coincides with Passover. Anti-Jewish hysteria often became heightened in this
period.) These totally unfounded allegations of “ritual murder” illustrate the gullibility
of a poorly-educated peasant population and the unscrupulous manipulation by
authorities (both government and church leaders) of prejudice in order to distract
attention from their own failings.
Front cover of a 1939 edition of Nazi newspaper Der Stürmer featuring the fanciful depiction of the
ritual murder of Christian children by Jews.
Source: “Permanent Exhibit: Room 4,” Haus der Wannsee-Konferenz.
http://www.ghwk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf-wannsee/ausstellung/raum-4.pdf
[Accessed 25 January 2017]
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Top: Depiction of the infamous blood libel trial conducted in the Hungarian town of Tiszlaeszlár in
1882. Local Jews had been accused of ritual murder after teenage Christian girl Eszter Solymosi
went missing. All the defendants were acquitted, but the trial was a catalyst for rising antisemitism
across the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Bottom: Hungarian fascists and antisemites now misappropriate Solymosi’s gravesite in the
Tiszlaeszlár cemetery for annual pilgrimages. This scene is from 2015.
Sources: “AZ EMANCIPÁCIÓ UTÁNI VÉRVÁDAK” Szombat. http://www.szombat.org/tortenelem/azemancipacio-utani-vervadak [Accessed 27 January 2017]
“Tiszaeszlár 2015. április 4. Emlékezés Solymosi Eszterre” youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PFAU8VHpzA [Accessed 27 January 2017]
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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b) Forms of Antisemitism: Modern Antisemitism
The emergence after the Enlightenment of secular (i.e. non-religious) perspectives
based on rational, scientific observation should have put an end to the prejudices
associated with traditional, religious forms of antisemitism. Instead, antisemitism
seemed to strengthen as new justifications, apparently supported by scientific “proof,”
came to the fore. Post-Enlightenment theories and movements often are referred to by
the term “modern” antisemitism. The following sub-sections examine a number of
modern forms of antisemitism. The discussion includes Nazi antisemitism—a
distinctive strain of modern antisemitism that adopted and adapted various features
from not only other forms of modern antisemitism but also traditional antisemitism.
The growth of mass society and the broadening of political participation created an
environment that on the one hand enhanced Jewish aspirations for equality but on the
other hand simultaneously increased the opportunities for the expression of
antisemitism. Modern antisemitism adopted many forms and developed new
rationales in response to changing intellectual environments.
Nationalist antisemitism portrayed Jews as an alien element, undermining
traditional social values in much the same way as modern capitalism. Following the
Enlightenment, nationalism increasingly was regarded as the “natural” expression of
the aspirations of a people. Such ideas peaked with the emergence of romantic
nationalism in the nineteenth century. A nation’s people were imagined to share a
mystical unity with each other through their special relationship to the land. Jews—
who always had been regarded as outsiders and had seldom engaged in
agriculture—were by definition marginalised from such a nation. In nineteenthcentury Germany, so-called völkisch (folk) ideas became increasingly influential
among some sections of German society as conservative elements tried to deny the
reality of changes occurring in a modern, industrialising and urbanising society.
Antisemitism in pre-WWI Germany was part of a complex of anti-modernist,
nationalist ideas that reflected dissatisfaction with a rapidly changing German
economic and social order.
Socialist antisemitism, which was propelled by some prominent theorists
including Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, identified “the
Jew” as the essence of the capitalist dynamic oppressing the working classes. It
should be noted, however, that by the late nineteenth century many socialist
political movements championed the civil rights of Jews and it was the disaffected
middle and upper classes and the peasantry who persisted with negative
stereotypes of Jews as capitalists.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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“Le roi Rothschild” by Charles Lucien Léandre depicts the (Jewish) Rothchild banking family as
a (Jewish) vampyric creature controlling the world, and featured on the cover of the popular
French magazine Le Rire (“laughter”) in April 1898. Here, perhaps, is a good juncture to
emphasise the crucial point that by no means was antisemitism confined to Germany. Indeed, a
strong case can be made for the argument that prior to the First World War at least,
antisemitism was more widespread and virulent in France, Russia, and many parts of eastern
Europe than in Germany. This is one of the key reasons why the Nazis found so many willing
non-German collaborators from across Europe.
Source: “Antisemiticroths,” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Antisemiticroths.jpg
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
Political antisemitism stemmed from the broader democratisation of nineteeth-century
politics, which permitted the growth of a far greater diversity of political organisations
than previously had been allowed. The result was the formation of specifically antisemitic
parties. Adolf Stöcker’s Christian Social Party (Christlich-soziale Partei, CSP), for instance,
was based on traditional Christian antisemitism; formed in 1878, the CSP experienced only
limited success. Established in the 1890s, the Pan-German League (Alldeutscher Verband)
had a primary agenda of promoting German imperial expansion. It was openly
antisemitic, but the hatred of Jews was considered incidental to the League’s broader
nationalist agenda.
In a fusion of nationalist and political antisemitism new ideological justifications were
incorporated to persecute Jews, who were no longer perceived as just a threat to Christian
values but were believed to be undermining national and racial integrity. In Wilhelmine
Germany (1871-1918), those sharing a sense of national insecurity were attracted to
modern forms of antisemitism, tailoring such ideas to fit specifically German
circumstances. After the First World War, the emerging Nazi Party further extended and
radicalised modern antisemitic ideas.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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Portraits of the Austrian politician Georg von Schönerer, leader of the Pan-German movement in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and Karl Lueger, the antisemitic Mayor of
Vienna from 1897 to 1910. It appears likely that the political antisemitism espoused by prominent public
figures such as Schönerer and Lueger in Austria in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century had
some kind of influence on the formative views of another Austrian at this time — a young Adolf Hitler.
Sources: “Schönerer, Georg Ritter von,” Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Bildarchiv.
http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=10250718
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
“Karl Lueger, Foto um 1900,” Die Welt der Habsburger.
http://www.habsburger.net/de/medien/karl-lueger-foto-um-1900 [Accessed 27 January 2017]
Racial and Scientific Antisemitism in the Age of Social Darwinism
A further consequence of the Enlightenment was the fascination with scientific
classification. In the nineteenth century, many thinkers categorised humanity in
terms of racial traits. Biologically-determined physical characteristics were believed
to be critical in shaping cultural and/or national success.
As early as 1779, the German physician, naturalist, and biological anthropologist
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach pioneered an enormously influential theory in which
he studied crania and subsequently divided all humans into five distinct races:
Caucasian (white, originating from the Caucasus mountain region of Europe);
Mongolian (yellow, encompassing East Asians and some Central Asians); Malayan
(brown, including Southeast Asian and Pacific Islanders); Ethiopian (black, including
sub-Saharan Africans); and American (red, enveloping native American Indians and
other indigenous peoples of the Americas).
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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The five crania Blumenbach used to illustrate his theory about humans being divided into distinct races.
Source: “Naturforscher Blumenbach und die Klassifizierung der Völker Thema an Göttinger Uni,”
Göttinger Tageblatt. http://www.goettinger-tageblatt.de/Campus/Goettingen/NaturforscherBlumenbach-und-die-Klassifizierung-der-Voelker-Thema-an-Goettinger-Uni
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
Another pioneering work in this field was Arthur de Gobineau's Essay on the
Inequality of Races (1853-55). A Frenchman, de Gobineau developed a typology of
yellow, black, and white “races,” and on the basis of cultural and linguistic
“evidence” he concluded that the white (or “Aryan”) race was superior. De Gobineau
contended that racial decline resulted from intermarriage (referred to as
miscegenation), which caused the “superior race” to “degenerate” when mixed with
“inferior” blood. It is important to note that, whereas de Gobineau was not an
antisemite, the hierarchical structure of his ideas nonetheless influenced antisemitic
writers such as his fellow Frenchman Count Georges Vacher de Lapouge.
Vacher de Lapouge published The Aryan and His Social Role in 1899. In this work
“the Jew” is singled out as the enemy of what Vacher de Lapouge conceptualises as
a pan-European (“Aryan”) race. Vacher De Lapouge was influenced by Social
Darwinist ideas. Social Darwinist thinkers adapted Charles Darwin’s biological
concept of the “natural selection” of biological species to explain the rise and fall of
social and cultural groups. They argued that, just as animal species were
determined by the “survival of the fittest,” so, too, were human “races.” Whereas
de Gobineau’s earlier analysis was based on social and cultural observation, Vacher
de Lapouge claimed that his conclusions were “scientific.” Phrenology — the
“science” of measuring skull sizes — supposedly demonstrated racial capacity.
Vacher De Lapouge painted a scenario of race warfare between a supposedly
“superior Aryan race” embodying the ideals of European culture, and its racial
enemy: “the Jew.”
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 1: The Historical Background of Antisemitism in Europe
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Facsimile of original French publication of Essay on the Inequality of Human Races and portrait
of de Gobineau.
Sources: “Anti-Semitism in Germany: the Background,” Nowhere to Turn: The Plight of German Jews in
Nazi Germany, 1933-41. http://web.mnstate.edu/shoptaug/AntiFrames.htm
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
“When was Antisemitism Developed?” The Holocaust Explained.
http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/anti-semitism/modern-anti-semitism/when-was-antisemitism-developed/ [Accessed 27 January 2017]
(l) Georges Vacher de Lapouge and (r) Houston Stewart Chamberlain.
Sources: “Georges Vacher de Lapouge (1854-1936),” Contreculture.
https://www.contreculture.org/AT_VacherdeLapouge.html [Accessed 27 January 2017]
“Chamberlain, Houston Stewart," Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D118675508
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
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Racial antisemitism may have originated in France, but it became widely popularised
across Europe including in Germany. Influential figures who spread Vacher de
Lapouge’s ideas included the renowned composer Richard Wagner and his (British) sonin-law Houston Stewart Chamberlain. In Foundations of the Nineteenth Century (1899),
Chamberlain argued that Germans carried the racial and cultural mission of the “Aryan”
people. Chamberlain portrayed the “materialistic and evil Jew” as the mortal enemy of
the German people — only with the defeat of “the Jew” could the German people
experience a spiritual transformation to the highest level. Chamberlain’s ideas
synthesised racial antisemitism with mysticism and German nationalism.
PRESCRIBED TEXT: For more about the influence of
Chamberlain and racial antisemitism, please read from the
subheading “Racial Antisemitic Theories” at the end of the
chapter entitled “Racism” by Michael Burleigh and
Wolfgang Wippermann, pp. 26-27.
c) Forms of Antisemitism: Nazi Antisemitism
Until the rise of Nazism, antisemitism may have been hateful and its assumptions
abhorrent, yet it was not translated into actions that fundamentally threatened the
existence of European Jewry. The following section reviews the assumptions
underlying Nazi antisemitism so as to identify what was distinctive about it and why it
posed an unprecedented danger to the Jewish community. The term “Nazi
antisemitism” can be used interchangeably with “Hitler's antisemitism.”
An Ideology of Hatred
Nazi antisemitism adopted and adpated aspects of both traditional (i.e. religious) and
modern (i.e. nationalist, socialist, political, and racial) forms of antisemitism. Indeed,
Nazi antisemitism contained little that was new, apart from the characterisation of
revolutionary communism in the Soviet Union as “Jewish Bolshevism” (a novel
concept explained below). What made Nazi antisemitism powerful, however, was its
ability to synthesise so many antisemitic themes into a radical, apocalyptic vision of
Jews and Germans engaged in a violent, life-or-death struggle to the end.
Historian Philippe Burrin identifies two parallel and toxic discourses running through
Nazi antisemitism: the modern “pseudobiological” and the Christian “demonological,”
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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13
each of which reinforced the Nazi image of Jews as the enemy of the “Aryan race.”1
The “pseudobiological” strand drew on nineteenth-century racist theories to
characterise Jews as an “inherently destructive” anti-race whose blood threatened to
fatally contaminate the “purity” of the “German/Aryan race.” Burrin argues that
“demonological” images, borrowed from Christian traditions equating “the Jew” with
the devil, both reinforced the idea of Jewish “otherness” and presented Jews as
possessing a maliciously evil will.
Had Nazi antisemitism remained confined to the realm of ideas its impact would have
remained limited to a few fanatics. But antisemites used their theories to account for
actual historical events including Germany’s defeat in the First World War, the Russian
Revolution, and interwar economic crises. Jews were blamed for all of Germany’s
political problems and antisemites believed that the “solution” to these problems was
through the immediate and violent elimination of Jews. The prime ideologue of Nazi
antisemitism, of course, was Adolf Hitler. There is a clear relationship between his
attitude towards Jews and the tumultuous events that occurred in the wake of
Germany's defeat in the First World War.
Hitler's Antisemitism Emerges
Adolf Hitler was born in provincial Austria on 20 April 1889. He was a spoiled child of
limited academic achievement. Despite his rejection by the Viennese Academy of Fine
Art, Hitler spent the formative years of his late adolescence and early twenties in Vienna
(1907–13) as an “art student.” Hitler, drifting on the fringes of society while living in a
dosshouse, was exposed to the virulent antisemitic literature that was so prevalent in
Vienna at the time. Influences at this time seem to have included the writings of the
occultist Lanz von Lebenfels, who emphasised the dangers of “miscegenation” (the socalled mixing of races) and the mystical antisemite Guido von List. Living in pre-WWI
Vienna Hitler also was exposed to the political activities of Georg von Schönerer’s PanGerman movement and Karl Lueger’s Christian Social Party. In Mein Kampf (“My
Struggle”), his political manifesto authored during imprisonment in 1924, Hitler claims
that he had rejected Lueger’s Christian Social antisemitism because it accepted that
Jews could eradicate the stigma of their birth through baptism as Christians.2 Hitler
also claimed to have been struck by the internal divisiveness of Austria’s pre-WWI
political antisemitic movement, which he perceived to be ineffective. According to his
retrospective account in Mein Kampf, Hitler’s Viennese experience imprinted in his
imagination the image of Jews as inherently “filthy” and “degenerate.”3
1
Philippe Burrin, ch. 14 “Nazi Antisemitism: Animalization and Demonization,” in Robert S. Wistrich (ed.)
Demonizing the Other: Antisemitism, Racism, and Xenophobia. (Taylor and Francis, London, 2009). pp. 223-35.
Accessible from the Deakin University Library as an ebook: http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxyb.deakin.edu.au/lib/deakin/detail.action?docID=1144541.
2
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf. (Pimlico, London, 2000). pp. 110-11.
3
ibid. pp. 47-60.
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Just prior to the outbreak of war, Hitler moved to Munich (possibly to escape
conscription into the Austrian army, instead wishing to serve in the Kaiser’s imperial
German army). Following years of service (during which time he was awarded the
Iron Cross, First Class, after he was nominated by his German-Jewish superior officer
Hugo Gutmann), Hitler returned to Munich where he was exposed to the ideas of
Alfred Rosenberg. A German refugee from the Bolshevik takeover of the Baltic States,
Rosenberg played the decisive role in convincing Hitler of the connection between
Jews and revolutionary Bolshevism in the Soviet Union. The intertwining of the
“Bolshevik” and “Jewish” menace added an important new dimension to Hitler’s
antisemitism. According to historian Peter Longerich, Hitler was totally committed to
his antisemitic beliefs and he distinguished himself from earlier antisemites by his
insistence that antisemitism had to be pursued in a systematic and organised manner.4
In 1919, Hitler emerged as a public figure for the first time and became involved in the
activities of the right-wing German Workers’ Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP). He
quickly assumed control of the party, which was renamed the National Socialist
German Workers’ Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP, or
Nazi Party for short) in 1920. Hitler’s ideas started to become more widely
disseminated, though it would be several years before he would emerge as a major
factor on the national political scene.
Hitler’s Antisemitism: From Theory to Action
The discussion so far suggests that Nazi antisemitism was marked by its capacity to
integrate divergent traditions or strands of antisemitism into a radical and destructive
worldview. Yet should this be considered a blueprint for genocide? Could anyone
reading Mein Kampf in the 1920s or 1930s have anticipated the Holocaust? Historians,
including the eminent Israeli scholar Yehuda Bauer, DEBATE the relationship between
long-standing traditions of antisemitism, Nazi antisemitism, and the Holocaust. For
more discussion from Bauer, followed by German historian Ebehard Jäckel, please
view this week’s short film extract.
4
Peter Longerich, The Unwritten Order: Hitler’s Role in the Final Solution. (Tempus, Charleston, 2001).
LEARNING MODULE 1.
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Conclusion to Section 1
Hatred of Jews was present in European society from the Middle Ages. Until the
eighteenth century, its primary cause was religious prejudice. Jews were regarded as
the embodiment of everything that endangered Christianity. Importantly, however,
Jews could escape persecution if they converted to Christianity. This changed with the
emergence of modern antisemitic theories based on pseudo-scientific notions of
biologically-determined “race.” According to racial antisemites, Jewishness could not
be erased. It was now believed that, regardless of religious affiliation, Jews posed a
threat because their “Jewish blood” supposedly could contaminate and weaken
“superior races.”
Despite centuries-long hatred and persecution of Jews in Europe, however, nothing
like the Holocaust had occurred. This observation leads us to ask what the editor of
your prescribed text Peter Hayes identifies as the two most fundamental questions
historians of the Holocaust seek to answer:
• Why 1933 to 1945 (and not earlier or later)?
• And why Germany (and not elsewhere)?
SECTION 2. Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
The Nazi Party may not have come to power in Germany until January 1933, but the
seeds of its success were sown in the final chaotic months of the First World War and
the turmoil of the immediate postwar years. Although the situation in Germany
seemed to settle down by 1924, the Great Depression plunged Germany into a renewed
crisis during the early 1930s, which paved the way for Adolf Hitler’s appointment as
chancellor (prime minister). Without Hitler’s accession to power, the Holocaust would
not have happened (though, of course, it is impossible to say whether something
similarly genocidal in nature may have occurred some way or another). This section is
divided into two parts. First, it surveys the socio-economic and political crises that
engulfed Germany between 1918 and 1932 during the Weimar Republic (the
emergence of the Nazi Party was a specific response to anxieties about the direction
Germany was taking). Second, it traces the rise of the Nazi Party, outlining what it
stood for and also giving special consideration to the significance of antisemitism for
Nazism’s success.
a) Germany in Crisis, 1918-32
Germany’s agreement to surrender to the Allies in November 1918 came as a shock to
many nationalists on the conservative side of politics. Despite war weariness, starving
civilians, and superior enemy forces, due to German troops holding their ground in
foreign territory they wrongly believed that the Fatherland still had been in a position
to win the war.
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The notion that Germany and its ally the Austro-Hungarian Empire were betrayed by Jews and/or
communists, who allegedly forced a premature peace settlement, is encapsulated in the “stab-in-the-back”
myth (Dolschstoßlegende). German antisemites subsequently referred to Jews as the “November
Criminals” to signify the month of this alleged betrayal. This illustration appeared in the
Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung (a working-class newspaper in Vienna) in 1919.
Source: “Stab-in-the-Back Postcard,” Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stab-in-the-back_postcard.jpg [Accessed 27 January 2017]
According to historian Doris Bergen, the “stab-in-the-back” myth was one that
originated from German military leaders who were unable to face the reality of
military defeat and consequently began to claim that the war had been lost as a result
of betrayal from within Germany.5 Although defeat had resulted from crippling war
debts, a shortage of manpower, and overwhelming enemy numbers (particularly after
the entry of the United States into the war), many Germans were unaware that the
situation on the war front had been so precarious. In the view of many Germans, the
fact that barely any foreign troops had set foot on German soil at the time of surrender
added weight to the notion of having been stabbed in the back — one subsequently
propagated by Hitler and his fellow Nazis.
The war’s end coincided with the collapse of what had become the increasingly
discredited imperial government. Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated in November 1918, and
subsequently fled to the Netherlands. Led by the Social Democratic Party
(Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD), postwar revolution resulted in the
overthrow of the monarchy and, with the co-operation of several other parties, for the
first time a democratic, parliamentary system of government was formed in Germany.
5
Doris Bergen, War & Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust, Second Edition. (Rowman & Littlefield,
London, 2009). pp. 47-48.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
17
(l) Imperial Germany’s warmongering royal emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II was forced to abdicate his
throne on 9 November 1918, two days before Armistice Day for the First World War. He lived in
exile in the Netherlands for the remainder of his life until his natural death in 1941.
(r) On the same day, Social Democrat Phillip Scheidemann declared Germany a democratic
republic in front of a crowd of thousands gathered in front of the Reichstag, the German
parliamentary building, in Berlin.
Sources: “Wilhelm II. im Kürass des Regiments Garde du Corps mit Paradehelm,” LEMO Lebendiges
Museum Online. https://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/95007746
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
“Menschenmenge vor dem Reichstagsgebäude,” LEMO Lebendiges Museum Online.
https://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/ausrufung-der-republik-durch-scheidemann-1918.html
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
A popularly-elected National Assembly met in the town of Weimar (the home of
Germany’s most celebrated literary figure Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) to draw up a
constitution designed to ensure maximum democratic representation. Consequently, the
resultant system of government is known as the Weimar Republic. The new government
was charged with the less pleasant task of signing the Treaty of Versailles. Notably, this
meant that the fledgling democratic government was required: to acknowledge
Germany’s guilt in initiating the First World War; to accept the repayment of Allied war
costs through punitive reparations; and to oversee the loss of considerable German
territory. The Weimar Republic came under significant political pressure, especially in its
early years, both from the radical left (communist uprisings threatened to overthrow
state governments) and from the right (a former army officer Wolfgang Kapp, for
instance, unsuccessfully initiated a coup against the central government). Hyperinflation,
a consequence of resistance to Allied demands for reparations, peaked in 1923. The crash
of the Wall Street Stock Exchange in 1929 plunged the world into economic crisis and
Germany was badly hit. Unemployment in Germany surged to over 30 per cent and this
coincided with a collapse in agricultural prices and banking failures.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
18
PRESCRIBED TEXT: For a detailed outline of Hitler’s views on
politics, foreign policy, domestic agenda, and race, see Klaus P.
Fischer’s chapter entitled “Germany’s Turmoil, 1918-1933”
pp.53-72 (up to the subheading “The Nazi Upsurge and the End
of Brüning”). Note that not all historians agree with Fischer’s
bald remark on p.71 that: “Anyone who bothered to study Mein
Kampf with an open mind before Hitler’s seizure of power could
not have had any doubts as to what would be in store for
Germany if this man were entrusted with absolute power.”
The success or failure of the Weimar Republic had serious implications for Jews in
Germany. On the one hand, German Jews generally supported a system of government
that guaranteed rights regardless of religion. Belonging primarily to the middle classes,
Germany’s Jews typically voted for the politically progressive liberal party, the German
Democratic
Party
(Deutsche
Demokratische
Partei,
DDP).
They
participated
enthusiastically in the culturally innovative intellectual climate that marked the middle
years of the Weimar Republic. On the other hand, enemies of the new democratic form of
government often were antisemitic, too. Because the author of Weimar’s constitution Hugo
Preuß was Jewish, opponents referred to Weimar as the “Jewish Republic.” Conveniently,
the signing of the Versailles Treaty was blamed on Jews, as were economic and political
problems that beset the new republic. Communists were identified with and as Jews.
Within this climate of aggravated antisemitism, the party that most strongly espoused antiWeimar and anti-Jewish sentiments was Hitler’s NSDAP.
Author of the Weimar Republic’s constitution Hugo Preuß.
Source: “Hugo Preuß,” LEMO Lebendiges Museum Online.
http://www.dhm.de/lemo/bestand/objekt/hugo-preuss.html [Accessed 27 January 2017]
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
19
b) The Emergence of the Nazi Party
Early contributions from the likes of party founder Anton Drexler notwithstanding, the
NSDAP as we know it was Hitler’s creation and its program mirrored his central
concerns. What did the Nazi Party stand for? Why did it become so popular? In
particular, what role did antisemitism play in the Nazis’ electoral success? This part of
the learning module introduces you to some of the issues surrounding these questions.
The Nazi Party Platform
Prior to the First World War, Hitler had been nothing more than a spectator to political
events. His demobilisation in Bavaria coincided with the revolutions in Munich and it
was this period of crisis that inspired him to enter politics. In April 1919, Hitler was hired
as an educational officer with the Press and Propaganda Office of the Political
Department of the local division of the army in Munich. His role was to “help
undermine the Republic” by ensuring that soldiers were not sympathetic to
“revolutionary” ideas. It was through his reporting duties that he first came into contact
with the fledgling DAP, which he summarily joined and renamed as the NSDAP shortly
after assuming the leadership.
(l) Whereas Hitler really was the 55th member of the DAP, his original membership card was
stamped #555 so that the party appeared to be far stronger than the reality.
(r) Hitler apparently later forged his membership card to make himself number #7 to give the
impression that he had been involved since the DAP’s formation.
Sources: “Hist33d, L3, Adolf Hitler, 1889-1925,”
http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/33d/prevyears/33d03/33d03Ll03Hitler.htm
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
“Political Parties Tgg06/01,” Getty Images. http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/photos/political-partiestgg06/01?excludenudity=true&sort=mostpopular&mediatype=photography&phrase=political%20parties
%20tgg06%2F01 {Accessed 27 January 2017]
Hitler helped to draft the Party’s 25-Point Program, which was adopted in 1920 and
remained in place for the life of the NSDAP. The first four points give a flavour of what
National Socialism stood for:
1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great Germany on the basis of the right of
the self-determination enjoyed by nations.
2. We demand equality of rights for the German Volk in its dealings with other nations, and
abolition of the Peace Treaties of Versailles and St Germain.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
20
3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the nourishment of our people and for
settling our superfluous population.
4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the state. None but those of German
blood, whatever their creed, may be a member of the nation. Anyone who is not a citizen
of the state may live in Germany only as a guest and must be regarded as being subject to
foreign laws.
Also of particular relevance is point 24:
We demand liberty for all religious denominations in the state, so far as they are not a
danger to it and do not militate against the moral feelings of the German race.
The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of
creed to any particular confession. It combats the Jewish-materialist spirit within us and
without us, and is convinced that our nation can only achieve permanent health from
within on the principle: THE COMMON INTEREST BEFORE SELF.6
These days there is a mobile phone shop on the groundfloor and apartments in the upper stories, but
in 1920 this was the building in central Munich in which Anton Drexler and Adolf Hitler drafted
the Nazis’ 25-Point Program. Munich, as the “birthplace of Nazism,” is a city full of well-known
historical sites relating to Hitler and Nazism. But the historical significance of this particular
building has been almost forgotten and not even many locals are aware of its relevance.
Photo: Tony Joel, November 2011.
6
These points are cited from Benjamin C Sax & Dieter Kuntz, Inside Hitler’s Germany: A Documentary
History of Life in the Third Reich. (D.C. Heath, Lexington, Mass, 1992). pp. 72–75. You should read the
entire 25-Point Program if possible. It is widely available in various document collections as well as
many websites. See, for example, “Translation of Document 1708-PS,” Yale Law School: The Avalon
Project. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/1708-ps.asp [Accessed 27 January 2017].
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
21
The 25-Point Program reflected Hitler’s concerns with the state of German politics,
hence the references to:
• romantic nationalism
• the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles
• the characterisation of Jews as a "race" whose existence was at cross-purposes to that
of the German nation
• the connection of "Jewish-materialism" to modernity
Hitler regarded democracy, as symbolised by the Weimar Republic, as intrinsically evil
and destabilising because it divided the people/nation (Volk) against itself. What Hitler
presented was a vision of a “people’s community” (Volksgemeinschaft) linked together
by racial bonds that should overcome all divisions.
The Nazi Party in Action
Hitler took over complete leadership of the Nazi Party in July 1921. The NSDAP became
a highly disciplined organisation whose membership pledged complete loyalty to the
leader (Führer). As well as incorporating normal party political members, it was
reinforced by uniformed, paramilitary contingents. In 1921, the brown-shirted
stormtroopers of the SA (Sturmabteilung or “Storm Detachment”) was formed and
included many members of the Freikorps — a corps comprised of demobilised soldiers
who were ordered into action when required to suppress left-wing uprisings. The
paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party provided an outlet for its more violent members and
gave a menacing edge to the NSDAP’s message.
Munich regiment of the SA in 1923, the year of Hitler's failed Beerhall Putsch.
Source: “Munich Regiment of the Sturmabteilung, 1923,” Library of Congress.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3b36305/ [Accessed 27 January 2017]
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
22
READING EXCERPT: Richard Bessel, in “The Emergence of
the Nazi Party during the Weimar Republic,” covers the role
of violence in reinforcing the NSDAP’s image.
After his failed Beerhall Putsch on 9 November 1923, Hitler was imprisoned for treason
and the NSDAP was banned and dissolved. Sentenced to 5 years in prison, Hitler was
released in December 1924 — after serving less than 12 months in jail. Upon Hitler’s
release, the NSDAP was reformed in 1925 and it underwent sweeping organisational
changes that laid the foundations for its later national success. At the heart of the
reorganisation was the move away from the regional Bavarian focus to the creation of a
nation-wide branch network and the formation of a coordinated propaganda structure.
Within each party branch was situated a propaganda cell that reported to a regional
director (Gauleiter) who in turn reported directly to party headquarters in Munich.
Initially the propaganda campaign was directed at urban voters, but following the good
national result in rural areas achieved in 1928, propaganda efforts subsequently were
targeted there as well. From 1931, under the leadership of future Propaganda Minister
Josef Goebbels the Nazi Party’s propaganda campaign was refined even further.
Nazi poster from the May 1928 election. It reads:
Work, freedom and bread! Vote for the National Socialists!
Source: “Deutscher Heiligtümer. Schwarz-Rot-Brot,” Spiegel Online.
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/deutsche-heiligtuemer-fotostrecke-108765-3.html
[Accessed 27 January 2017]
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
23
The Nazi Party not only developed an effective organisational structure, but also
initiated innovative campaigning methods. The extent to which such propaganda
actually was effective in determining how individuals voted remains unclear, but it
certainly served to raise the NSDAP’s profile across Germany.
PRESCRIBED TEXT: Please read the remaining pages of
Fischer’s chapter, pp.72-81.
The NSDAP differentiated itself from other nationalist parties through its energy and its
emphasis on rebuilding a united German people’s community (Volksgemeinschaft). Hopes
of German “redemption” were channelled through Hitler as “the leader” or Führer,
whose passionate and carefully stage-managed oratory transfixed his audiences. Hitler
and the Nazi Party represented Germany’s salvation.
The significance of Antisemitism for Nazi Support
As shown earlier in this learning module, antisemitism was central to Hitler’s
ideological world. But this does not necessarily mean that either voters or party
members shared his hatred.
Indeed, according to historian Ian Kershaw antisemitism actually played a relatively
insignificant role in Hitler’s campaigning. The most important factor accounting for the
success of the Nazi movement was not its antisemitism but rather its identification as a
protest party that had no involvement in any previous Weimar governments.7 As Fischer
argues in your set text (pp. 101-02, “Conclusion: Who Supported Hitler?”), the very
concept of a “mass party” such as the NSDAP, one that aimed to achieve broad appeal,
“was so novel that it eluded the comprehension of most observers at that time.” As Fischer
observes, it successfully attracted support from a broad cross-section of German society.
READING EXCERPT: Please turn back to your earlier reading
from Bessel (pp. 26-29) and reflect on his argument that
antisemitism was the “glue” that held anti-Weimar ideas together.
7
Ian Kershaw, Hitler, 1889-1936: Hubris. (Allen Lane, London, 1999). pp.289-91.
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Section 2: Hitler’s Emergence and the Rise of Nazism
24
While antisemitism may have comprised only a minor component in Nazism’s
attraction for voters, crucially this did not diminish its significance for several
important figures within the NSDAP. Political scientist Peter Merkl, in his pioneering
study Political Violence under the Swastika, argues that antisemitism assumed differing
levels of significance for different party members.8 From a sample of 581 Nazi Party
members who had joined prior to 1933, about half stated their primary motivation for
joining was to support the Nazi “people’s community.” Another 20 per cent identified
Hitler’s “personal charisma” as their motivation. While some form of antisemitism was
encountered within two-thirds of responses, only 12 per cent — or one in eight —
identified antisemitism as their central concern.
According to Merkl’s study, however, antisemites held a disproportionate number of
leadership positions not only in the NSDAP but also in the SS and the SA. They were
“paranoids,” “sadistic bullies,” and “irrational” — men with an ideological mission,
committed to the Nazi Party’s racial program. They distanced themselves from active
violence, which they preferred to leave to others. These “paranoid antisemites” were
among the Nazi Party’s most dangerous members. They held high office, were good
organisers, and, although not interested in personally involving themselves in
violence, they had no scruples organising others to carry out violence on their behalf.
Once in power years later, these “paranoids” applied their administrative abilities to
the extermination of Europe’s Jews.
Before finishing this week’s learning module, you should view this extract from the
outstanding documentary series Nazis: A Warning from History. It is a segment from
Part I of the series, entitled “Helped into Power.”
8
Peter Merkl, Political Violence under the Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2015)
LEARNING MODULE 1.
Conclusion
25
Conclusion
Antisemitism has a long history of over 1000 years prior to the beginning of the First
World War, one grounded in religious intolerance, and led to the casting of Jews
variously as “evil,” the objects of scapegoating, and victims of expulsion. “Modern”
antisemitism used “science” to argue there was such thing as a Jewish “race” and that
blood, rather than religion, was the determining factor. Whereas in the past Jews who
converted to Christianity would no longer be considered Jewish, a “racial” definition
of Jewishness ruled out such an option. Antisemitic ideas became increasingly popular
in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and variously saw Jews
as a danger to the nation, culture, and “race” as well as wielding excessive influence in
politics, law, and other professions.
As a young man in Vienna prior to 1914, Adolf Hitler was exposed and receptive to
these antisemitic ideas, many of which he borrowed to form Nazi antisemitism.
Germany’s defeat in the First World War in 1918 plunged the country into political,
social, and economic chaos, and brought it to the brink of civil war. The fledgling
Weimar democracy proved itself incapable of averting the many crises that beset
Germany: including the hyperinflation of 1923, and Great Depression from October
1929 into the early 1930s.
During the early Weimar period, Hitler seized control of the National Socialist German
Workers’ Party. After a failed Putsch in 1923, Hitler reformed the party and sought to
nationalise its political agenda. Hitler and the NSDAP began to position themselves as
a legitimate political force, tempering much of their antisemitic rhetoric, and
promoting what Hitler promised would be unity across religious and class lines. The
degree to which antisemitism proved to motivate Germans to vote for the Nazi Party
remains a point of contention. Fragmented and weak, the Weimar political system
ultimately polarised to such an extent that Germans were faced with two viable
options: communism on the far left; and the Nazi Party on the extreme right. With the
Nazis garnering sufficient votes to form an alliance with mainstream, conservative
political parties, Hitler became German chancellor on 30 January 1933.