On German Treatment of the Jews

Background: This brief article appeared in November 1943. It was an attempt to answer the question Germans were beginning to ask: Given what Germans had done to the Jews, what fate could they expect if they lost the war? The article claims that Jews were only getting what they deserved, and that Germany would never stoop to committing atrocities. Der Schulungsbrief was the Nazi monthly for political education and had a circulation in the millions.

The source: “Wir haben die Juden so schlecht behandelt und dürfen uns nicht wundern, wenn uns Gleiches zugedacht wird,” Der Schulungsbrief, (November-December 1943), p. 15.

We have treated the Jews so badly that we should not be surprised if we are treated in the same way

If one reviews the list of Jewish crimes against the German people over the past centuries, one can only conclude that we have treated the Jews too well and too gently, else they could not have done so much to harm our people. It is only natural and understandable that our patience finally came to an end and that the tortured German people finally rid themselves of their tormenters. In any event, Germany’s defense against Jewish impudence and arrogance, which is our right, is hardly undeserved.

From the treasonous role of the Jews during the war against the Turks in the sixteenth century to the present, they have always been our greatest enemy in times of crisis. After their emancipation in 1812, they infiltrated every profession and ruined Germany’s intellectual and cultural life. It is because of their constant subterranean subversive activity, carried out intentionally and systematically, that the German homeland collapsed prematurely during the First World War. They were the cause and also the greatest beneficiary of all the misery of the inflation and unemployment of the postwar period, as well as of the seizure of the Ruhr and the occupation of the Rhineland, which brought starvation and desperation to our people.

It is thanks to the work of the Führer that we were saved at the last moment by burning out this pestilence from our national body. For the first time, Jewry met in National Socialism a serious opponent that took an axe to its roots. Due to National Socialism’s military bearing, however, it did not lower itself to the cynical atrocities and inhuman tortures that we have seen with the Bolshevists. Now the whole terrible hatred of World Jewry is concentrated on our people, which has dared to free itself from Jewish swindles. Everywhere, we see Jewry swinging the whip of racial incitement behind the backs of the so-called leaders of our foes.

It therefore borders on malevolence to equate our national fate and the great, heroic sacrifices of the war with the just penalty that Jewish criminals have finally received.

[Page copyright © 2003 by Randall Bytwerk. No unauthorized reproduction. My e-mail address is available on the FAQ page.]

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