The Germans: "An Anti-Semitic People.ΓÇ¥ - The Press Campaign After 9 November 1938
Source: Herbert Obenhaus , International conference: German Society's Responses to Nazi Anti-Jewish Policy 1933-1941, Yad Vashem, 10-13 February 1995.
An article on the local history of the Jews published in the Celler Beobachter , a supplement to the Niedersaechsische Tageszeitung for the town of Celle, showed that this standard had lent anti-Semitic journalism a new quality, which was quite in line with the radicalisation of the press after 9 Nov 59 . The author of the article was Otto von Boehn, archivist of Celle. Despite the fact that it was also printed in a supplement to the main organ of the Hanover NSDAP, the version of the article printed in the Celler Beobachter did not include any mention of the take over of power by the Jews or their subsequent expulsion. Nonetheless, references to anti-Semitic stereotypes are obvious. The article says, for example, that the Jews in Celle had restricted themselves almost solely to commercial activity...as was the case throughout Germany,' and that they had avoided any kind of physical labour.' The article emphasised the numerous restrictive regulations by which Jews were required to abide, for example when establishing a business. The expulsion of "begging Polish Jews" in the year 1825 was also mentioned. Yet, von Boehn made no reference to "the Jew" in the singular, an otherwise stereotypical expression officially used by the NSDAP when referring to Jews as a social group 60 . The editors of the Celler Beobachter attempted to heighten the anti-Jewish character of the text by the use of subheadings 61 . They also considered it necessary to provide a commentary. In a preliminary remark, they made reference to the restrictive regulations in the town of Celle emphasised by von Boehn, and added that
Three hundred years ago, our ancestors kept the Jews extraordinarily short, and they will have well known why. It was the distortion of the notion of freedom by the French Revolution that first emancipated the Jew to such a degree, that he could again begin the old game of gaining control over people by poisoning their intellects and with the help of money... . What we are experiencing now is the reaction to this.'
The editors' closing remark resounded with meaning: "Let us learn from the past."
In their preliminary remark, the editors of the Celler Beobachter implied what they expected from an article on the history of the Jews; it should demonstrate that what is happening today to the Jews in Germany and in other countries is definitely nothing new or unheard of.' Again we meet with the line of thought that portrays the actions of 9 November and the weeks thereafter as an established and proven practice based on experience. The Ministry of Propaganda's press conference had placed emphasis on actions against Jews in other countries; by referring to medieval and early modern history, these actions would be viewed as being in accord with the past. This placed new demands on articles meant to serve the purposes of anti-Semitic indoctrination. Although the reader might approve of the restrictions against the Jews as enumerated in a traditionally anti-Semitic text like the one written by von Boehn, there was, however, another step that Mauersberg clearly espoused in his article - persecution and expulsion. After 9 November, readers were expected to identify with this next step, which could be associated with both violence and legal measures.
Lessons of the past were to be applied to the present. The press conference of 17 November had already aspired to this 62 . In the local and regional press, a geographical point of contact was now added to the temporal one - contact between past and present places and regions. This resulted in combining the strength of both the local and regional worlds and the lives of the people therein, which had always contained elements of history and which expressed itself as local or regional history - Heimatgeschichte . This helped to create a feeling of closeness to, and familiarity with one's own home town 63 . Local and regional history provided anti-Semitism with an extraordinarily useful vehicle that penetrated social spheres not usually conducive to political propaganda. The planners of the press campaign in the Ministry of Propaganda had obviously overlooked this aspect of history. It did not lie directly in their field of vision, as their conception of the campaign, including instructions to the press encompassed the entire Reich. However, the turn towards regional history was eagerly taken up by the provincial press, which had always represented an area of journalism in which anti-Semitic attitudes and stereotypes were common. With a certain amount of autonomy, the local and regional press took advantage of particularly favourable opportunities for propagating anti-Semitic positions. The powerful effect this had is attested to by notes on a conversation held at the time between the technician Karl Duerkefaelden and his father. Duerkefaelden's father, who ran a small farm east of Hanover, had read the article written by Mauersberg in the Niedersaechsische Tageszeitung . When, at the beginning of January 1939, he was asked by his son if Jewish shops had also been destroyed in Peine during the pogrom, he evaded the question with the reply: Didn't you read what havoc the Jews used to create here?' This was precisely the effect the newspaper article was designed to have 64 .
After 9 November, the press service of the NSDAP went its own way in the anti-Semitic manipulation of national history. It was also confronted with the thorny question: to what extent would the population help to implement the anti-Jewish policies of the National Socialists, and how far did these policies correspond with the will of the population. The NSK wrote: The crudest instrument of foreign agitation is wanting to create the impression that there is a rift between popular National Socialist leadership and the German people by asserting that anti-Semitism is a party slogan meant to trigger off a racial struggle in which the people have no interest.' 65 In order to refute claims of a division between leadership and the people, the NSK published a series of articles that were meant to "prove that the German people are an anti-Semitic people." In accordance with National Socialist ideology, the enmity between Germans and Jews, which had been proven many times in the history of Germany, could be accounted for by race: Based on the laws of his race and his natural instinct, the German has had a sharply defensive and rejective attitude towards Judaism in all epochs.' It had always been the "racial sensitivity" of the Germans that had compelled them to "separate" themselves from the Jews. Finally, a close connection between Germans and National Socialist ideology was derived from the historical enmity towards Jews, based on a "fundamental" anti-Semitic "philosophy." National Socialism was the fulfilment of everything the people had ever wanted. Or, in the words of the NSK : With all of their characteristics, the German people were finally united and revived in the National Socialist idea.' 66
The NSK series began with an article on the "Laws passed by the Germanic kings pertaining to the Jews." On the one hand advocating the policy of separation from the Jews, the article also castigated the church's obstruction of the "Germanic defence movement," This was a reference to the fact that the church had repeatedly attempted to overcome Judaism by means of baptism, thus "disregarding ... the primary racial difference" and driving "a wedge between the leaders and the people." 67 Another article began with the early Middle Ages when the economic status of the Jews had made them indispensable to the princes and town dwellers, but hated by the country people 68 . The article applied the same image of the Jews to the late Middle Ages, its central theme now being the "exploitation of the people by profiteers." This gave rise to hatred by the people, though it was againand again "made inactive" by Jews, who "cleverly" manipulated "the balance of power between municipality, princes and the emperor," playing one against the other. The author follows this up with the politically unambiguous comment:
Despite all of the good and right approaches, the removal of the Jews from the life of the people failed. The people did not have a leader whom they sustained with their spirit, they did not have a united Reich necessary for uniformly and effectively carrying out all measures. The foundation for the successful solution of the Jewish issue in the Third Reich lies in the existence of these prerequisites.'
The author does not fail to make the point that in the Middle Ages, intellectuals also joined the barricades against the Jews. He places particular emphasis on Martin Luther 69 .
For the German principalities of the early modern era, the court Jew is portrayed as the determining social element. Noted too are the efforts made by the line of princesses and princes from Maria Theresa to Frederick the Great to limit the influence of Jews; however, the argument is somewhat weakened by the author's acknowledgement of the usefulness, time and again of the court Jews to the princes. Nevertheless, the author seeks recourse in the politically explicit rule that the bad or good treatment of the Jews was dependent on the strength or weakness of a prince 70 .
Then the article states, the Enlightenment came "to the aid" of the Jews. Prussia modelled its Emancipation Edict of 1812 on France's granting the Jews citizenship with equal rights following the Revolution. The edict was drawn up by State Chancellor Hardenberg, who was dependent on the Jews because of financial difficulties.' The author further adds that the people had had no time to defend themselves against this outrageous attack on their existence. The wars of liberation required their effort.' Not until after the Vienna Congress and the end of the war were the people in a position to protest against the emancipation of the Jews and to "ardently" demand "returning the Jews to their old legal positions." With its anti-emancipatory tendencies, the restoration - this concept is not used in the article - thus appears in a positive light 71 . The last article in the NSK series outlines further steps taken towards granting the Jews equal status as citizens up until the constitution of the Norddeutscher Bund . Again, the names of the main authorities opposed to emancipation are mentioned - Otto von Bismarck, Heinrich von Treitschke and Richard Wagner. The anti-Semitic "people's movement" at the close of the nineteenth century was also doomed to failure. The attempt to achieve success by parliamentary means was hopeless from the start. The powerful social democracy, overrun by Jews, voted down all motions for the formation of a party.' The enmity of the people against the Jews only found fulfilment in the legislation of the Third Reich...National Socialism paid complete tribute to the public feeling for the first time in that it made racial knowledge the foundation of its Jewish legislation and carried through with the separation of blood. Thus the struggle that the German people had led against the foreign intruders for centuries had finally come to an effective close.' 72
V
The series of articles on the "anti-Semitic people" was part of the effort to persuade the German population to adopt the attitude towards Jews that was desired and hoped for by the party. The interpretation of national history as one governed by a fundamental philosophy of hatred towards Jews - a history also dominated by anti-Semitism, pogroms and expulsion - was supported by a historical construction that assessed Jews in terms of a continual division between the elite and the people, and ultimately it was the people who always knew how to correctly assess them. Only now and then did the leading figures, (one or another prince) comprehend the people's real attitude towards the Jews. The National Socialists cleverly point this angle in 1933 - that it was the "national longing" ( voelkische Sensucht ) of Germans to attain their "ultimate separation" from the Jews 73 .
With its appeal to "anti-Semitic people," the press campaign had reached a certain climax; the one-sidedness and simplifications of the campaign achieved a high degree of credibility through its official pronouncement by the party. It combined important points of criticism - for example the church's position on baptism of Jews - with praise of a strong nation, which implied praise for the National Socialist state. National history thus became the teacher of the nation, and the National Socialists the executors of the lessons to be extracted from history.
The anti-Semitic manipulation of German history was nothing new. It had a long tradition. Even in the articles published by Mauersberg and the NSK , the foundation in regional and national history respectively, was no exception. It is noteworthy that both series of articles started out from different concepts. Mauersberg kept with tradition by using the stereotype of the Jewish quest for power, which focuses on the subordination of the non-Jewish environment. For this reason it can be said that he endeavoured to provide a comprehensive interpretation of German-Jewish history from the Middle Ages to the modern era. This stands in contrast to the NSK's concept, which worked more intensely with the social construct of "the people" and attributed them with special knowledge about, and experience with, Jews. The NSK could support this concept by drawing on the change that occurred in German historiography at the time, that is, viewing history from a national point of view 74 . By mystifying the people, the NSK could be considered more modern, and at the same time more National Socialistic than Mauersberg. Both concepts existed simultaneously and did not contradict each other; they merely complemented historical material in different ways. They could both interpret the ΓÇ£abnormalityΓÇ¥ of the pogrom of 9 November 1938 as the ΓÇ£normalityΓÇ¥ of the German treatment of the Jews, and ultimately refer to the seizure of power in 1933 as an act of liberation through which German history reached fulfilment.
References:
59 Peter Stein, Die nordostniedersaechsische Tagespresse. Von den Anfaengen bis 1945. Ein Handbuch , Stade, 1994, p. 157.
60 ΓÇ£Die Geschichte der Juden in Celle,ΓÇ¥ published in five episodes with alternating subheadings: ΓÇ£Schon 1530 ΓÇ£Zwei JoddenΓÇ¥ - Man weiss nicht, woher sie kamen - Kontrolle ueber Kontrolle,ΓÇ¥ Celler Beobachter , 10 January 1939; ΓÇ£Hauserwerb und Belastung des Besitzes durch Steuern und Abgaben,ΓÇ¥ ibid., 11 January 1939; ΓÇ£Handel und Erwerbsverhaeltnisse: ΓÇ£KommerziellΓÇ¥ bevorzugt - Was war juedische Handelsware? - Einheimische und fremde Juden - Eine interessante Statistik,ΓÇ¥ ibid., 12 January 1939; ΓÇ£Religioeser Gegensatz - Judentaufen - Die Sabbatruhe - Schulen und Synagogen - Wenn zwei heiraten wollten,ΓÇ¥ ibid., 13 January 1939; ΓÇ£Der Judenfriedhof - Kultur und Kunst - Liberalist Salomo Philipp Gans,ΓÇ¥ ibid., 14/15 January 1939. Von Boehn, who held the job title of Retired State Garden Inspector, had been commissioned in 1935 by the City of Celle - at the request of the State Academy for the Cultivation of Race and Hygiene in Dresden - to write his article. The Academy had planned to publish a history of the Jews in German cities, which, however, was never realised. See ΓÇ£Innerstaedtische Korrespondenzen im Stadtarchiv Celle 1 D 23a.ΓÇ¥ Heiber mentions the State Academy, p. 423. Von Boehn's article, by the way, was reprinted in Zur Geschichte der Juden in Celle. Festschrift zur Wiederherstellung der Synagoge , Celle, 1974, pp. 9-15. This book, published by the City of Celle, cited the source of the article: the Celler Beobachter . The following comment, characteristic for the city's self-image, appeared on p. 16: It is typical of the attitude of the population of Celle towards the Jews in the period after 1933 that such an article could have been written - a careful and objective article that strictly adheres to the records of the City Archives - above all, however, thit could have been published in its original form in a daily newspaper.' After a number of objections, this passage was removed from a later edition of the publication without comment.
61 One of the subheadings, for example, read ΓÇ£Konkurrent ΓÇ£BilligΓÇ¥ ist da!ΓÇ¥ (trade disagreements between Jewish and non-Jewish businessmen in Celle during the 17th century). Another subheading read ΓÇ£Die ueppigen JudenweiberΓÇ¥ (the focus was on the wide hoop skirts that had to be removed at ΓÇ£schoolΓÇ¥ as they took up too much space).
62 See Dr. Wilhelm Ziegler in the conference of the Reichspropagandaamt Ost-Hannover from 9-11 December 1938: What is happening today in Germany and in other countries ... doesn't happen for the first time in the history of Judaism and other people:' ΓÇ£Die Loesung des Judenproblems. Vortrag von Pg. Ziegler auf der Presse- und Propagandatagung in Lueneburg,ΓÇ¥ Cellesche Zeitung , 12 December 1938.
63 Everhard Holtmann and Winfried Killisch, Lokale Identitaet und Gemeindegebietsreform. Der Streitfall Ermershausen. Empirische Untersuchungen ueber Erscheinungsformen und Hintergruende oertlichen Protestverhaltens in einer unterfraenkischen Landgemeinde , Erlangen, 1991, pp. 48-50. On the connection between political interests and political concern on the one hand, and the affinity with and feelings for home on the other hand, see: Heiner Treinen, ΓÇ£Symbolische Ortsbezogenheit. Eisoziologische Untersuchung zum Heimatproblem,ΓÇ¥ Koelner Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 17 (1965), pp. 73-97, 254-297.
64 Herbert und Sibylle Obenaus, eds., "Schreiben, wie es wirklich war ..." Aufzeichnungen Karl Duerkefaeldens aus den Jahren 1933-1945 , Hanover, 1983, p. 90.
65 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk. Die deutsche Geschichte widerlegt Auslandshetze - Zur neuen NSK.-Artikelserie,ΓÇ¥ NSK 282, (2 December 1938), pp. 3ff. The article carries the initials of the deputy editor-in-chief of the NSK Wilhelm Ritgen; see footnote 1, above.
66 Ibid.
67 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (I),: Die Judengesetze der Germanenkoenige. Abwehr und Erkennung der Judengefahr in fruehester Zeit. Das Westgotische Gesetz' verbot Ehen mit Juden,ΓÇ¥ ibid., pp. 4 f.
68 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (II),ΓÇ¥ H[einz] Ballensiefen, ΓÇ£Nackt moeget ihr ausziehen!ΓÇ¥ Wachsende Volksauflehnung gegen die Juden im fruehen Mittelalter - Schutzbriefe als Dokumente voelkischen Widerstandes gegen die Ausbeuter - Die Gunst der Fuersten ergaunert,ΓÇ¥ NSK 283, (3 December 1938), pp. 3. In 1941, Ballensiefen worked for SS-Standartenfuehrer Franz Alfred Six in Office VII, "Ideological Research and Evaluation,ΓÇ¥ of the RSHA. His department VII B 1 was responsible for "Freemasonry and Judaism.ΓÇ¥ In 1944 - he had received his doctorate and been promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer in the meantime - his field of activity was in Hungary. Here, among other things, he controlled the Hungarian Institute for the Research of the Jewish Question, which he had co-founded: Juergen Matthaeus, ΓÇ£Weltanschauliche Forschung und Auswertung.ΓÇ¥ Aus den Akten des Amtes VII im Reichssicherheitshauptamt,ΓÇ¥ Jahrbuch fuer Antisemitismusforschung, 5 (1996), pp. 287-330, specifically pp. 290 f. The documents published herein also deal with Ballensiefen's scientific work.
69 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (III), Volksempoerung gegen Judenpest. Wie stand das deutsche Volk im Mittelalter zur Judenfrage? - Gemeinsame Auflehnung gegen schamlose Ausbeutung - Voelkischer Instinkt weckte drastische Massnahmen,ΓÇ¥ NSK 284 (4 December 1938), pp. 5ff.
70 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (IV),: H[einz] B[allensiefen], Koenige gegen Hofjuden. Deutsche Fuersten beschraenken ΓÇ£juedische RechteΓÇ¥ - Jeder starke Koenig war Judengegner, jeder schwache Judenknecht - "Ich kenne keine aergere Pest ," NSK 286 ( 7 December 1938). pp. 5 f
71 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (V),ΓÇ¥ H[einz] B[allensiefen], Staatsbuergerrechte gegen Volkswillen. Volksauflehnung gegen die Judenemanzipation - Auch getarnt stets erkannt - Juedische Ausbeutung der Freiheitskriege,ΓÇ¥ NSK 288, (9 December 1938), pp. 4ff.
72 ΓÇ£Antisemitisches Volk (VI),ΓÇ¥ H[einz] B[allensiefen], Erfuellung nach jahrhundertelangem Kampf. Von Judas Sieg zu seiner Bezwingung durch den Nationalsozialismus. Religioese Tarnung und rassische Erkenntnis - Die Sprecher des Volkswillens im 19. Jahrhundert,ΓÇ¥ NSK 291, (13 December 1938), pp. 1ff.
73 NSK 282 (2 December 1938), pp. 3 f.
74 Karen Schoenwaelder, ΓÇ£Akademischer Antisemitismus. Die deutschen Historiker in der NS-Zeit,ΓÇ¥ Jahrbuch fuer Antisemitismusforschung, 2 (1993), pp. 200-229, specifically pp. 213 f. For more details on this topic, see: Karen Schoenwaelder, Historiker und Politik, Geschichtswissenschaft im Nationalsozialismus , Frankfurt am Main, 1992.
