Hitler, Germans, and the "Jewish Question"This book probes the background of the ultimately unexplainable evil of our century, the deliberate and unprovoked murder of millions of European Jews--and goes on to explore German reactions to that evil. Depicting the emergence in Weimar Germany of a new type of extreme anti-Semite, of which Hitler was the paramount example, Sarah Gordon discusses a number of related questions about the role of anti-Semitism in the rise of the Nazis and draws on hitherto unexamined Gestapo files, new data on court sentences, and a variety of other sources to describe the tiny numbers of courageous Germans who opposed Nazi anti-Semitism. She analyzes Hitler's own deranged world view, his use of his feelings about Jews as a political tool, and the extent of the German people's knowledge of his intentions and actions; she examines the history of German anti-Semitism from 1870 through the Nazi years; and she indicates several reasons for thinking that anti-Semitism, however virulent in certain individuals and groups, was not the major reason for Nazi electoral successes. |
Contents
The Setting | 7 |
AntiSemitism 18701933 | 24 |
Summary and Interpretation | 41 |
Who Supported Hitler? | 50 |
AntiSemitism in the Early Weimar Years | 51 |
AntiSemitism in the Early Nazi Party | 53 |
Nazi AntiSemitic Propaganda after 1927 | 67 |
Nazi Voters | 71 |
OMGUS Surveys | 197 |
Summary | 206 |
Opponents of Persecution | 210 |
Preliminary Comments | 211 |
Timing of Opposition | 214 |
Characteristics of Opponents 19331944 | 218 |
Illustrative Cases of Opposition | 233 |
Sentences of Opponents of Racial Persecution | 237 |
Summary | 88 |
Hitlers Ethnic Theory | 91 |
Hitlers Racial Hierarchy | 98 |
Domestic Implications | 108 |
Notes on Hitlers Psychology | 110 |
Summary | 117 |
Persecution Party Unity and Hitlers Responsibility | 119 |
Functions of AntiSemitism inside the Nazi Party | 120 |
Hitlers Responsibility and Timing | 128 |
Summary | 145 |
Functions of Persecution and Propaganda | 148 |
Functions of Propaganda | 150 |
Summary | 163 |
Public Reactions to Nazi AntiSemitism | 165 |
General Sources | 168 |
Summary | 241 |
Attitudes of the Churches | 246 |
Protestants | 254 |
Summary | 260 |
Pockets of Opposition | 263 |
Other Opponents | 271 |
Summary | 290 |
Conclusions and Implications | 294 |
Implications | 306 |
APPENDIXES | 315 |
NOTES | 325 |
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY | 387 |
INDEX | 405 |
