Judea Declares War on Germany
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"Judea Declares War on Germany" was a front-page headline on the March 24, 1933 edition of the British newspaper, the Daily Express. It began an article which declared a boycott against Germany. [1]
[edit] Abuse by antisemites
The headline has been used retroactively by antisemites and Holocaust deniers such as the Institute for Historical Review as a means of blaming World War II on the Jews and for arguing that German atrocities against the Jews, including the Holocaust were defensive and a response to a supposed declaration of war by the Jews of the world. The IHR's article on the so-called declaration implies it was a real declaration of military war and not simply a resolution for a boycott. According to the Nizkor site, the use of this headline by modern "historical revisionists" is "a cheap trick to make it seem as if 'the Jews of the world' started the 'war' against Germany, instead of the other way around. The word 'war' means many things. In this case it meant planning to apply economic pressure."
[edit] Content and circumstances
In fact, the headline accompanied a story on the declaration of a boycott against German goods and products. The story was not represented as a "declaration of war" by the world media; the headline occurred only in a mass market British newspaper reflecting the sensationalistic style of what is now known as the tabloid press in the UK. Nizkor points out the attempted economic and financial boycott was declared in response to anti-Semitic actions by the Nazi government of Adolf Hitler.[2] The date of the article is important because it coincides with the so called Ermächtigungsgesetzes [3] [4] which passed parliament the day before.
