Germany Must Perish!

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Map showing Kaufman's proposed dismemberment of Germany.
Map showing Kaufman's proposed dismemberment of Germany.

Germany Must Perish! is the title of a 104-page book written by Theodore N. Kaufman and self-published in 1941, which advocates the genocide of the German nation. Kaufman founded the Argyle Press of Newark, New Jersey, USA, in order to publish his sentiments. However, the book was most notably used by Nazi Germany as propaganda to allege that the Jews were plotting against the country.[1][2]

In a contemporary sense, the book is utilized by those attempting to forward evidence of a conspiracy against Germany, with such arguments often pertaining to an anti-Semitic agenda. In the words of the 1945 Journal of Modern History, the book was intended to be "little more than self-indulgence in dire vituperation by a man who sees Germany as the sole cause of the world's woes."[3]

Contents

[edit] Kaufman's Advertising

According to a March 24, 1941, Time magazine review, Kaufman founded Argyle because, "he did not want to be edited."[4] The unnamed Time reviewer compared the book to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, noting that, unlike Swift, Kaufman's work was not satirical.[5] An advertisement in the New York Times, stated that the book was released to the public on March 1, 1941, which Kaufman also promoted by mailing a miniature black cardboard coffin with a hinged lid to reviewers.[6] Inside the coffin was a card proclaiming, "Read GERMANY MUST PERISH! Tomorrow you will receive your copy."[7]

[edit] Contents

The German-Polish border after WWII.
The German-Polish border after WWII.

The back of the book's dust jacket contains excerpts from purported reviews of the book. For instance, one blurb reads, "A PLAN FOR PERMANENT PEACE AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS! --New York Times." In reality, the Times never reviewed the book. The quotation is the entirety, plus an exclamation point, of a one-line summary of Germany Must Perish! published in "Latest Books Received" section of the paper.[8] Kaufman summarized Germany Must Perish! in the Times ad as: "A dynamic volume outlining a plan for the extinction of Germany and containing a map showing possible dissection and apportionment of its territory."[9] In the book, Kaufman advocated the genocide of the entire German people by forced sterilization and the territorial dismemberment of Germany after an Allied victory in World War II.

[edit] Historical circumstances

At the time that Germany Must Perish! was first published, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was still nine months away and the United States had not yet entered the war. However, the T-4 Euthanasia Program, mass sterilization had already begun. Some cite this "medicalized mass murder" as the beginning of the Holocaust. Still, the Wannsee Conference was more than a year in the future and stories of genocide by the Nazi Party were neither widely known nor believed.

[edit] Nazi reaction and use in propaganda

The book soon came to the attention of the Nazis. It was - and still is - widely quoted as advocating genocide by "the Jews" against the German people.[10] Kaufman was a Manhattan-born Jew, so his advocacy of such an idea attracted great attention.[11] Nazi propaganda denounced the book as an "orgy of Jewish hatred" and accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of having inspired it.[12] Additionally, Germany Must Perish! coincided with other Nazi proclamations about "Anglo-American" intentions, which the German population digested in the midst of ongoing economic sanctions against their country, Roosevelt's Lend Lease program and the widely reported failure of the United States to sponsor negotiations after Poland's defeat. American journalist Howard K. Smith was in Germany when Germany Must Perish! came to light. He wrote:

No man has ever done so irresponsible a disservice to the cause his nation is fighting and suffering for than Nathan Kaufmann [sic]. His half-baked brochure provided the Nazis with one of the best light artillery pieces they have, for, used as the Nazis used it, it served to bolster up that terror which forces Germans who dislike the Nazis to support, fight and die to keep Nazism alive ...[13]

Likewise, when the Jews of Hanover were forced from their homes on September 8, 1941, German authorities cited Kaufman's book as one of the reasons.[2] The controversial German nationalist philosopher and historian Ernst Nolte argues that the German reaction to Germany Must Perish! supports his contention that the Holocaust was a reasonable, if excessive, response to German fears of worldwide Jewish plot.[14] In answer to this claim, it has been pointed out that while the book was a welcome piece of propaganda, its actual impact on Nazi genocide policies was not notable, and that Nolte argues as if the radical views of one single American Jew can be construed to be representative of Jews worldwide.[15]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Anonymous. "A Modest Proposal (Books)." Time. March 24, 1941. p. 96.
  2. ^ a b "Jews of Hanover Forced from Homes." New York Times. September 9, 1941. p. 4.
  3. ^ What They Would Do about Germany, Donald F. Lach, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 17, No. 3. (Sep., 1945), pp. 227-243.
  4. ^ Ibid.
  5. ^ Time
  6. ^ Anonymous. Advertisement for Germany Must Perish!. New York Times. 1 March 1941. p. 13.
  7. ^ "A Modest Proposal (Books)."
  8. ^ Anonymous. "Latest Books Received." New York Times. March 16, 1941. p. BR29.
  9. ^ Advertisement for Germany Must Perish!.
  10. ^ See Nazi and Holocaust Denial Propaganda links below.
  11. ^ "A Modest Proposal (Books)."
  12. ^ Anonymous. "Nazis Attack Roosevelt." New York Times. July 24, 1941. p. 8.
  13. ^ Howard K. Smith. Last Train from Berlin. London: Phoenix Pr., 1942, 2000. p. 134
  14. ^ Nolte, Ernst “Between Myth and Revisionism” pages 17-38 from Aspects of the Third Reich, edited by H.W. Koch, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985 pages 27-28.
  15. ^ Vidal-Naquet, Pierre Assassins of Memory, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992 page 126.

[edit] References

  • Bytwerk, Randall L. "The Argument for Genocide in Nazi Propaganda," Quarterly Journal of Speech, 91 (2005), 37-62.
  • Herf, Jeffrey. The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), pp. 110-115.
  • Vidal-Naquet, Pierre Assassins of Memory Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-231-07457-1

[edit] External links

Nazi propaganda about Germany Must Perish!: (from Calvin College's German Propaganda Archive)

Holocaust Denial propaganda About Germany Must Perish!:

Other external links: