Germany Must Perish!

Germany Must Perish! is the title of a 104-page book written by Theodore Newman Kaufman and self-published in 1941, which advocates the genocide, through sterilization of all Germans, and the territorial dismemberment of Germany.[1] Kaufman founded the Argyle Press of Newark, New Jersey, USA, in order to self-publish his sentiments.

The book was most notably used by Nazi Germany as propaganda to allege that "the Jews" were plotting against the country.[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 antisemitic 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] The author had previously proposed that all Americans should be sterilized to prevent their children from becoming "homicidal monsters".[4]

Contents

Reactions

An advertisement in the New York Times, stated that the book was released to the public on March 1, 1941. Kaufman also promoted the book by mailing a miniature black cardboard coffin with a hinged lid to reviewers.[5] Inside the coffin was a card proclaiming, "Read GERMANY MUST PERISH! Tomorrow you will receive your copy."[6]

Perhaps as a result, despite being written and self-published by a non-notable author, the book received some attention, including from Time magazine, which published a review.[7] The unnamed Time reviewer compared the book to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, noting that, unlike Swift, Kaufman's work was not satirical.[4] According to philosophy professor Berel Lang, American reviews "reflected an odd combination of straight reporting and skepticism."[7]

Kaufman's second and more moderate pamphlet, "No More German Wars" published in 1942, was ignored both in the U.S. and in Germany.[8]

Contents

The back of the book's dust jacket contains excerpts from reviews of the book. One blurb reads, A Plan For Permanent Peace Among Civilized Nations! -- New York Times.[9] Kaufman advocated the mass forced sterilization of the entire German people and the territorial dismemberment of Germany after an Allied victory in World War II.

Kaufman summarized Germany Must Perish! in the New York Times advertisement as: "A dynamic volume outlining a plan for the extinction of Germany and containing a map showing possible dissection and apportionment of its territory."[10] An interview with Kaufman in which he attempts to justify his plan for "sterilization of all Germans" appears in The Canadian Jewish Chronicle in its September 26, 1941 issue.[11]

Historical circumstances

At the time that Germany Must Perish! was first published in early 1941, Germany had not yet occupied the Balkans. The German invasion of the USSR would occur in June (although the Germans had already invaded and reconquered the land, theirs before World War I, that had been given to form Poland, and had annexed Austria), and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was still nine months away.

However, the Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935 and the T-4 Euthanasia Program ran from September 1939 until August 1941. 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.

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.[12]

"Few Americans have ever heard of a prominent fellow-citizen named Kaufmann ... In Germany every child has known of him for a long time. Germans are so well informed about Mr. Kaufmann that the mere mention of his name recalls what he stands for. In one of his recent articles Dr. Goebbels wrote, 'Thanks to the Jew Kaufmann, we Germans know only too well what to expect in case of defeat.' "[13]

Kaufman was a Manhattan-born Jew, so his advocacy of such an idea attracted great attention.[6] Nazi propaganda denounced the book as an "orgy of Jewish hatred" and accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of having inspired it.[14] 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 ..."[15]

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] Kaufman responded:

"This is just a flimsy pretext for another of the innate cruelties of the German people ... I don't think it was my book that prompted this barbarity. They employed every possible German cruelty against the Jews long before my book was published".[16]

It featured in many pieces of Nazi propaganda. The Parole der Woche's weekly wall newspaper included it as evidence that the Allies' war aims were the destruction of Germany.[17] The pamphlet "The War Goal of World Plutocracy" detailed the contents of the book, although with some omissions from the text it quoted.[18] Its last major use was in a late 1944 pamphlet, "Never!"[19]

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.[20] 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 regards the radical views of a single American Jew as representative of all Jewish people worldwide.[21]

Ernest Hemingway would adopt the same ideas in his introduction to his anthology Men at War. [13] Writing:

"When this war is won, though, Germany should be so effectively destroyed that we should not have to fight her again for a hundred years, or, if it is done well enough, forever.
This can probably only be done by sterilization. This act can be accomplished by an operation little more painful than vaccination and as easily made compulsory. All members of Nazi party organizations should be submitted to it if we are ever to have a peace that is to be anything more than a breathing space between wars. . . . It is not wise to advocate sterilization now as a government or allied policy since it can only cause increased resistance. So I do not advocate it. I oppose it. But it is the only ultimate settlement."[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Battle with the Devil"
  2. ^ a b "Jews of Hanover Forced from Homes. Mayor Cites American Book, 'Germany Must Perish'". New York Times. September 9, 1941. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70E12FB3B5B147B93CBA91782D85F458485F9. Retrieved 2011-04-19. 
  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. ^ a b "A Modest Proposal". Time magazine. March 24, 1941. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,884346,00.html. Retrieved 2011-04-19. "Germany Must Perish! proved to be a brief (104-page) enshrinement of a single sensational idea. Since Germans are the perennial disturbers of the world's peace, says the book, they must be dealt with like any homicidal criminals. But it is unnecessary to put the whole German nation to the sword. It is more humane to sterilize them. ..." 
  5. ^ Anonymous. Advertisement for Germany Must Perish!. New York Times. 1 March 1941. p. 13.
  6. ^ a b "A Modest Proposal (Books)."
  7. ^ a b Lang, Berel. Philosophical witnessing: the Holocaust as presence, University Press of New England, 2009, pp. 130–131
  8. ^ Berel Lang, "Philosophical witnessing: the Holocaust as presence", UPNE, 2009, p.135
  9. ^ Anonymous. "Latest Books Received." New York Times. March 16, 1941. p. BR29.
  10. ^ Advertisement for Germany Must Perish!.
  11. ^ Harold U. Ribalow (September 26, 1941). "Hitler Will Be Nothing But A Rosebud Says Author 'Germany Must Perish!'. One Man's Plan For Peace Forever". The Canadian Jewish Chronicle: p. 5. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=rPJOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gkwDAAAAIBAJ&dq=theodore-kaufman%20germany%20must%20perish&pg=2325%2C5306. Retrieved 2011-12-04. 
  12. ^ See Nazi and Holocaust Denial Propaganda links below.
  13. ^ a b Argus (1944). "Behind Enemy Lines". The Nation: p. 510. https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdl.dropbox.com%2Fu%2F349981%2Fkaufman%2Fthe%2520nation.pdf. Retrieved 2011-04-19. 
  14. ^ Anonymous. "Nazis Attack Roosevelt." New York Times. July 24, 1941. p. 8.
  15. ^ Howard K. Smith. Last Train from Berlin. London: Phoenix Pr., 1942, 2000. p. 134
  16. ^ "Hanover Jews Victims of Latest Oppression". Associated Press. September 9, 1941. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=kxhlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vW4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=1522,728722&dq=theodore+kaufman+newark&hl=en. Retrieved 2011-04-20. 
  17. ^ "Parole der Woche"
  18. ^ "War Aims of World Plutocracy"
  19. ^ "Never!"
  20. ^ 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.
  21. ^ Pierre Vidal-Naquet Assassins of Memory Essays on the Denial of the Holocaust, New York: Columbia University Press, 1992, ISBN 0-231-07457-1
  22. ^ Men at War: The Best War Stories of all Time (1942). Ernest Hemmingway. New York, Crown Publishers. Pages XXIII - XXIV: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z1YIAQAAIAAJ&q=%22This+can+probably+only+be+done+by+sterilization.+This+act+can+be+accomplished+by+an+operation+little+more+painful+than+vaccination+and+as+easily+made+compulsory.%22&dq=%22This+can+probably+only+be+done+by+sterilization.+This+act+can+be+accomplished+by+an+operation+little+more+painful+than+vaccination+and+as+easily+made+compulsory.%22&hl=en&ei=S2LbTrmkMJOW8gOMpPHsDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA

Further reading

External links

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

Other external links: