Anti-Semitism in Germany
If, living in the closing decades of the nineteenth century, one were to imagine where in Europe a genocide on the scale of the Holocaust could possibly take place, Germany would have been at the bottom of the list. Germany was possibly the most cosmopolitan in their view of the Jews at this time. In 1871, with the unification of the German states, Jews were “emancipated.” That is to say, they were now allowed certain civil liberties that had been denied for centuries. The degree of success with which the Jews assimilated into German society was startling. No one would have imagined the possibility of a mass extermination effort against these people some sixty years later. Not in Germany.
Mind you, this would have been the thoughts of outsiders; people not living in Germany at the time. In actuality, Germany was a hotbed of anti-semitism. This underlying hatred of the Jews had existed for centuries, perhaps even going as far back as the third century B.C. when the first people of Jewish descent arrived in Europe. This phenomenon known as anti-semitism had many different layers, each one building off of the previous, becoming more and more ferocious as the years passed. Building and building until something like the Holocaust no longer seemed so hard to imagine. There are three distinct varieties of anti-semitism that merit some further discussion.
Types of Anti-Semitism
The first is religious anti-semitism. The Catholic Church, and eventually the whole of Christianity, saw the Jews as immoral, corrupt agents of the devil. It was believed that the only way to eradicate this problem was through conversion to the Christian faith. The second variety would be cultural anti-semitism. The Jewish people had a culture that differed greatly from that of Europeans. Their clothing was different. Their religious practices were different. Their diet was different. Even their folklore was different from that of the Germans. They began to be seen more and more as not simply a different religious group, but a distinct society with the broader European body. The way to deal with this was to marginalize Jews in every way, ghettoizing them. Integration was also seen as a remedy, but this point will be discussed in more depth later. The third and most dangerous type of anti-semitism was racial anti-semitism. During the nineteenth century many scientists and ideologues posed various theories as to what constituted a race. Emphasis was placed on physical beauty and intellect. The German, or “Aryan”, race was seen as the greatest. It was their ancestors who were responsible for every great achievement in civilization. The Jewish race drew the short straw. Now, not only were they seen as something different and incompatible with European identity, they were considered a pollutant; a corrosive element that must be eradicated. The survival of the German people, the world even, hung in the balance.
The Holocaust Becomes a Reality
Is it surprising that something as horrific as the Holocaust took place in Germany? The answer is definitely not. All one has to do is look at the evidence. Anti-semitism lay festering in the hearts and minds of many Germans for centuries. Slowly, it grew. It morphed into a different type of hate. And then another one. Each time growing stronger and nestling deeper into the psyche of the German people. The Nazi’s were students of history. They did not create this extreme hatred of the Jews. They looked back on the past for guidance. They built on previous thought and practice regarding the Jewish population. Only by this course could racial politics become an integral part of the Third Reich. The racial radicalism of nationalism in Nazi Germany did not happen overnight; it took centuries to develop into a hatred and fear so strong as to merit something like the Holocaust. Early Christians said, “You have no right to live among us as Jews.” Later secular rulers said, “You have no right to live among us.” The Nazis said, “You have no right to live.
Source:
Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jew, Volume 1 (New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985),
