The Jewish Enemy

The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust by Jeffrey Herf, Belknap Press, 2008. 

Nazi Propaganda

The author describes Nazi propaganda against the Jews. It provides an interesting insight as to how Hitler’s mind worked. The Nazis criticized the Jews of Germany for avoiding military service and avoiding manual labor. Hitler blamed the Jews for their loss in World War I, the Bolshevik revolution and the Great Depression.

Secret Power

The Nazis believed that there was an alliance between the English upper class and international Jewry. The Nazis believed that the Jews secretly controlled the United States federal government and the press of the United States. A metaphor repeatedly used by the Nazis was that of the Jews pulling the wires of marionettes, the marionettes being the non-Jewish leaders of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States.

Bolshevism

The Nazis thought that the Bolsheviks chose the non-Jew Stalin over the Jew Trotsky, in order to hide the fact that Bolshevism was a Jewish front.

Conspiratorial Thinking

Conspiratorial thinking is immune to refutation by the facts. Hitler was so paranoid that he believed that international Jewry was trying to take over the world.  He believed that there was an “international Jewish conspiracy that was seeking world domination”. The Nazis saw their attacks against European countries as an attempt to preempt the Jewish-controlled Great Britain, the United States and the USSR from attacking Germany.

Defensive Action

The Nazis believed that the Jews wanted to annihilate Germany. In Hitler’s mind, the Holocaust was a defensive action.