Germany Must Perish!

From Free net encyclopedia

Germany Must Perish! is the title of a 104-page book written and self-published by Theodore N. Kaufman, who founded the Argyle Press of Newark, New Jersey, in order to publish the book.Template:Ref The book was used by Nazi Germany and modern Holocaust deniers as propaganda to demonstrate that the Jews were plotting against Germany, though the book was a little-noticed self-published work that was, in the words of the 1945 Journal of Modern History, "little more than self-indulgence in dire vituperation by a man who sees Germany as the sole cause of the world's woes."Template:Ref

Contents 1 The book 2 Reaction and propaganda 3 Notes 4 References 5 Links 5.1 Nazi Propaganda About Germany Must Perish! 5.2 Holocaust Denial Propaganda About Germany Must Perish! 5.3 Other External links

The book

According to a March 24 1941, Time magazine review, Kaufman founded Argyle because, "he did not want to be edited."Template:Ref The unnamed Time reviewer compared the book to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal but notes that unlike Swift, Kaufman's work was not satirical.Template:Ref

According to an advertisement in the New York Times, the book was released to the public on March 1, 1941.Template:Ref Kaufman promoted the book by mailing "a miniature black cardboard coffin with a hinged lid" to reviewers. Inside the coffin was a card reading, "Read GERMANY MUST PERISH! Tomorrow you will receive your copy."Template:Ref 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 fact, 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.Template:Ref

Image:Kaufmap.png

Kaufman summarized Germany Must Perish! in the Times ad as: "A dynamic volume outlining a plan for the extinction of Germany and containg a map showing possible dissection and apportionment of its territory."Template:Ref 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. At this time, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was still nine months away and the United States had not yet entered the war. Mass sterilizations comparable to Kaufman's vision had already begun in Nazi Germany through the T-4 Euthanasia Program, a "medicalized mass murder" that some cite 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.

Reaction and propaganda

The book soon came to the attention of the Nazis. It was and is still widely quoted as advocating genocide by "the Jews" against the German people.Template:Ref Kaufman was "a Manhattan-born Jew", so his advocacy of such an idea attracted great attention.Template:Ref Nazi propaganda denounced the book as an "orgy of Jewish hatred" and accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of having inspired it.Template:Ref

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 ...Template:Ref

When on September 8 1941, the Jews of Hanover were forced from their homes, German authorities cited Kaufman's book as one of the reasons.Template:Ref

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. 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.

Notes

1. Template:NoteAnonymous. "A Modest Proposal (Books)." Time. March 24 1941. p. 96.
2. Template:NoteIbid.
3. Template:NoteWhat They Would Do about Germany, Donald F. Lach, The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 17, No. 3. (Sep., 1945), pp. 227-243.
4. Template:Note Time
5. Template:NoteAnonymous. Advertisement for Germany Must Perish!. New York Times. 1 March 1941. p. 13.
6. Template:Note"A Modest Proposal (Books)."
7. Template:NoteAnonymous. "Latest Books Received." New York Times. March 16 1941. p. BR29.
8. Template:NoteAdvertisement for Germany Must Perish!.
9. Template:NoteSee Nazi and Holocaust Denial Propaganda links below.
10. Template:Note"A Modest Proposal (Books)."
11. Template:NoteAnonymous. "Nazis Attack Roosevelt." New York Times. July 24 1941. p. 8.
12. Template:NoteHoward K. Smith. Last Train from Berlin. London: Phoenix Pr., 1942, 2000. p. 134
13. Template:NoteAnonymous. "Jews of Hanover Forced from Homes." New York Times. September 9 1941. p. 4.

References

• Bytwerk, Randall L. "The Argument for Genocide in Nazi Propaganda," Quarterly Journal of Speech, 91 (2005), 37-62.

Links

Nazi Propaganda About Germany Must Perish!

(from Calvin College's German Propaganda Archive)

• "The Battle with the Devil: Pan-Jewry Reveals its Destructive Plan." A September 1941 article from Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer which quotes extensively from Germany Must Perish!
• "The War Goal of World Plutocracy" A September 1941 pamphlet by Wolfgang Diewerge.
• "When you see this symbol..." Cover illustration and excerpts from a November 1941 flyer.
• "Never! A late 1944 pamphlet by Heinrich Goitsch.

Holocaust Denial Propaganda About Germany Must Perish!

• Notes and the full text of the book at the web site of the Institute for Historical Review.
• Comments, table of contents, and excerpts of the book at the web site of The Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust.

Other External links

• Full text of Time magazine's 1941 review of Germany Must Perish! at the web site of The Nizkor Project.de:Kaufman-Plan