Kampf gegen die "jüdische Weltverschwörung": Propaganda und Antisemitismus der Nationalsozialisten 1919 bis 1945

The concept of the German "Volksgemeinschaft" and its deadly enemy, world Jewry, was central to the ideology of Hitler and his followers. The "Jewish conspiracy" could explain the First World War, the German defeat, the Russian Revolution, the economic crisis, and the "Judenrepublik", all part of a plot to destroy Germany and all of Western civilization and to rule the world, as set forth in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". The ideology was not new, but Hitler added a call for action: the "Volksgemeinschaft" was to become a "Kampfgemeinschaft", a fighting community, to save Germany and the world. The enemy was the Jew in all his forms: Bolshevist, plutocrat, democrat, Freemason. The idea was propagated in the party's organ "Der Völkische Beobachter", the SS's "Das schwarze Korps", and other Nazi publications, and in the speeches of all the Nazi leaders. The agitation was somewhat subdued in the first years of the Nazi regime, but revived with preparations for "total war". Again the Jews, who purportedly pulled the strings in all the Allied governments, were blamed for the war. Since they allegedly meant to destroy Germany, it was not only just but vital to destroy them first. Hitler's "warning" of 30 January 1939 became the guideline for the Final Solution. Pp. 241-271 contain caricatures from the Nazi press.