a people robber. He [ie the Jew] has
never founded any civilization, though
he has destroyed civilizations by the
hundred. He possesses nothing of his
own creation to which he can point.”
Hitler was not just an antisemite,
but also a racist. So he emphasized
to his audience that there could
never be such a thing as a ‘good’
Jew. Individual actions and
achievements counted for nothing.
For Hitler “it is beside the point
whether the individual Jew is decent
or not. In himself he carries those
characteristics which Nature has
given him, and he cannot ever rid
himself of those characteristics. And
to us he is harmful.” For Hitler, the
presence of Jews in society was
akin to the presence of a disease –
“Over thousands of years, the Jew is
becoming and has become a racial
tuberculosis affecting many peoples.”
The official policy of the National
Socialist Workers’ Party at the time
was for the German Jews to be
stripped of their citizenship, but in an
article in March 1921 for the Völkischer
Beobachter – a Nazi newspaper Hitler went further, and suggested
that Germany could also be protected
by imprisoning Jews. “The Jewish
undermining of our Volk [ie people]
must be prevented,” wrote Hitle