Using skillful propaganda, the Nazis brought German anti-Semitism to a fever pitch.

by Rabbi Eliahu Ellis & Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

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Anti-Semitic Cartoon

Anti-Semitic Cartoon
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

Hitler played heavily on the anti-Semitism already rooted within his people. He resurrected ideas that a previous king of Germany, Frederick the Great, had introduced. There were distinct categories of human beings. Essentially, the Germans were Aryans, and everyone else was sub-human. Hitler took these ideas and embellished them. He blamed the Jews for "two great wounds upon humanity: "Circumcision of the Body and Conscience of the Soul."

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Degrading Jews

Jews Forced To Carry Anti-Jewish Signs
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

The Jews were accountable for that.

As Hitler gained popularity, his hatred of Jews spread and became a rallying cry.

The Nazi propaganda paper, Der Sturmer, revived the "Blood Libels." The church would warn their constituents: "Watch your children 6-7 weeks before Passover… Everyone knows that just before Passover Jews need the blood of a Christian child, maybe, to mix in with their Matzah."

The attitude taught to the children was, "Just as one poisonous mushroom can poison a whole family, one Jew can poison a whole town or a whole country!"

Read the complete story from "The Toadstool," a Nazi children's book.

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Nazi Rally With Signs: "The Jews Are Our Misfortune!"
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

Der Sturmer was running contests encouraging German children to write in. One little girl wrote, "People are so bothered by the way we’re treating the Jews. They can’t understand it, because they are God’s creatures. But cockroaches are also God’s creatures, and we destroy them."

Words can create an attitude. If a person says something loud enough and often enough, he creates a climate. And under that climate, all sorts of things can happen.

Published: Wednesday, December 31, 1969

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Visitor Comments: 74

  • (74) Anonymous , March 7, 2009

    Are they still educating our children in schools about the holocaust and effects of hatred

    I have a 12 year old son and recently I have been educating him about the holocaust, in the hopes that I can make him understand that predjudice in any form should not be tolerated. I had family who fought in World Word II for our liberty and freedom and with the way the world is going at the moment it scares me to think it could happen again. God bless all the Jewish people who were murdered and persecueted in World War II. Rats I don't think so, just beautiful people that we will never actually have the chance to meet.

  • (73) Anonymous , January 20, 2009

    wow.

    wow

  • (72) Adesua Idonor , January 20, 2009

    Sick!

    the fact that a little girl whatever the age can say that is disgusting and how she canome to establish that as a conclusion on the pathetic reasons why jews should be treated like rubbish is demented she apparently hasa twisted way of thinking if shes bold enough to go out even to the extent of a public paper to say that

  • (71) josh , February 7, 2008

    The Book " The War Against The Jew" by Dagobert D. Runes is now available at www.torahlab.org

  • (70) Sasa , January 14, 2008

    OMG!

    that one girls article was horible about the jews! it made me want to cry!

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