Germany And The Jewish Problem.pdf

Germany

and

the Jewish Problem

Dr. F. K. Wiebe

Germany

and

the Jewish Problem

Dr. F. K. Wiebe

Published on behalf of the Institute for the Study of

the Jewish Problem, Berlin

"No man will treat with indifference the principle of race.

It is the key of history, and why history is often so

confused is that it has been written by men who were

ignorant of this principle and all the knowledge it involves."

"Language and religion do not make a race — there is

only one thing which makes a race, and that is blood."

(Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield in "Endymion",

Vol. II, pp. 18 and 20)

Ever since the day when the National Socialists came into

power in Germany, thereby placing the solution of the Jewish

problem in the forefront of German politics, public opinion

the world over has become increasingly interested in that

problem. Anti-semitism has been frequently described as a

phenomenon exclusively confined to Germany, as a National

Socialist invention which must necessarily remain incompre-

hensible to the rest of the world. But to-day it is evident that

the Jewish question is by no means a purely German question,

that it causes on the contrary grave anxiety to statesmen

in many countries, and that in many lands a pronounced

anti-Jewish reaction has already set in. We do not propose

to enquire, for the moment, whether these phenomena are

a result of the example set by Germany. It is sufficient to

to become everywhere acute, and that there is scarcely

a country nowadays which does not find itself compelled to

contribute in some way or other to its solution.

Hence everyone who discusses Germany's attitude towards

the Jewish question is at the same time dealing with an

important problem of contemporary international politics,

and, having regard to its far-reaching significance, is in duty

bound to carefully investigate that question.

It is a mistake to believe that the Jewish question has

only arisen within the last few years, or, indeed, that its

origin is to be sought in modern times. The Jewish question

is not an invention of National Socialism, nor is it derived

from the anti-semitic movements that marked the close of the

nineteenth century. If National Socialism can lay claim to

any originality in the matter, then only because the National

Socialist Party was the first to deduce the logical conclusions

from a historical fact. The present German attitude towards

the Jewish question is based on the experience made by

Europe in the course of two thousand years. And this ex-

perience has been a particularly bad one for Germany, espe-

cially during the last few decades.

The Jewish question undoubtedly dates back some two

thousand years. Strictly speaking it is even older — namely,

as old as the history of the Jews. The Jewish question arises

everywhere where the nomadic Jewish race comes into contact

with other peoples having a settled abode.

This historical fact is admitted by the Jews themselves.

The Jüdische Lexikon, which is the standard work of the

German Jews—published long before the advent of National

Socialism to power—confirms the historical continuity of the

Jewish question throughout the centuries when it writes (vol. III,

column 421): "this Jewish problem is as old as the association

of the pronouncedly differentiated and dissimilar Jewish people

with other peoples."

It is a unique, and in the last resort inexplicable pheno-

menon, that on the one hand the Jews have never been able

to find a permanent home in which to develop a political

and social existence "sui generis," while on the other hand

they have never proved capable of being absorbed by any of

the innumerable countries in which they have sought

hospitality.

This peculiar destiny of the Jews is, however, subject to

variations. But these variations, in their turn, are only the

perpetual ebbing and flowing of an unbroken tide. There

were times in which the Jewish problem appeared definitely

solved, in which the foreign immigrants appeared to have

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