International Baccalaureate

Busan International Foreign School

Extended Essay

History

‘Nazi anti-Semitism: Extension of European anti-Semitism or grotesque

materialization of a new phenomenon’

Research Question:

To what extent did Nazi anti-Semitism stem from historical European anti-

Semitism?

Candidate Name: Keunwoo JeongCandidate Number: 02751-004Supervisor Name: David ShubairWord Count: 3989

Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Introduction 3

Social/Religious roots of European anti-Semitism 3

Racial/Pseudoscientific roots of European anti-Semitism 4

Economical roots of European anti-Semitism 6

Political roots of anti-Semitism 7

Analysis of Nazi anti-Semitism and European anti-Semitism 9

The Post-Enlightenment Period and Nazi anti-Semitism 9

Propaganda: Jewish Conspiracy & the Blood Libel 9

The Jew badge10

Jews and Civil Service Rights10

Expulsion of Jews 10

The Holocaust 11

Jews and Racial Degeneration 12

Methodology 12

Conclusion 13

Bibliography 15

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Abstract:Anti-Semitism has existed in Europe since the medieval period. It has taken on a variety

of forms over the past centuries and reached its zenith during the Nazi Holocaust in 1944 and

1945. This essay will answer the question of: To what extent did Nazi anti-Semitism stem from

historical European anti-Semitism?

The research has been divided into two areas: the features of European anti-Semitism;

and the features of Nazi anti-Semitism. Research in each form of anti-Semitism was further

divided into: social/religious anti-Semitism; racial/pseudoscientific anti-Semitism; economical

roots of anti-Semitism; and political anti-Semitism. The analysis of this essay compares and

contrasts the different aspects of each type of anti-Semitism. The majority of the research was

based on history books that explain the periods of anti-Semitism before and after the Holocaust.

Minutes of the Wannsee Conference were also used in the research. Electronic resources were

used to identify dates or confirm factual information.

Upon finishing the research, it was concluded that Nazi anti-Semitism did stem from

historical European anti-Semitism, but eventually developed into phenomenon of its own. In the

early years of Nazi Germany, acts of anti-Semitism bore semblance to forms of European anti-

Semitism. However, towards the final years of the Nazi regime Nazi Jewish-hatred took an

unprecedented path. Nazi Germany’s embodiment of a racist ideology and the sheer magnitude

as well as the organization of the Holocaust makes Nazi anti-Semitism different from its

predecessor.

Word Count: 232

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Introduction:Since its infancy in 1920 when party funds were raised by selling “a brand of tobacco

called Anti-Semit”1, till its downfall on April 29th 1945 when Hitler blamed the war on

“international statesmen … who worked for Jewish interests”2, anti-Semitism had always been a

vital part of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. Nazi anti-Semitism, due to its

temporal proximity to the present, exceptionally systematic approach towards the “Jewish

Question”, and the horrendous brutality of the Holocaust, is often viewed as a new aberration

from the traditional forms of European anti-Semitism. Many, however, perceive this as an ill-

advised interpretation of Nazi anti-Semitism. Although Nazi anti-Semitism was certainly unique

for its unprecedented violence against the Jews, there is no doubt that the Nazis drew immensely

from the rich and historic sources of European anti-Semitism which had prevailed in Europe

since the medieval period. The revival of the medieval “Jew badge” on September 1st 1941 and

the use of pseudoscience to justify anti-Semitism in terms of racial and psychological features,

for example, are only a few of the many methods that the Nazis adopted from European anti-

Semitism. This essay will explore whether Nazi anti-Semitism simply represented a radical

extension of the historical European discrimination of the Jews or whether it was a grotesque

manifestation of a totally new phenomenon.

Social/Religious Roots of European Anti-Semitism:The religious roots of modern European anti-Semitism can be traced back to the dawn of

Christianity. Christianity’s persecution of the Jews was based upon two main factors. The first

was because early Christians believed that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of

Christ. The second reason was because Judaism challenged the integrity of Christian beliefs.

While Christianity viewed Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah, Judaism argued that the Messiah

was yet to come. The argument of the Jews posed a threat to Christianity because it partially

owed its existence to Judaism and also because Jesus of Nazareth himself was a Jew.3 Jews were,

therefore, castigated to fully legitimize the beliefs of Christianity.

Christianity slowly made its way to Europe and eventually became one of the dominant

religions in Europe. Once it became the dominant religion of Europe, anti-Semitic acts in 1 (Vat, & Speer, 1997, p. 30)2 (Kershaw, 2008, p. 948)3 (Brustein, 2003, p.49)

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Christian nations began to happen in earnest. One of the most notable incidents was the massacre

of Jews in France and Germany during the First Crusade of 1096. Crusaders, who became

bankrupt after buying expensive weaponry for the crusade on the Middle-East, decided to

plunder rich Jewish households.4 The Crusaders justified their acts by saying that the purging of

Jews, along with the Arabs, was necessary to fully cleanse the world of non-believers.5

The Christians discriminated the Jews also by creating the myth of the blood libel,

forcing them to wear the “Jew badge” and removing them from civil service professions,

expulsing them from countries, and placing them in ghettos. The blood libel was a false claim

that accused Jews of murdering Christian children and used the children’s blood for baking

matzos for Passover. In 1215, the Lateran Council announced that Jews should wear conical hats

and the Jew badge for identification purposes in public.6 The Church also issued regulations that

limited Jews from working in the government or serving the military. When these regulations did

not suffice in separating the Jews, governments expelled the Jews from their countries. The Jews

were officially expelled from “England in 1291, France in 1394, and Spain 1492.”7 Ghettos

became to be officially institutionalized after Pope Paul IV in 1555 issued a papal decree calling

for the separation of Jews into a specified area in a town or a city.8 As a result, ghettos began to

rapidly spring up in cities all across Europe. In 1791 Catherine the Great of Tsarist Russia

demarcated a whole province, known as the Pale of Settlement, for the habitation of Russia’s

Jews.

Racial/Pseudoscientific Roots of European Anti-Semitism:The phrase anti-Semitism was first used by the Austrian scholar Moritz Steinschneider in

1860 to describe the idea about how Semites were inferior to the Aryans.9 The term was

originally created to differentiate the discrimination of Jews based on irrational religious

reasoning from the discrimination of Jews based on “scientific claims.” However, the phrase has

evolved to imply all forms of discrimination against followers of Judaism.

4 (“Persecution of Jews in the first crusade, 2011)5 (Lindemann, 2000, p.27)6 (Brustein, 2003, p.56)7 (Brustein, 2003, p.55)8 Ibid.

9 (“Antisemitism”, 2011)

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The term Aryan and Übermensch were also introduced in this period. Similar to the term

anti-Semitism, the words Aryan and Übermensch were originally not attached to the notion of a

‘master race.’ The phrase Aryan was simply used to refer to the ‘Indo-European’ race which was

supposedly one of the superior races in Europe. The figure Übermensch was used in German

philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s book Thus Spoke Zarathustra to represent the idea of

an ‘overman.’ Nietzsche believed that the Übermensch represented the next stage in humanity in

which a single individual will be able to possess superhuman intellect.10 In this regard, his

ideology may appear similar to the idea of individualism of the Enlightenment movement.

However, Nietzsche’s idea was revolutionary because it denied the necessity of God. He argued

that the Übermensch, with his ‘overman’ understanding of the world, will render God as useless,

and instead will be able to decree his own morality and law.11

The use of pseudoscience and the idea of race became prominent in the nineteenth

century. Up until the advent of scientific development and the Industrial Revolution, the

differences between people had been judged through their cultural background and economical

status. In the nineteenth century, the popular belief was that intellectual capability was inherently

tied to the individual’s “race”. In an era in which rapid technological advancements were made

in the Western world, the argument of physical features being directly related to intellect seemed

plausible to the literate population of Europe.12 Racial determinism, as this ideology became to

be called, spread rapidly in Europe and was soon accepted by the general population. Initially,

the idea of racial determinism had no anti-Semitic connotations attached to it. In fact racial

determinism was also embraced by Jews who had assimilated into society. They believed that

they were “Jewish by race not religion.”13 Jews also utilized racial determinism to venerate

themselves as the one of the “purest” races. They argued that the Jewish race was able to

maintain their purity due to Judaism’s prohibition of intermarriages.14

Another prominent ideology of this era was social Darwinism. Social Darwinism

advocated the survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism, much like racial determinism, was

accepted by the general public and initially was not used for promoting anti-Semitic ideas. The

10 (“Suite101.com”, 2011)11 Ibid.12 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 43)13 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 44)14 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 44)

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Jews were viewed as one of the fittest races by advocates of this theory. Advocates of this belief

found their reasoning in the fact that the Jews managed to survive through all the persecution that

they were exposed to since Biblical times.15 Although both racial determinism and social

Darwinism at first had minimal attachments to anti-Semitism, they provided fertile grounds for

future anti-Semitic arguments that were to be developed during the Great Depression of 1873.

Economical roots of European anti-Semitism:Traditionally, Jews have been often described as “miserly, manipulators of money, ultra-

materialist, and possessors of extraordinary wealth.”16 This was largely due to claims made by

elements of Christianity. In 1139 the Lateran Council condemned usury, the act of lending

money with excessive interest rates, and decided that anyone who practiced it would be denied a

Christian burial.17 This legislation was purposefully targeted at the Jews. The Church denounced

the Jews for illegally lending money to the financially disaffected peasantry. However, the

reason many Jews took up the job of moneylending was partially due to the influence of the

Church. In many countries, the Church limited the occupations that Jews could work. Therefore,

a large majority of the Jewish population naturally took up petty jobs. For example, Jews were

not allowed to sell important and lucrative merchandise such as metal-work, silk, and glass-

work. Moneylending was one of the jobs that the Jews were allowed to work. Jews were also not

allowed to farm land because they could not own private property. In the Medieval period private

property, especially land, was considered a sign of wealth and power. Having land meant having

power over the serfs who worked the land. The Church, in order to limit the potential influence

of Jews, issued a regulation that made it illegal for Jews to own private property. These reasons,

therefore, gave many Jews no choice but to pursue the business of moneylending which was one

of the more lucrative among the petty jobs that they worked. Another aspect that linked Jews and

moneylending was the way the Jews interpreted the Old Testament. In the Bible usury is listed

down as a sin that one must not commit. In the Torah usury was also prohibited, but it was only

prohibited between Jews. This meant that Jews were allowed to charge interest on others as long

as they were not a Jew.18

15 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 45)16 (Brustein, 2003, p. 177)17 Ibid.18 (Brustein, 2003, p. 180)

7

In the midst of the Great Depression of the nineteenth century, economic Jewish-hatred

took a different form from its past. The 1870s, unlike the past two decades, was a time of

financial crisis. In 1873 the Great Depression began with stock markets crashing in Berlin and

Vienna.19 The stock market crashes were followed by two decades of unemployment, poor

production, and famines in all areas of Europe. A great majority of the people who were

economically affected by the Great Depression blamed the Jews for their sufferings. There were

many reasons to why the Jews were blamed for the economic crisis. The first and most

prominent reason was because many Jews played a key role in the stock markets of most

countries. Therefore, when the economy failed in 1873 many people vehemently criticized the

Jews. Another reason was the economical and social growth of the Jews. In the nineteenth

century, many countries in Europe experienced a rapid growth in the Jewish population. The

growth of Jews, which was greatly influenced by the emancipation of the Jews during the French

Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, allowed them to take up important positions in

governments and urban areas. This was also the period in which the term “Court Jew”, Jews that

worked as financial advisers and estate managers of monarchs, was first used.20 The exponential

growth, coupled with the traditional image of Jews as the moneylender, gave ample reasons for

anti-Semites to launch a series of attack on the Jews in the 1870s. Christian elements of society

were shocked by the fact that Jews who constituted less than one percent of the population were

taking up important roles in society. In some radical cases, Jews were allegedly charged for

using their newly gained economic and social power to manipulate the domestic and foreign

policies of the nation.21

Political Roots of Anti-Semitism:Political Jewish-hatred is most often identified with the notion of the “Jewish world

conspiracy” advocated in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion of 1903. The Protocols is a forgery

comprised of alleged minutes of conferences of Jewish leaders, or “the Elders of Zion”, in which

they discuss ways to dominate the world.22 Studies have revealed that the documents proposed in

the text and the supposed “Elders” listed in the Protocols are entirely fictional. In the early

19 (Lindemann, 2000, p.52)20 (Brustein, 2003, p. 265)21 (Lindemann, 2000, p.52)22 (“The protocols of the elders of Zion”, 2011)

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twentieth century, however, the text was considered legitimate by many. The “Jewish world

conspiracy” was allegedly a Jewish plan to bring political, religious, and social equality to the

oppressed Jewish population through the domination of the world. This wild speculation was

backed up by the “obvious” social influence that the “Court Jews” seemed to possess.

Proponents of the theory also substantiated their argument by referring the ubiquity of the Jewish

population in Europe, Russia, and the Middle-East. Anti-Semites of the late nineteenth and early

twentieth century linked the “Jewish world conspiracy” to the rise of socialism and communism,

namely the Bolshevik Revolution. Jew-haters argued that the Jews were trying to realize and

legitimize their goal of world domination through communism which called for a worldwide

revolution of the proletariat. Anti-Semites also argued that there was an inherent pro-Jewish

rhetoric since Karl Marx, one of the founding fathers of communism, had a Jewish family

history.23

The “Jewish world conspiracy” was greatly propagated by extreme nationalists in the late

nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. Nationalists utilized the idea of a Jewish

conspiracy and the traditional alien status of the Jew to instigate xenophobia.24 One of the prime

examples of this is the Dolchstoßlegende also known as “the stab-in-the-back legend”. This

legend was widely spread in Germany by right-wing parties. Propagators argued that Socialists,

Republicans, and Jews had stabbed the triumphant German army in the back by signing the

Armistice with the allies on 11th November 1918, and the Treaty of Versailles on October 21st

1919. In Germany and the other European countries, there was a general rise in the number of

active political programs against the Jews. However, due to internal factionalism the efforts to

politically persecute the Jews were often ineffective.25

Analysis of Nazi Anti-Semitism and European Anti-Semitism:The Post-Enlightenment Period and Nazi anti-Semitism

23 (Brustein, 2003, p. 268)24 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 51)25 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 52)

9

Anti-Semitism was an essential part of Nazism. Anti-Semitism along with the notion of

the “Aryan Master Race” formed the ideological justification for the aim to create a New World

Order under Nazi Germany. The Nazis believed that the Jews had to be removed in order to

prevent further racial degeneration of the superior Aryan race. There is ample evidence that the

Nazis were inspired by the pseudoscientific racial ideologies of the nineteenth century. One of

the more obvious pieces of evidence is the Nazi’s use of the terms Übermensch, Aryan, and anti-

Semite. Although the meaning of these terms were significantly distorted, it is difficult to deny

that this was partly due to the potential racially anti-Semitic ideas that were embraced within

these ideologies. For example, the Nietzsche’s denial of God through the intellectually and

physically supreme Übermensch could be easily applied to the Nazi’s reverence of a master race

and antipathy towards Judaism. Similarly, the idea of the Semites being racially inferior to the

Aryan race also fits into the argument of the Nazis. Also there is evidence that the Nazis used

aspects of social Darwinism and racial determinism to formulate the notion of racial

degeneration and supremacy. The Nazis manipulated the theory of the survival of the fittest and

racial characteristics determining intellect to reinforce their concept of a master race.

Propaganda: Jewish Conspiracy & the Blood Libel

Another idea that was exploited by the National Socialists was the “Jewish world

conspiracy.” The conspiracy was very convenient for the Nazis as it perfectly complemented

their anathema towards the Jews. Hitler personally had great conviction in the international

conspiracy of the Jewry. He believed that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a work of

“absolute authenticity.”26 Hitler argued that the conspiracy of the Jews was not a “fixed

programme”27, but a result of racial instincts. Jews, according to Hitler, “would instinctively

follow the same aims and use the same methods without the need to work”28 out a set program

for overthrowing the world order. The Nazis, under the orders of Reich Minister of Propaganda

Joseph Goebbels, used the myth of the blood libel, along with the idea of a conspiracy, to

propagate anti-Semitism. Posters of malicious looking Jews slitting the throat of Aryan Germans

and tables explaining the “racial instincts” of Jews could be commonly seen in the streets of

Germany. Other forms of propaganda included anti-Semitic journals. For example, in the journal

26 (Kershaw, 2008, p. 763)27 (Kershaw, 2008, p. 763)28 Ibid.

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Der Strumer the front page of every issue would be marked with the words “The Jews Are Our

Disaster” and regularly published alleged stories of Jewish ritual murder.29

The Jew badge

The distribution of the medieval Jew badge was also revived under the rule of the Nazis.

Ways of distinguishing Jews in public were first introduced in the General Government.30

However, the signs differed according to the locality. The mark was introduced into Germany on

September 1st 1941. The police decree made it mandatory that all Jews over the age of six had to

wear a yellow Star of David inscribed with the words Jude.31 This mark eventually became the

official insignia for all Jews in Nazi occupied-territories. The institution of the Jew badge

allowed the Nazis to effectively identify and enforce restrictions on the Jewish population.

Jews and Civil Service Rights

The first anti-Semitic legislation that was issued by the Nazi regime was the ‘Law for the

Restoration of the Professional Civil Service.’ This law was passed by the regime on April 7th

1933. The law, which was almost identical to the decision made by the Lateran Council in 1215,

restricted people who were of ‘non-Aryan descent’ or suspected ‘enemies of the state’ from

working as professors, government officers, judges, and other civil service professions.32 As a

result, many Jews who had been playing a prominent role in the area of civil service lost their

jobs. Later on, this law was amended to also include doctors, lawyers, tax consultants, and

notaries.33

Expulsion of Jews

In the past there have been numerous cases of large numbers of Jews being “legally”

expulsed from a country, most notably in England, France, and Spain. The Jews were expelled

from England when King Edward I issued the Edict of Expulsion in 1290.34 In France, the Jews

29 (“Rockthecapital.com”, 2011)30 Nazi-occupied territory in Eastern Europe largely comprised of Poland.31 (Kershaw, 2008, p. 681)32 (Friedländer, 1998, p. 145)33 (Friedländer, 1998, p. 226)34 (“Edict of expulsion”, 2011)

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were expelled in 1394 by Charles VI.35 In Spain, the Jews were expulsed under the Alhambra

Decree in 1492 issued by King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile.36

Prior to the Holocaust, similar efforts had been made in Nazi Germany to “cleanse

German living space of Jews in a legal manner.”37 In order to legally deport the Jews out of

Germany a Reich Central Office for Jewish Emigration was created in 1939. This new

government office was established to: “make all necessary arrangements for the preparation for

an increased emigration of the Jews”; “direct the flow of emigration”; and “speed the procedure

of emigration in each individual case.”38 According to the statistics documented in the minutes of

the Wannsee Conference a total of 537,000 Jews had been legally deported out of the country by

October 31st 1941.39

The Holocaust

Physical attacks and massacres of Jews have happened in medieval and modern Europe.

However, there was never a time in which the physical persecution of Jews happened to the

extent of the Holocaust. The Nazi approach of the Jewish Question was highly organized and

systematic. Special task forces, known as the Einsatzgruppen, were organized to effectively

execute or deliver the local Jews of occupied territories to the concentration camps set up in the

General Government.

The abhorrence of the Holocaust itself suffices to render Nazi Jewish-hatred into

something outlandish. The death toll of Jews during the Holocaust amounted to approximately

6,000,000.40 The death toll of Jews during the Holocaust was higher than the cumulative military

deaths of the Entente Powers during World War I which amounted to approximately 5,700,000.41

Jews and Racial Degeneration

35 (“Sephardicstudies.org”, 2011)36 (“BBC.co.uk”, 2011)37 (“historyplace.com”, 2011)38 Ibid.39 Ibid.40 (“Thinkquest.org”, 2011)41 (“Spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk”, 2011)

12

One of the key features that differentiate Nazi anti-Semitism is its emphasis on race and

the contingency of racial degeneration through intermarriage with individuals of inferior races.

Although notions of racial degeneration have pre-existed in other places, their impact on the

issue of intermarriage proved to be superficial. However, in Nazi Germany, the idea of

preventing racial pollution was realized through a series of government legislations. These laws

called for the sterilization of racially inferior individuals42, and the restriction of marriage or

sexual intercourse with Jews. Through these decrees, the Nazis tried to make the ideological and

arbitrary differences between an Aryan and a Jew more tangible. For example, in the Nuremberg

Laws the Nazis attempted to formulate a biological definition of what it meant to be a Jew.43

Methodology:The texts, “Anti-Semitism before the Holocaust” by Albert S. Lindemann and “Nazi

Germany and the Jews” by Saul Friedländer, have been extensively used to aid this investigation.

In his work, Lindemann tries to answer “the question of whether anti-Semitism can be

understood”44 and also the question of whether “one can understand the anti-Semite of all anti-

Semites, Hitler.”45 To answer this question, Lindemann explores the different types of anti-

Semitism that have existed since the ancient times to the twentieth century in chronological

order. However, due to the encompassing nature of the question the text lacks in detail in some

areas. Lindemann manages to compensate for this flaw by pointing out and succinctly describing

the essential characteristics of the different types of anti-Semitism in an unbiased way.

Lindemann substantiates the arguments made in his book by providing short analyses and an

appendix of the important documents that have been referenced in the work. The book’s most

significant value is that it shows how anti-Semitism has evolved from ancient religious hatred to

the racial/political form of anti-Semitism supported by fascist nations of the twentieth century.

Understanding the chronology of how anti-Semitism became what it was in the 1900s is

42 The ‘sterilization law’, officially known as the ‘Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring’, was issued on July 14th 1933. It is said that after the enactment of this decree approximately 400,000 ‘racially inferior’ individuals were forcefully castrated. (Kershaw, 2008, p. 295)43 “Three-quarter Jews were counted as Jewish. Half-Jews (with two Jewish and two ‘aryan’ grandparents) were reckoned with a Jewish partner, or the illegitimate child of a Jew and ‘aryan’.” (Kershaw, 2008, p. 347)44 (Lindemann, 2000, p. 95)45 Ibid.

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extremely significant for this essay as it provides insight into Nazi anti-Semitism and the

possible links it shares with European anti-Semitism.

“Nazi Germany and the Jews” by Saul Friedländer describes Nazi persecution of the Jews

between the years 1933 and 1939. Unlike many other texts that explain the relationship between

the Nazis and Jews, this book narrows its scope of research by excluding the Holocaust. This

source is valuable as it provides a very detailed account of the variety of methods the Nazis used

to persecute the Jews. The work is thoroughly supported with insightful citations of primary

sources. Friedländer provides valuable information on a variety of aspects which range from

local cultural anti-Semitism to grandiose ideological anti-Jewish objectives. There are very few

limitations for this source. One could make a dubious claim that the source is limited because it

does not cover the periods between 1939 and 1945. However, when considering the

thoroughness of the source and also the fact that there has already been a superfluous amount of

research done on the extermination of Jews it is evident that this is an excellent source.

Conclusion:The Nazi Jewish-hatred was clearly different from the other European anti-Semitic cases

of the past. In the history of anti-Semitism, Nazi Germany represents the first and only nation to

establish itself on an ethnically discriminatory ideology. They were also different in the sense

that their moves against the Jews were often initiated from the government level. The Nazis,

through the Holocaust and anti-Semitic laws, were the first ones to fully realize the anti-Jewish

ideologies of Europe.

However, in many aspects Nazi anti-Semitism was similar to its predecessor. For

example, the Nazis used historic forms of discrimination against Jews such as the Jew badge,

mass expulsion of Jews, the Jewish conspiracy, the blood libel, and Post-Enlightenment anti-

Jewish ideologies.

But are these outward resemblances between Nazi anti-Semitism and European anti-

Semitism significant enough to have dominance over the Holocaust and the fact that Nazi

Germany was the first modern nation to embrace and internalize a racist ideology? Did Nazi

anti-Semitism stem from European anti-Semitism? The answer to the latter seems to be yes.

Although Nazi anti-Semitism ultimately transmogrified itself into something that had never

existed before, its roots can be traced back to the various forms of anti-Semitism that existed in

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Europe. The answer to the first question is more complicated and would depend on whether one

believes that the process is important or the actual result. This question is, however, beyond the

scope of this research and requires more extensive investigation.

In essence, the aim of this research was to identify what Nazi anti-Semitism truly

represented. This is significant because it greatly impacts how we define modern anti-Semitism,

and provides invaluable insight into how our society must react to prevent further acts of

senseless discrimination. Understanding the true nature of Nazi anti-Semitism and its

relationship to European anti-Semitism is a necessary step that we, as responsible individuals of

society, must collectively take to eradicate the remaining roots of Jewish-hatred.

15

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Brendon, P. (2000). The dark valley: a panorama of the 1930s. New York: Vintage Books.

Brustein, W. I. (2003). Roots of hate: anti-Semitism in Europe before the holocaust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Friedländer, S. (1998). Nazi Germany and the Jews . New York, NY: Harper Perennial.

Kershaw, I. (2008). Hitler . London: Allen Lane.

Lindemann, A. S. (2000). Anti-Semitism before the holocaust . Harlow, England: Longman.

Vat, D., & Speer, A. (1997). The good Nazi: the life and lies of Albert Speer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

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The Übermensch: Nietzsche, Nazis, and overcoming the man. (n.d.). Suite101.com: Online magazine and writers' network. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from http://www.suite101 . com/content/nietzsches-uebermensch-a68714

The history of blood libel. (n.d.). RockTheCapital.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from http://www.rockthecapital.com/01/13/history-blood-libel/

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