Background History of European Jewry Questions:15-53

15. How important was the Jewish question in National Socialist thought?

It was of some importance but today we have a strong tenancy to overestimate it as a feature of National Socialism. The National Socialist Party Platform of 1920 proposes in Points 4 and 5 to give Jews the status of resident foreigners, but otherwise hardly touches on the Jewish question. After all, Jews barely constituted 1% of the population of Germany in 1920. Even Julius Streicher (1885-1946), the publisher of Der Sturmer, a vulgar periodical hostile to Jews, lost his position as the Gauleiter (regional party leader) of Franconia in 1940. It is probably fair to say that the chief concerns of the National Socialists were the overcoming of the unemployment problem, which had reached severe, humiliating, and debilitating provisions of the Versailles Treaty, such as the painful territorial losses. A prominent legal scholar and National Socialist, Professor Johann von Leers wrote in his book, 14 Jahre Judenrepublik (1933), that hostility to Jews for its own sake was stupid and barbaric. He further wished Jews success in an honest national development which did not threaten other nations and stated that the basic objective of Zionism, the resettlement of Jews on land outside of Europe, was a wholesome one.

16. Is it accurate to say that the National Socialists were anti-Semitic?

The term "anti-Semitic" in the sense, "opposition to Jews," is actually a misnomer, since Arabs, whose language is closely related to Hebrew, are also Semites. In an official statement published in Neues Volk (Berlin, 12 December 1942, pp12-13) in response to an enquiry of the Iraqi prime minister, Rashid Ali el Gailani, Professor Gross, chief of the Office of Racial Policy (Rassen-politisches Amt), pointed out that National Socialist policies with regard to Jews were for the purpose of protecting Germany from corrosive influences of Jewry, but that the accomplishments of Arabs were highly respected by Germans.

17. What had countries of western Europe other than Germany done about their Jewish populations long before the twentieth century?

For various reasons religious, economic or social the rulers of various European countries expelled their Jewish populations or in some cases forced Jews to convert to Christianity. Edward I (reigned 1272-1307) banished the Jews from England in 1290. France expelled its Jews in 1306, Spain in 1492, Portugal in 1497 and the kingdom of Naples in 1510 and 1541. Ireland and Scandinavia never had appreciable Jewish populations. Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to returned to England in 1657. Reference: A.H.M. Ramsey, The Nameless War, pp112-115.

18. What was the position of the large Jewish population of Russia in the late nineteenth century?

The Russian Empire included then what is now Poland (except for the western and northern parts taken from Germany in 1945) and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which were incorporated once again into the USSR in 1945. Poland and Lithuania had especially large Jewish populations. In 1792 Jews were restricted to the western part of the Russian Empire, but during the course of the nineteenth century their residential restrictions were eased. The reign of Alexander II (1855-1881) was a liberal one for Jews, but after his assassination a quite unfavourable climate for Jews came about, characterized by riots ("pogroms") against Jews, more or less tolerated but not instigated by governmental officials. Reference: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1970 edition, XII, 1071; XVII, 96; XVIII, 94.

19. What country now has the largest Jewish population in the world?

The United States, the population of which is approximately 3% Jewish.

20. What caused the Jewish population of the United States to grow rapidly after 1881?

Prior to 1881 the Jewish population of the United States was very small, about  of 1% or less, but unfavourable conditions in the Russian Empire during the reigns of Alexander III (1881-1894) and Nicholas II (1894-1917) caused a huge migration to the United States, approximately 2,500,000. Reference: Briton, Behind Communism, p 72.

21. From what amazing quarter did important financial assistance come to Communist Russia during its earliest years?

A number of very wealthy Jews in Wall Street firms contributed to a Communist regime during its early years when it was already soaked with the blood of innocent people who were being killed, exiled, and expropriated simply because of their former class status. The largely Jewish government was taking a terrible vengeance against those who had prospered in the days of the Czars. That Wall Street capitalists were aiding the mostly Jewish rulers of Russia in a government dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism is vivid proof of the solidarity of a race with a long record of being perpetual aliens, no matter in what land they happened to be residing. Blood is thicker than water. Reference: Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, New Rochelle, 1974. See especially pp185-9. Note: Although the facts which Professor Sutton presents speak for themselves to a considerable extent, his conclusions are pusillanimous.

22. What was the position of the Jews in Germany during the time of the Second Empire (1871-1918)?

By the time the German states were united into the Second Empire in 1871, Jews had long been emancipated in them and had acquired the civil rights of other German citizens. During the rising prosperity of the newly founded empire ("Grunderzeit") Jews became quite prosperous and entered the learned professions in large numbers. A Jew, Walther Rathenau (1867-1922), held high positions in both the Imperial and Weimar governments.

23. What was the position of the Jews in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933)?

Jewish influence and material wealth was so great during the time of the Weimar Republic that some Germans referred to it as the "Judenrepublik" (Jewish Republic), although Jews comprised only about 1% of its population. To mention only one small example, over 30% of the faculty of the University of Berlin was Jewish in 1932. Reference: Walther Jantzen, Geopolitik im Kartenbild/Die Juden, Heidelberg, 1940. Contains maps and statistical diagrams on the history of Jews in Germany.

24. How prosperous were Jews in Hungary before World War II?

Between the two World Wars Jews represented about 6% of the population of Hungary. However, they owned over half the house property in Budapest and a quarter of the total national assets. Like Germany, Austria, Poland, the Free City of Danzig, and some other eastern European lands, Hungary had undergone a hyper-inflation after World War I, during which Jews, with their international financial connections, had been able to buy a great deal of assets from their impoverished host populations. Reference: Marschalko, The World Conquerors, p121.

25. During the 1918-1945 period was hostility to Jews in Europe confined to Germany?

As early as 1922 Hungary had laws to keep its universities and professions from having a gross over representation of Jews. Legal measures and popular movements also opposed Jewish influences in Poland and Romania in particular.

26. What factors caused great hostility to Jews in central and eastern Europe during the 1920's and 1930's?

Europeans, especially those of the middle classes, were terrorized by what had happened in Russia after 1917 to untold millions of victims of a government they considered primarily controlled and created by Jews. Further bitterness toward Jews was caused by the fact that Jews with international financial connections were able to buy huge amounts of real property in lands where inflation had reduced the value of currency to nearly nothing, notably in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.

27. What did Winston Churchill write about the position of the Jews in Communist Russia in 1920?

In an article published in the Illustrated Sunday Herald (London) on 8 February 1920, Churchill vividly summarized Jewish power in postrevolutionary Russia by saying that the Jews had "gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of the enormous empire." He continued with the assertion that Jews had played a great role in the creation of Bolshevism and bringing about of the "Russian" Revolution. Reference:

WG Simpson, Which Way Western Man?, Washington, 1978, p663.

28. Name five prominent early Communists who were of Jewish origin?

A number of early theorists of Communism were of Jewish origin, including the most notable of all, Karl Marx (1818-1883). After the seizure of power by the Communists in 1917 in Russia the government was largely dominated by persons of Jewish origin. Lev Trotzky (Bronstein?), Karl Radek (Sobelsohn) and Zinoviev (Apfelbaum) are example of persons of Jewish origin in the early Communist government of Russia. In other lands persons of Jewish origin were also prominent in Communist movements, such as Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919) in Germany and Bela Kun in Hungary. Reference: Frank L. Briton, Behind Communism.

29. What attitudes did Abraham Lincoln and the National Socialists have in common with regard to the racial problems of their respective countries?

On a number of occasions President Lincoln envisaged the necessity of colonization of Negroes to prevent difficulties which would result from the continued living together of the two major races of the United States. A certain success had already been achieved in this regard, represented by the Republic of Liberia, founded in 1847. A similar solution was sought by the National Socialists as a final solution in the case of the Jews in Europe. Specifically, for some years the National Socialists contemplated Madagascar as a potential homeland for European Jews. References: W. Staiglich, Der Auschwitz Myhtos, pp35-36. W.G. Simpson, Which Way Western Man?, Washington, 1978, pp561-562.

30. What publications sponsored by a famous American industrialist were of special interest to the National Socialists?

Henry Ford (1863-1947) made an heroic but unsuccessful attempt to stop the senseless, destructive First World War. After the war he published a newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, which contained articles on the Jewish involvement in international finance, corruption of cultural life in the United States, frauds in business, etc. The articles which had appeared in The Dearborn Independent were subsequently reprinted in a four-volume collection entitled The International Jew / The World's Foremost Problem (1920-1922). Although over 60 years old, these volumes still are interesting reading. The National Socialists, including Hitler himself, were strongly influenced by The International Jew, which was translated into numerous languages. Reference: J. and S. Pool, Who Financed Hitler, London, 1978, pp85-130.

31. Where did the term "concentration camp" originate?

The word "reconcentrados" was already used by 1896 in the case of persons confined to concentration camps in Cuba. During the Boer war the British held 116,572 persons in their concentration camps, of whom approximately one-fourth died of starvation, typhus, and exposure. The English word was taken over into German in the form "Konzentrationslager." In the United States, however, persons of Japanese extraction were interned beginning in 1942 in camps designated by the euphemism "relocation camps." Reference: Journal of Historical Review, I, pp235-246.

32. What objectives did the National Socialists have in common with the Zionists?

The National Socialists government was convinced that both Europeans and Jews would be better off if the latter were to leave Europe and settle in a Jewish homeland. This idea had been popularized by Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), whose Der Judenstaat was published in 1896. So eager were the National Socialists to solve the Jewish problem in this manner that they gave Jews considerable economic incentives for emigrating to Palestine, while restricting their economic activities in Germany itself. As late as 1944 the German navy was still trying to aid Jewish emigrants by guarding their ships. Reference: Instauration, January 1983, pp13-14. W. Staglich, Der Auschwitz Myhtos, pp34-36.

33. What was the Jewish population at Palestine around 1939 and what is the Jewish population of the corresponding area now?

The heavy Jewish migration into Palestine is reflected in census data. The Jewish population of Palestine rose from 83,790 in 1922 to 445,457 in 1939, in the latter year 30% of the total population. By 1946 this number had risen to 678,000. During the period 1948-1960 alone, migration to the newly formed Jewish state exceeded a million, while during the period 1948-1971 the total was one and a half million, the earlier migration being largely from Europe. The heavy emigration of Jews from the German-speaking areas of Europe to Palestine and the United States during the 1930's is also reflected in the German census of 17 May 1939. This census (which now included the territory of the old Reich, Austria and the Sudetenland) enumerated 330,000 persons of the Jewish race, representing a decline of 391,000 Jews in these areas since 1933, in addition, the German census of 1939 enumerated 72,738 persons with two Jewish grandparents and 42,811 with one Jewish grandparent. From 1931 to 1941, 161,262 immigrant Jewish aliens were admitted to the United States. The present population of the Jewish state is over three million, of which about 85% is Jewish. Heavy Jewish migration also took place to the United States and other parts of the world after 1945. Reference: Year-by-year statistics on the population of Palestine for the period 1922-1940 are given in G.W. Robnett, Zionist Rape of the Holy Land, Pasadena, 1976, p47. A summary of the German census data is given in Otmar von Verschuer, Leitfaden der Rassenhygiene, 1944 edition, p139. p47.

34. What measures did world Jewry undertale against Germany as early as 1933?

An international boycott of German goods was undertaken, which was especially effective in some areas, since the retail trade in many countries was and is in Jewish hands to a considerable extent. Reference: J. Beauty, The Iron Curtain Over America, pp62 ff. Historische Tatsachen Nr. 10, pp18 ff.

35. Who were some of the most prominent Jews in the Roosevelt Administration and what role did they play with regard to the status of Jews in Europe?

Henry Morgenthau (1891-1967) had been a close friend of Roosevelt and from 1934 to 1945 he served in Roosevelt's cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury, but he was also active in other areas, especially foreign policy. He was author of the Morgenthau Plan, which envisaged the dismantling of German industry after the war and which was initiated by Roosevelt in September 1944. Together with the demand for the unconditional surrender of Germany and its allies announced in January 1943, the Morgenthau Plan undoubtedly had the effect of prolonging the war and hence causing higher mortality not only among Gentile military personnel, but also of increasing Jewish mortality amid the chaotic conditions at the end of the war. Harry Dexter white, a Russian Jew, was Undersecretary of the Treasury and a leader in Communist circles of the Washington area. White is supposed to be the man who actually worked out the Morgenthau Plan. He later saw to it that plates for printing the occupation paper money for Germany got into Soviet hands. Roosevelt also had a host of other Jewish advisors, such as Samuel I. Roseman and Bernard Baruch.

36. What were some of the main provisions of the "Nuremberg Laws" of 1935?

The term "Nuremberg Laws" refers to a law of 15 September 1935, entitled, "Gesetz zum Scutze des deutschen Blutes und der dertschen Ehre" (Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour), and subsequent laws pertaining to this topic. The laws were directed in part against intermarriage and sexual relations between Germans and Jews. Jews were defined as persons with at least three Jewish grandparents or two Jewish grandparents under certain stipulations.

37. Were there any American antecedents for the Numbering Laws?

Many of the states of the United States had laws against miscegenation, that is, marriage or sexual relations between persons of different races, notably the Negro and Caucasian races in this case. Such laws were passed in order to retain the identity and special strengths of the races and to prevent the psychological problems of the children who could not fully identify themselves with one race or the other. Such American laws had been enacted and enforced long before the Nuremberg Laws. They declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court after World War II, perhaps as an overreaction against the policies of National Socialist Germany.

38. What did the May Law promulgated in Russia in 1882 have in common with the Nuremberg Laws?

On 3 May 1882, Czar Alexander III assented to a temporary order concerning the Jews. Like the Nuremberg Laws, the Russian May Law originated in the wake of a renewed nationalistic sentiment, had a tendency to isolate the Jewish population from the host population and had the long-range effect of stimulating a massive emigration, largely to the United States.

39. Did the National Socialists consider the Jews an inferior race?

Baron Otmar von Verschuer, M.D., (1896-1969) may be regarded as one of the chief scientific spokesmen for the racial and eugenic policies of National Socialist Germany. He was a professor at the University of Frankfurt am Main and as of 1944 he was Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Genetics, and Eugenics. Several of his writings have a bearing on the question posed above. In the second volume of the series Forschungen zur Judenfrage (Hamburg, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1937) he published an article on documentary research which can throw light on the biological aspects of the Jewish question (pages 216-222). On page 218 he states: "Our national attitude toward the biological aspect of the Jewish question is thus fully independent of all observations which have to do with advantages or disadvantages of Jews and with their favourable or unfavourable characteristics." In Volume 3 of the series (1938) he published an article simply entitled Rassenbiologie der Juden (Racial Biology of the Jews), pages 137-151. In this article he discusses in detail patterns of insanity, criminal behaviour and physical pathology in Jews. (A valuable bibliography is appended to this article.) In his discussion he points out not only weaknesses of Jews but also their strengths, such as lower incidences of epilepsy, alcoholism, cancer of the uterus, and tuberculosis, as well as their greater adaptability to urban life. In a handbook on genetically determined diseases, Leitfaden der Rassenhygiene (Principles of Eugenics), The second edition of which was published by Georg Thieme Verlag in Leipzig in 1944, a brief discussion of the Jewish question is given on pages 136-141. He reiterates his position by stating that the goal of preservation and improvement of the national racial heritage is "not dependent on considerations of superiority or inferiority of a race which is foreign to us" and that every crossing of a foreign race into a nation "leads to the alteration of the biological bases of the character of this nation and its civilization." We might note, by the way, that laws against miscegenation and laws which provided for eugenic measures are by no means foreign to us Americans, since many of our states had such laws until they were eliminated after World War II, possibly as an overreaction against National Socialism.

40. What was the nature of German scholarly and scientific research on the Jewish question during the National Socialist period?

There was a vast body of research which was published during the National Socialist period. Some of it is of considerable, indeed, well nigh unique value because it is not written with self-serving objectives by Jews themselves and because much of it was written by outstanding scholars and scientists. One of the most important series of scientific studies in this area is the series, Forschungen zur Judenfrage, the first annual volume of which was published in 1937.

Some of the articles deal with the ethnic history of the Jews, some are biographical sketches of such figures as Spinoza, Moses Mendelsohn, Marx, Disraeli, Rathenau, and Einstein, some articles deal with the positions of Jews in European society, while still others deal with biological and cultural characteristics of Jews. On the whole, the tone of the articles in the Forschungen zur Judenfrage is restrained and objective; there is even some praise for Jewish abilities. An article on Goethe's attitudes toward the Jews concludes with the observation that Goethe did not hate Jews and an article on Richard Wagner concedes that Wagner was a man of the nineteenth century and was no more a National Socialist than Nietzsche or Lagarde. Most German research done during the National Socialist period is neglected and by no means readily accessible. Some of it is worthwhile enough to deserve a translation into English.

41. What provoked the so-called Crystal Night (9-10 November 1938) in Germany?

A 17-year-old Jew by the name of Herschel Grynszpan was goaded into murdering an official of the German embassy in Paris. This ignited an already tense situation in Germany. Pogroms resulted in which the windows of many Jewish shops were broken, from which circumstance the phrase "Kristallnacht" arose. It is one of the ironies of World War II that Grynszpan later fell into German hands but was treated so leniently that he survived the war. References: Instauration, December 1982, p16.

42. What were the objectives and the results of the Evian Conference?

Evians is a spa in eastern France which was the site of a conference convened in July 1938, at the initiative of President Roosevelt. Thirty two countries sent representatives to the conference, the principle objective of which was the resettlement of Jews from Germany and Africa.

The results of the conference were minimal, however, since there was considerable resistance to the acceptance of Jews as immigrants from Europe. This provided Hitler the opportunity to taunt the rest of the world for its hypocracy about the Jewish question. Even the U.S.A. was not prepared to relax its stringent immigration quotas. Jewish historians are full of bitter observations on the situation which prevailed in 1938, but the general distrust of and hostility toward Jews throughout the world during the 1930s was vividly demonstrated by the lack of real result of the Evian conference. Later on the British were so intent on keeping Jews out of Palestine that prohibited the landing of the Struma in March 1942. Shortly Thereafter the refugee ship sank with 769 passengers. British warships also sank A French liner, the Patria, with a loss of 2,875 lives on 25 November 1940, near Haifa. References : The Holocaust, published by Ya Vashem in Jerusalem, 1977, pp64-65. Anonymous, The Myth of the Six Million, p44.

43. What resettlement plans did the National Socialists have in mind for Jews and what frustrated these plans?

Madagascar was considered as an area for resettlement of the Jews as early as 1938, and this plan seemed to be feasible after the defeat of France, since Madagascar was a French colony. However, the Vichy government resisted this plan. Wartime shipping difficulties, of course, were also a factor. Madagascar had also been considered by the Zionists themselves. Reference: W. Staglich, Der Auschwitz Mythos.p35.

44. Did Hitler threaten the massive physical extermination of Jews in his oft-cited address to the Reichstag on 30 January 1939?

Hitler's exact words on the occasion were as follows: "Wenn es dem internationen Finanzjudentum innerhalb Europas gelinen sollte, die Volker noch einmal in einen Weltkrieg zu stuerzen, dann wird das Ergebnis nicht die Bolschewisierung der Erde und damit der Sieg des Judentums sein, sondern die Vernichtung der Judischen Rasse in Europa." ("If international Jewry inside and outside of Europe were once more to succeed in plunging the nations into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolsheviation of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but rather the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.") First of all, it must be noted that the statement is a prediction, as indicated by the German future tense auxiliary "wird." The statement does not specify by whom, how, or when such an annihilation would take place, that is, if such a war were to come about as a responsibility of international Jewry. Such a dire prediction must also be understood in its context. As a combat veteran who had been wounded and even temporarily blinded, Hitler was well acquainted with the sufferings brought about by war. He wished to rectify some of the most degrading provisions of the Versailles Treaty by restoration of German defensive capabilities and restoration of some of the territories taken from Germany after 1918, but he and the German nation as a whole were stunned by the English and French declarations of war on 3 September 1939. It has been observed that every one of the millions of Jews who survived the war is evidence against the Extermination Thesis. Reference: W. Staglich, Der Auschwitz Mythos, pp85-89.

45. What events at the very outset of World War II had a tendency to give an especially desperate nature to the course of the subsequent fighting in eastern Europe?

A large number of ethnic Germans lived in various areas of Poland, but especially the area between the two parts of Germany known as the Polish Corridor, which extended to the Baltic Sea. During the first days of the fighting, many of these ethnic Germans were slain by Polish soldiers and civilians. The mass murder was especially great in the city of Bromberg (Polish form: Bydgoszcz). Over 6.000 ethnic Germans were murdered in September 1939. Historians refer to the massacre in Bromberg as the "Bromberg Bloody Sunday" (3 September).

46. What country, which was eventually (1941) occupied entirely by German military forces, had the largest number of Jews in Europe?

Poland, which had an estimated 3,500,000 around 1930. Other Jewish populations at the time were estimated as follows:

USSR 2,725,000 Austria 300,000

Romania 834,000 France 150,000

Germany 564,374 Netherlands 115,000

Czechoslovakia 350,000 Greece 110,000

Great Britain 300,000 Latvia 100,000

We bear in mind, however, that statistics on Jewish populations are inherently open to question and interpretation, since even definitions of Jews vary and since many countries did not identify members of races and religions in their census. Reference: Der Grosse Brickhaus, 1931, Vol. 9, p473.

47. What book was published before America's formal participation in World War II which proposed a truly genocidal fate for a defeated Germany?

Theodore N. Kaufman's Germany Must Perish was published by the Argyle Press in 1941. This book proposed the eradication of the German population by the sterilization of both males and females of reproductive age. Such threats were well-known to leading figures in the German government, who exploited them to stimulate the war effort. The Morgenthau Plan, which was initiated by Roosevelt in September 1944, proposed a somewhat different procedure, namely the starvation of the German population by the destruction of its industry. Such people as Kaufman, Morgenthau, and Roosevelt must have also have a complete disdain for the lives of American soldiers, because the latter were obliged to invade and conquer a Germany whose defensive will had thus been intensified to the point of absolute desperation. Such threats undoubtedly cost many lives of those involved in the war, including especially and ironically the lives of Jews themselves. Reference: Leon de Poncins, State Secrets (1977), pp95-149.

48. To what extent were threats carried out against Germany?

The genocidal intent of the Allies was already manifested in the bombing of poorly defended German cities, such as Dresden (13 February 1945). For years after the war German factories were being dismantled while the German population was on the verge of starvation. Economic stagnation and chaos were also prolonged by the lack of a currency reform. Millions of Germans were murdered during the course of the expulsions from the areas east of the Order-Neisse Line. The Kaufman proposal was not carried out, but the Morgenthau Plan definitely had its effects and influences. By the late 1940's the western Allies finally came to their senses after they could no longer delude themselves about the grim Soviet presence in Europe. Now, nearly four decades later, we Americans must face daily the possibility of a holocaust on our own soil by the USSR, a circumstance brought about in part by the energetic propagation of the Extermination Thesis, which, in turn, was one aspect of the deluge of propaganda against those who had opposed Communism.

49. What identification were Jews in Germany forced to wear in 1941?

They were forced to wear a yellow, six pointed star as of 15 September 1941. Reference: Historische Tatsachen Nr. 10, p26.

50. Were there antecedents for this in another European country?

Yes. The Statute of Jewry passed in England in 1275 compelled Jews to wear a yellow badge, confined them to certain areas and forbade usury and ownership of land to them. Reference: Ramsay, The Nameless War, pp112-155, where the text of the law is given.

51. Were many Jews interned in Germany before the outbreak of the Second World War?

Before September 1939, very few Jews were interned in concentration camps, only a matter of several percent of the Jewish population of Germany. Quite a number of leading Communists of various racial origins were interned. We must bear in mind, however, that much of the Communist and trade union leadership in Germany, as in other lands at that time, was of Jewish origin. Massive internment of Jews did not begin until well after the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR in June 1941. Germany was relatively dilatory in this matter when we compare the quite swift internment of persons of Japanese descent in the United States.

52. What Military and economic factors motivated the German government and its allies to intern Jews quite some time after the beginning of the war?

Jews were not permitted to serve in the German armed forces. Communism was viewed as a Jewish development and it was felt that many Jews would be inclined to sabotage the German war effort. Massive internment of Jews, however, took place only after the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR. The Nuremberg Laws of 1935 had excluded Jews from being citizens of the Reich. For that reason they were considered potentially hostile aliens. Many other belligerent powers, including the United States, interned enemy aliens and even native-born persons thought to be sympathetic to enemy nations. As the war became even more desperate, Jews were put into labour camps in order to maximize economic use of them. Hungarian Jews were not interned until well into 1944, when Hungarian territory was about to be invaded by the Red Army.

53. How did the Morgenthau Plan cost the lives of many Germans, as well as the lives of people of other nations, including Jews and Americans?

In January 1943, some 2-1/2 years before the end of the war in Europe, the demand for the unconditioned surrender of Germany and its allies had been made at the Casablanca Conference. Such an uncompromising position in itself was bound to prolong the conflict and above all make it very costly in term of lives of all those involved. In addition, however, in September 1944, at the Quebec Conference Roosevelt and Churchill initiated a plan presented by Henry Morgenthau to divest Germany of much of its industrial potential and thus bring about the starvation of its population, since the German population had become so large since about 1870 that imports of food, and thus the exports of finished goods, were necessary to sustain it. German political leaders were well aware of such a fate planned for the German people. It is the usual procedure in rationally conducted warfare to try to persuade an enemy that he will be well treated after he lays down his arms in order to shorten the conflict and make it less costly even for the victors. One might almost assume that the Morgenthau Plan was a deliberate, sinister attempt to prolong the war and cause an even greater shedding of Gentile blood, both American and European, on the assumption that greater sacrifices would bring about some sort of political advantage. As the bombing of German transportation facilities became even more intense toward the end of the war, it became ever more difficult to supply the inmates of concentration and labour camps with food and medicine, not to mention the psychological atmosphere that was thus created. Under such circumstances the mortality in the camps increased markedly, including, ironically, Jewish mortality. Reference: L. de Poncins, State Secrets, pp95-149. J.J. Martin, The Saga of Hog Island, pp190-197. J. Beaty, The Iron Curtain Over America, pp 74 and 78.