"The Jewish Problem" - a rare publication on the phenomenon of German anti-Semitism - published during the month of ...

"The Jewish Problem" - a rare publication on the phenomenon of German anti-Semitism - published during the month of Kristallnacht. England, 1938 - First edition

THE JEWISH PROBLEM BY Lewis Golding. A penguin special publication, England, November 1938, first edition - a comprehensive publication on the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in general, and in particular on German anti-Semitism that was rampant in an unprecedented manner at the time the book was printed. It was published in the midst of the days of pogroms and darkness that came upon German Jewry - in the month of Kristallnacht, with extensive reference to the fate of German Jewry, Nazi racial theory and its destructive influence, from the author's residence – England, which was a relatively safe place for Jews that year. Second printing in November, when the first edition was printed, with additions relating to the events of the time - Kristallnacht, and the intensification of the decrees against the Jews. One of the only Jewish publications that came out during the height of the surge of German anti-Semitism prior World War II outbreak, and describing it at the time of the occurrence.

An important publication a few months before the outbreak of the World War which analyzes the phenomenon of anti-Semitism in general, and in Germany in particular. The author reviews the roots of the phenomenon of anti-Semitism from its inception in classical Christian anti-Semitism, and shows how all manifestations of modern Jew-hatred originated in the old hatred of Jews, and that it took on a new form in accordance with the situation of the Jews in the different countries of Europe. In a special chapter titled "Nazi Terrorism", the author most explicitly points out the unprecedented danger of manifestations of anti-Semitism in Germany, at a time when several concentration camps had already been established in its territory, and warns of the real danger that awaits the Jews that is closer than ever. "The concentration camps stand as the first threat at the forefront of the life of any liberal person, " he writes, adding that humanity has reached a point where: "Being a Jewish sympathizer is dangerous, to publicly claim that Jews are not sub-human as the Fuhrer consistently claims is suicide" he also describes the alarming phenomenon of the vandalizing of Jewish shops in Berlin - the Nazis regularly damage Jewish stores, And the SS people stand at the entrance to the shops and prevent shoppers from entering and shopping in them, and elaborates on the restriction on Jewish trade in Germany, and the prohibition on Jews entering German hotels and spas.

Golding also addresses the anticipated danger to Jews in the venomously rampant rhetoric of the anti-Semitic newspaper Der Stürmer, and gives examples from the issues of Der Stürmer itself of how Jew-hatred in it has crossed every boundary, and explains how dangerous it is. The author also highlights the grave situation regarding the application of racial theory through the enactment of anti-Semitic laws that are becoming more difficult by the day: "The prohibition of mixing between Jews and non-Jews is now by law, there is an elaborate code that indicates the exact degrees to which people some of whom are partly Jewish blood may find themselves and are married... A half-Jew is a problem just like a complete Jew."

He also describes the public humiliations that the Jews go through in the various cities of Germany, to awaken the Jews of England to the magnitude of the horrors of the hour. After the Anschluss, Jews were forced to clean filthy entrances with tefillin on their heads, Jewish children returning home from school crying and in pain after being beaten by their friends, who until a short time ago had been friends with them and now became their bitter enemies just because they were Jews.

In another chapter, the author goes on to explain and warn of the dangers of Nazi racial theory and the serious consequences it may bring - as indeed happened shortly after the publication of the book by deportation of the Jews the "inferior people" to the death camps, and also reviews the virulent anti-Semitism that appears in the school books in Nazi Germany, and also warns of the danger to Polish Jewry - shortly before it was occupied by the Nazis.

On the cover is the famous engraving from Hartmann Schedel's book "Jews at the Stake", which was first published in 1493, and incorporated inside the book are several ancient anti-Semitic engravings in addition to contemporary photographs.

The great speed with which the situation of German Jewry worsened at the time of the book's publication led the author to add a paragraph at the end of the chapter dealing with Nazi terrorism. As mentioned above, the book was printed in the month in which Kristallnacht took place, at the end of the same chapter the author added a paragraph written just before the book went into print a few days after Kristallnacht, referring to what was written in the chapter itself: "The above lines were written before the events that followed the shooting by a Polish boy - a seventeen-year-old Jew... After a night of terror organized by the State Department at Wilhelmstrasse, such a night is unparalleled in the history of civilized nations, certain official "reprisals" against German Jews were published by the German government, claiming that these 600,000 Jews were collaborators in the Paris shooting... I just want to make a slight correction in this text. It is stated on page 125 that the German synagogues are still open. This is no longer true, of course. As part of the "reprisal operation, " almost all the synagogues in Germany were set on fire in an organized act of spontaneous arson. Not only was the structure of the synagogues destroyed in a bonfire, what was destroyed with German decency, and in German dignity, will not be easily rebuilt."

In the last chapter dealing with the "Future", the author expresses a wish that the German people return to sanity, although he doubts this in light of the rising waves of anti-Semitism in Germany: "The virus of anti-Semitism has been instilled too deeply into the veins of the German people to be able to get rid of the disease...". and suggests that "my jewish brothers" try as little as possible to make themselves stand out so as not to arouse more and bring on themselves the wrath of the Nazis.

213 [11] p. + [8] photo plates. Stains on spine. Good condition.