The Brown book of the Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag - On Nazi Terror in Germany - First American ...

The Brown book of the Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag - On Nazi Terror in Germany - First American Edition. New York, 1933

The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag - Prepared by the World Committee for the Victims of German Fascism with an Introduction by Lord Marley - Published by Alfred A. Knopf - First American Edition. New York, 1933. Special edition released on September 28, 1933 - prepublication print. English.

An important publication documenting the transformation of democratic Germany into Nazi Germany, written and published as events unfolded. On the factors that led to the rise of the Nazi Party's power in Germany among the German masses during the 1920s, the elimination of the liberal intelligentsia in Germany carried out under Goebbels' command, the inculcation of the concept "everything Jewish deserves annihilation" among the German elite, a detailed description of the first series of arrests following the Reichstag fire aimed at the League of Intellectuals and anti-Nazi doctors, the confiscation of 10,000 books written by the German elite not in the spirit of Nazism by the Gestapo - how libraries in Germany hid their books from the Nazi authorities, a detailed account of the night of the burning of Jewish books in the Opera Square in Berlin and throughout Germany in May 1933, and the processes leading up to the burning event, the propaganda against "non-German" music conducted by Goebbels who filtered all performances in German theaters and censored "non-German passages", the replacement of history studies with "racial sciences" in German schools while instilling the message: "Our most dangerous enemy is the Jew".

The second part of the book deals with the persecution of Jews and regime opponents - the opening of concentration camps for regime opponents, with most of the described cases occurring shortly before the book's publication. The raids by the "secret police" on homes, and the torture from the moment the victim is taken from their home, the sham "trial" process in which the accused is beaten if he tries to defend himself, imprisonment in basements, torture and executions. This part of the book presents chilling testimony from someone living near one of the Gestapo prisons who witnessed the arrests, sham trials, daily torture and executions of detainees. It also describes the propaganda justifying the terror against Jews by spreading libels that Jewish doctors had been physically harming their patients for years, and the like. The Committee for Victims of Fascism received no less than 536 statements from people who had suffered severe abuse, according to which the victims suffered severe, irreversible injuries, at a time when the victims were forced to kneel and shout "Heil Hitler". A prisoner who refused was beaten unconscious. Those who survived and were released after torture were forced to sign a form stating they were "treated well" before their release. This section contains dozens of testimonies from Jews and "regime opponents" arrested by the Storm Troopers (SA) describing the severe torture they endured. Some testimonies were collected shortly before the book's publication. The Committee details dozens of cases of persecution of Jews listed by name, false accusations, show trials, torture and execution of Jews immediately upon the Nazi Party's seizure of power. It describes how Jews were stripped of all public positions in Germany, the boycott of Jewish businesses, the firing of Jewish editors from German newspapers, the expulsion of Jewish athletes from all sports in Germany, public humiliation of Jews, SS troop raids on synagogues and Jewish businesses with detailed lists of Jews to be arrested, as well as official statements from neighboring countries to which injured Jews fled and their terrible stories, and more.

An appendix to the book lists over 250 cases of murders committed by the Nazis since March 3, 1933, the names of the victims, the location, and the manner in which they were killed.

The book is accompanied by 26 photographs, some disturbing, including photographs of Nazi abuse of Jews and the severe consequences of Nazi terror. According to the Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina, "The Brown Book" is one of the best-selling books of all time.

348 [1] p. Hardcover bound in cloth with illustration of a double swastika. Very good condition.