Never again?

In 1920, not long after the Great War, a little-known agitator gave a speech in Munich on the topic, "Why Are We Anti-Semites?" The speaker concluded that it was important to prevent Germany “from suffering a death by crucifixion."

Of course this agitator became quite well known—it was Adolf Hitler—and we know what his antisemitism led to. Hitler had to know what he was doing with that sickening reference to crucifixion. It echoed the centuries-long slander of the Jews as “Christ killers” and thereby suggested that what “they” did to Jesus they would in time do to pure-blood Germans. It’s a reminder that we should never assume heated rhetoric is hollow and without consequences.

In Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Götz Aly addresses one of the most troubling and enduring questions of the 20th century: how could the German nation kill six million Jews? Hitler’s allusion to the crucifixion aside, Aly doesn’t focus on religious difference. He never considers the representation of the Jews in John or in Luther. Instead, his explanation is rooted in class and ethnic resentment.