Review of David Cesarani’s “Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews, 1933–49” — Part Three of Five
Ernst vom Rath (right) and his Jewish assassin Herschel Grynszpan
“On the explicit order of the very highest authority setting fire to Jewish shops or similar actions may not occur under any circumstances.” Rudolf Hess, November, 1938.
The Complexities of Judenpolitik, 1933–1939, Continued.
Until 1935 the security police (SD) “had only a minor interest in Jewish affairs and had no specific department dealing with the Jews.” Its focus only shifted to this domain in order to monitor public opinion on the Jews with the aim of preventing inter-ethnic violence. One 1935 report noted that because a Jewish “re-conquest of the economy” appeared imminent, further legislation was probably required to check such an eventuality and avoid public anger. After the Gestapo reported on East Prussia where “the number of cases where Jews sexually abused Aryan girls is also on the rise,” it remarked that local and police officials were struggling to keep popular anger and “defensive measures” within the law.
Although Cesarani doesn’t discuss the matter, at the heart of this increasing friction was the age-old tenacity displayed by Jewish populations even when faced with deep unpopularity. Raised— indeed indoctrinated — with the notion that they are resented by the surrounding population, Jews have proven adept at clinging to a host population even in extremely adverse conditions. Jews have also proven extremely capable of forming counter-strategies in which they can maintain or expand influence in such situations. For this reason the forced expulsion features to a significantly greater degree in Jewish history than the exodus. Read more
Review of David Cesarani’s “Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews, 1933–49” — Part Two of Five
“Germans were not being asked to hate Jews; they were being asked to love other Germans. … It would be a mistake to equate Nazi values with hate.”
David Cesarani
The Complexities of Judenpolitik, 1933–1939
Although David Cesarani’s book is divided into eight chapters, it is best reviewed by dividing it in two sections: the author’s treatment of the development of Jewish policy by the National Socialist government before the war, and their development of Jewish policy following the outbreak of hostilities with Britain and France in 1939. The separation of the two is essential.[1] Throughout history, during times of war governments and heads of state have made significant changes or accelerations in their policies towards minorities, particularly ethnic and religious minorities with suspect loyalties. A major weakness in mainstream historiography on the Third Reich, particularly that authored by Jewish historians, is the refusal to make this concession. Instead, Jewish-authored narratives of Jewish casualties suffered in wartime overwhelmingly trace the sum total of deaths to earlier laws, edicts or policies in which very different circumstances prevailed, and in which no future outcomes were pre-ordained. By doing so, these “histories” become essentially anti-historical.
For over a decade I have been fascinated by the development of National Socialist Judenpolitik between 1933 and 1939. Indeed, I find the period infinitely more interesting than anything that occurred during the war years. The world then, in terms of government, diplomacy, and the global economy, was actually not that different from today. What careful study of this period offers is a unique opportunity to peer into the attempts of a modern state, with modern obligations and responsibilities, to reckon with the question of Jewish influence. It is therefore essential that those with an interest in this question familiarize themselves with the political and economic ramifications of attempting to deal with it. “Holocaust education” may therefore be of some use after all, although quite different from that envisaged by our educators.
David Cesarani was of course one of the foremost of these educators, yet he begins Final Solution with some frank admissions about the Holocaust trope he so relentlessly promoted. In one of many tactical retreats, he admits that histories of World War II have been pushed on the mass public as a part of a network of “extraneous agendas” which aim, among other things, at bolstering multiculturalism and constructing “an inclusive national identity.” Most of these histories “lazily draw on an outdated body of research, while others … downplay inconvenient aspects of the newer findings.” The inaccuracies, false memories, and downright lies of many self-professed “Holocaust survivors” “routinely trump the dissemination of scholarship.” The Holocaust is more a “cultural construction rather than the historical events to which it is assumed to refer.” Cesarani even argues that the term ‘Holocaust’ itself should be abandoned since it is “well past its sell-by date,” and if nothing else, its “politicization” is a “good enough reason to retire it.” The author admits the failings of a “standardized version [of Jewish deaths during World War II], to which I have myself contributed.” Read more
Review of “Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews, 1933–49” — Part One of Five
“There is a yawning gulf between popular understanding of this history and current scholarship on the subject. …
This divergence has become acute since the 1990s.”
Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews, 1933–49
David Cesarani
London: Macmillan
A Portrait of the Author
In October 2015 Jewish historiography lost one of its more enigmatic practitioners when David Cesarani died of spinal cancer, aged 58, just a few months after initial diagnosis. I met Cesarani a handful of times at academic and social gatherings on both sides of the Atlantic during the 2009–2013 period, and I don’t think I’ve met a Hebrew before or since who embodied the physical and behavioral attributes of Jewishness quite as well as the late professor. Ignoring his caricature-like appearance, which once led a scorned David Irving to label him “Ratface,” Cesarani was every inch the diminutive chatterbox; a veritable bundle of verbal and intellectual intensity. He was possessed of a certain low charm, and was a perfect specimen of the shtetl comedian. When making wise-cracks he would stoop his head forward, rolling his shoulders like so many members of his race. Whether the traits were affected, or part of some bizarre genetic make-up, I could never quite decide. He was evidently persuasive, however, and strangely impressive to others. On several occasions I observed at close hand how collectives of enamoured students and faculty would warmly refer to him as “Caesar,” in a perfect example of the “Jewish guru” phenomenon.
Yet for all his bravado and undeniable gift for showmanship, he lectured in a slow, plodding and measured manner. He was more interesting in lectures than conversations, and I found him more comfortable speaking to groups rather than individuals. In the few brief private conversations I had with him on Jewish history and the “Holocaust” he appeared ill at ease; his sharp wit and excellent memory apparently deserting him. Perhaps it was something to do with the coldness with which I greeted his glib responses to my more searching questions. More likely, the slow and almost menacing grin that spread across his face at some of my enquiries was a sign of his awareness that he was in the presence of a “knowing” non-Jew; or in their vernacular, an “anti-Semite.” I would smile back, of course, and we would continue the conversation, verbally circling each other, saying a great deal and yet speaking very little at all. He was a capable, and oddly entertaining, verbal opponent. Read more
Martyr with a Machine-Gun: How Liberal Piety Facilitates Muslim Pathology
If you pour dirty water into clean water, what happens? It’s remarkable: by a process too subtle for knuckle-dragging racists to understand, the dirty water becomes clean. In fact, the more dirty water you pour, the better the process works. Hence the slogan recently adopted by Greenpeace for the sparkling waters of the Lake District: “REFUSE WELCOME!”
I’m talking nonsense, of course. Greenpeace would never support the dumping of filth into beautiful lakes like Windermere and Ullswater. Greenpeace is full of liberals and liberals don’t believe in polluting healthy ecosystems. Instead, they believe in polluting healthy societies. Here’s a list of pathologies that liberals have wrung their hands over in recent years: mass murder, rape-gangs, dead cartoonists, honour killings, female genital mutilation and grope-festivals. Cousin-marriage and exotic diseases should be on the list too, but although they’re definitely serious problems, liberals prefer to ignore their existence.
Death to Blasphemers
Ignored or lamented, these pathologies only exist in the modern West because of mass immigration. And it wasn’t hard to foresee that Third-World immigrants would bring the Third World with them. It’s as though liberals have pumped oil into a flourishing lake and then discovered, with horror and consternation, that the lake is now polluted and dying. This particularly applies to the question of free speech. The Charlie Hebdo massacre was a deeply traumatic event for the Guardian and its readers. How could such a thing happen in the land of Voltaire? Read more
Comment on White genocide/White dispossession
I am aware of the troubling issues surrounding the ongoing White dispossession in the USA and EU. I also understand Bob Whitaker’s concern about my/AFP suggestion to drop the expression “White genocide” and replace it with “White dispossession” instead. I am also saddened at Mr. Whitaker’s disapproval with our current support of Donald Trump’s campaign.
I did indicate to HuffPo that the expression “White genocide” sounds too strong. This is because for many people ‘genocide’ connotes an organized campaign of murder rather than the gradual replacement and disempowerment which is actually occurring. It is unquestionably true that the current process will indeed result in White genocide in the long run as Whites become an ever decreasing percentage of the population. This genocidal process is being facilitated by the fact that Whites are persecuted if they publicize any sense of White identity and interests. It is also true that miscegenation rates have risen in recent decades, and these trends will likely increase in the future if current trends continue and as Whites become an embattled, hated minority. This is genocide by any reasonable definition.
The prospect of White genocide is staring us in the face and motivates our actions, and this vision also motivates our enemies for whom a dwindling, disempowered White population holds infinite appeal. But as a political party, we have to sell our ideas to the public, and this is a non-starter for most people. They look around and see White politicians with great power (e.g., all of the current presidential candidates and very large majorities in both Houses of Congress), and they see that there are many Whites among corporate and professional leaders. Whites are still very much part of the establishment. We don’t see White people being marched off to concentration camps. Read more
Donald Trump and Jeremy Corbyn: Fighting the Jewish Establishment
It is hard to think of two politicians further apart than Britain’s Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump. Corbyn is a Marxist class warrior steeped in identity politics while Trump is, well, Trump.
The similarity is in who they have managed to antagonise. For both have incurred the wrath of the media through the perception that they are not totally beholden to Jewish political priorities.
Since the moment Jeremy Corbyn became leader of the opposition in Britain in September, he has undergone a media demonization that is surely unprecedented in its intensity and duration. Like phosphorous bombs on Gaza, the abuse rains down on him from all points on the compass, day after day. It is hard to keep up with all the accusations but broadly, Corbyn is accused of harbouring or sympathising with “anti-semitism” which is defined as previous association with Islamic preachers, sympathy with the Palestinian cause and his insistence that the Iraq war was a criminal mistake. It has now reached the stage where ‘anti-semitism in the Labour Party’ is a bigger daily story than the impending referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.
All the elements of Jewish communal defence have been mobilized in this campaign but it has been spearheaded by the British Board of Deputies and the main Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle. The Jewish vigilante group, the CST have weighed in.
How did this happen? Corbyn is probably the most left-wing leader Labour has ever had and a believer that borders are a thing of the past. He would flood Britain with refugees tomorrow, if he could. Read more
Also available at Barnes & Noble
Also available at Barnes & Noble
