The international Jew

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First published in the Dearborn Independent 1920

The International Jew: A World Problem (English: The International Jew: The World's Problem ) is an anti-Semitic book by the American entrepreneur Henry Ford , which was published in four volumes in the USA between 1920 and 1922. The publication reached a circulation of 500,000 copies in the USA. Translations appeared in 16 languages ​​- including Germany, Spain, France, Norway, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy, Greece and finally reached Japan and China.

content

American book first edition from 1920, Volume 1
The International Jew: A World Problem , Hammer-Verlag, Leipzig 1922

The four volumes contain the reprint of 91 articles by various authors, including Ford's longtime personal secretary, Ernest G. Liebold , which were first published in 1920 in Ford's own weekly newspaper The Dearborn Independent . None of the articles were authored by Ford himself, but since he was the publisher and editor of the newspaper, it was his responsibility to publish them.

The original structure in four volumes later became a book that was partially adapted by translators to the circumstances in the respective countries:

  • Volume 1: The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem (1920) ( The international Jew - the world's most pressing problem )
  • Volume 2: Jewish Activities in the United States (1921) ( Jewish Activities in the USA )
  • Volume 3: Jewish Influence in American Life (1921) ( Jewish Influence in American Life )
  • Volume 4: Aspects of Jewish Power in the United States (1922) ( Aspects of Jewish Power in the USA )

The book refers, among other things, to the anti-Semitic pamphlet Protocols of the Elders of Zion , which first appeared in Russian in 1903, and promoted its worldwide distribution. As a further element, it added the thesis that Russian Bolshevism was essentially Jewish , and used it for polemics against the American trade unions .

A quote from the book reads: “The international Jewish banker, who has no fatherland, but plays all countries off against each other, and the international Jewish proletariat, who roam from country to country to seek economic conditions that are convenient for them, are behind all problems to find that worry the world nowadays. "

Reception in Germany

In 1922 a German translation by Paul Lehmann was published under the title Der Internationale Jude: Ein Weltproblem in the Leipzig Hammer-Verlag of the anti-Semitic publisher Theodor Fritsch . The edition comprised 350 pages. With the German 26th edition in 1926, the 94th thousand was printed.

Ford's book was a sales success, not only in the nationalist movement and with representatives of the stab in the back legend , but also in the guise of a criticism of the international financial world in the German labor movement . However, there is no evidence that Ford financed the NSDAP in the 1920s . However, on his 75th birthday on July 30, 1938, Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle Order.

Heinrich Himmler wrote in a letter in 1924 that Ford was " one of the most valuable, weighty and ingenious champions ". The Reich Youth Leader Baldur von Schirach also affirmed the influence of reading Ford in his testimony at the Nuremberg Trial :

“The decisive anti-Semitic book I read at the time and the book that influenced my comrades [...] was Henry Ford's book 'The International Jew'. I read it and became an anti-Semite. This book made such a big impression on me and my friends back then because we saw in Henry Ford the representative of success, but also the representative of progressive social policy. "

Quotes from the book on the occasion of a speech on the Day of German Unity on October 3, 2003 by the then CDU Bundestag member Martin Hohmann led to the Hohmann affair and, as a result, to his exclusion from the party .

End of the show

After a defamation suit brought by US attorney Aaron Sapiro , Ford stopped publishing the Dearborn Independent in 1927. Ford had the remaining edition of the book The International Jew destroyed in the USA. Theodor Fritsch refused, however, to take the approximately 10,000 copies of the book in German and Spanish from the market and justified this with economic losses.

literature

  • Jonathan R. Logsdon: Business and the Holocaust - Power, Ignorance, and Anti-Semitism: Henry Ford and His War on Jews , Hanover: The Hanover Historical Review, 1999 Link from Stockmaven .

Web links

Commons : The International Jew  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jeffrey L. Sammons, “Introduction”. In the S. (Ed.), The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The basis of modern anti-Semitism. Forgery. Text and comment . 6th edition. Wallstein, Göttingen 2011, p. 19.
  2. ↑ Henry Ford - Quotes from quotez.net, accessed January 4, 2020.
  3. ↑ Paul Lehmann (1875-1928) , in the DNB, see also Paul Lehmann (1875-1928) , on juden-in-mittelachsen.de.
  4. ↑ 26th edition, 90th to 94th thousand , at DNB
  5. ↑ Christiane Eifert: Antisemit und Autokönig: Henry Ford's autobiography and its German reception in the 1920s Zeithistorische Forschungen , online edition, 6 (2009), no.2
  6. ↑ Alisa Jachnowitsch: "Class struggle and hatred of Jews?" Anti-Semitism in the labor movement in sources and documents . European University Viadrina, 2018. Conference report in: H-Soz-Kult , March 2, 2019
  7. ↑ Gesche Sager: Henry Ford and the Nazis: The Dictator of Detroit Der Spiegel , July 29, 2008
  8. ↑ Due date: July 30, 1863 - Henry Ford is born WDR , as of July 30, 2013
  9. ↑ Quoted from Armin Pfahl-Traughber : The anti-Semitic-anti-Freemason conspiracy myth in the Weimar Republic and in the Nazi state. Edited by Anton Pelinka u. Helmut Reinalter (= Comparative Social History and Political Idea History of the Modern Age, Vol. 9). Vienna: Braumüller 1993, p. 39.See also contribution by Alfred Schobert : Elite Antisemitism in Nazi Continuity ( Memento from July 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ Baldur von Schirach, at the International Military Tribunal Nuremberg , May 23, 1946; quoted According to Pfahl-Traughber: The anti-Semitic-anti-Masonic conspiracy myth (note 4), p. 39.See also ( Memento of July 30, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ Complete speech by Hohmann ( Memento from May 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Tagesschau.de: CDU member calls Jews "perpetrator people" ( Memento from May 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Andrea Livnat: Background information on the Hohmann speech: Henry Ford - car manufacturer and anti-Semite haGalil , November 4, 2003
  14. ^ Victoria S. Woeste: Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech. Stanford UP, Stanford 2012, pp. 300-307.