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Hitler at Fault for More of Our Problems

Book blames Nazis for Islamic anti-Semitism

by
Hadara Graubart
April 22, 2010
Hitler at the opening ceremonies for the 1936 Berlin Olympics.(Getty Images)
Hitler at the opening ceremonies for the 1936 Berlin Olympics.(Getty Images)

Although, as Liel Liebovitz wrote in his article on Hitler as internet meme (a phenomenon that may be a thing of the past, as the production company behind Downfall, the much-spoofed film that sparked the trend, has filed copyright claims and removed most videos from YouTube), “we know—we feel!—that there could never really be another Hitler to terrify and enrage us so purely as the original once had,” more evidence continues to stoke our furies against the one true Führer.

In his recent book Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, Jeffrey Herf claims that “The conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would have been over long ago were it not for the uncompromising, religiously inspired hatred of the Jews that was articulated and given assistance by Nazi propagandists and continued after the war by Islamists of various sorts.” One example comes from a 1942 message broadcast to the Middle East in which Hitler announced: “Your only hope for rescue is the destruction of the Jews before they destroy you!” The transcript for this and 6,000 other broadcasts were held as classified by Washington until 1977, and two years ago Herf became the first scholar to examine them.

Hadara Graubart was formerly a writer and editor for Tablet Magazine.