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Swastika. The Nazi Terror – early publication on the Nazi terror in Germany. New York – 1933

Opening price: $200

Commission: 23%

Sold: $600
04.08.2024 07:00pm

Swastika. The Nazi Terror by James Waterman Wise, published by Harrison Smith and Robert Haas, New York 1933 – First edition, second printing. “All 600,000 Jews of Germany in terror… It is impossible to determine how many Jews were killed” – An early publication on the Nazi terror in Germany in the first months following the strengthening of the Nazi party and Hitler’s rise to power – Published in New York during the harsh events.

Documentation of the Nazi atrocities in Germany as they occurred with Hitler’s rise to power. Description of dozens of cases of boycott, terror and murder committed by the Nazis against Jews on their way to seizing power in Germany and after gaining control of the country.
“The swastika symbolizes hatred of Jews, and with this symbol the new German government headed by Hitler declared an official and unceasing war against 600,000 of its own citizens… Despite the strict censorship reports from Germany today are worrying… An organized campaign against German Jewry embarked upon by the Nazi government”.
After an extensive review of the phenomenon of German antisemitism as manifested from the early 20th century, the author reports on its actual implementation in antisemitic outbreaks in Germany as early as 1932 before Hitler’s rise to power: In January, Jewish university students from Berlin University were injured and evacuated to hospitals due to spontaneous riots, carried on stretchers as the Nazis accompanied them singing “Jewish blood spurts from the knife”. In March, Nazi attacks on synagogues in Düsseldorf, in May a march of three hundred Nazis shouting “Jews to Palestine”, Nazi attacks on Jews during a Jewish funeral procession. In August a bomb was found in a synagogue in Cologne and a 250 year old cemetery was desecrated.

The author continues to describe the intensifying Nazi pogroms from March onward when Hitler rose to power. The author collected countless testimonies published in world press reports and letters, statements and affidavits of the victims themselves. His special correspondent in Berlin, H.R. Knickerbocker, described the brown terror: an unknown
number of Jews were killed. Hundreds of Jews were beaten or tortured. Thousands of Jews fled. The livelihood of thousands of Jews was taken away or denied to them. “All 600,000 Jews of Germany in terror… It is impossible to determine how many Jews were killed”. The author details many specific cases of Jews who were seized, tortured and murdered in cold blood without trial in the first months of 1933 such as: “Nazis attacked the Berlin slaughterhouse yesterday, abused several slaughterers and wounded one. There were also some isolated attacks in the Jewish quarter on Grenadierstrasse… Kindermann, a young Jew from Berlin, was kidnapped by Nazi storm troopers, taken to their home in northern Berlin, where he was beaten until he collapsed. The family did not know where the child was until they received a letter informing them: “Your son is in the morgue”. Kindermann was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Weissensee”, and many other cases.

Moreover, James describes the boycott of Jewish goods in Germany established by a Nazi regulation on 28 March, the dismissal of Jewish doctors and lawyers, the prohibition on Germans purchasing from Jews, the prohibition of employing Jewish journalists in German newspaper editorial offices, the dismissal of Jewish employees from factories, the closure of Jewish factories, and more. The boycott was accompanied by street parades of German crowds carrying antisemitic placards such as: “Forbidden to purchase from Jews”, and so on.

James brings the reaction of countries worldwide in the global press, and in particular the United States where special rallies calling to stop the violence in Germany were held, as well as the reaction of the Christian church whose leaders wrote letters to German Nazi leaders demanding an end to the atrocities, also reporting actions taken by President Roosevelt in an attempt to stop the violence against Jews in Germany.

The author concludes his book by calling on all nations and religions to join the fight against the Nazi swastika:
“The Jews of Germany have borne its first onslaught… They must be stopped, sterner measures demanded, more heroic steps are to be called for. This task is laid upon men of all lands and faiths. I have said the fate of German Jewry is not a Jewish but a world issue. This fate is still questionable. Civilization faces madness in Nazi Germany. Yet we may take fresh heart, if not find consolation, in the knowledge that if history is on the side of Hitler, then history is on the side of Israel”.

128 p. With a handwritten dedication on the protective page dated 1934, ink stamps of the “Hospital Library”. Restored tear on the upper corner of the title page. Good – very good condition

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109. Swastika. The Nazi Terror - early publication on the Nazi terror in Germany. New York - 1933