The Meaning of Hitlerism – The Meaning of Hitlerism, by the History Lecturer Wickham Steed, Published by Nisbet and Co., London, 1934 – First Edition. A Significant Publication Warning of the Rise of Hitler and Nazism at a Very Early Stage. The Copy of British Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, Hartley Shawcross, with His Signature on the First Title Page.
This important publication serves as an early warning about the rise of Hitler and Nazism, their philosophy, and the dangers posed to society if they were to gain power. The book essentially contains the content of lectures delivered by Wickham Steed at King’s College, London, in May 1934, where he analyzed the Nazi doctrine. These lectures, which focused on the origins of fascism, formed the basis of the book. The author published this book following the events of the “Nazi Purge” in June 1934, during which approximately 1200 of Hitler’s associates suspected of disloyalty to the Nazi party and of being “non-Aryan” were slaughtered. The author, Steed, delved into Adolf Hitler’s personality, identifying psychotic behavior in which Hitler, upon entering politics, decided to pass on his persecution mania to others by various means, infecting the German people with his private mental madness: “A morbid temperament, nervous to the point of hysteria, and a fevered imagination led him to portray himself as the heaven-sent savior of his people.” Steed demonstrates how Hitler was practically executing what had been embodied in the doctrines of German race propagandists since the 19th century. He was able to pinpoint the fact that Hitler’s rise to power posed the greatest danger to Western democracies since the dawn of history. At this early stage, Steed also identified the trend of rejecting Christianity by Nazi ideology in an attempt to take its place on the stage of history, and thus foresaw the persecution of the Jews that would occur most severely under the Nazi regime. While Christianity rejected the Jews due to their beliefs and their rejection of their Messiah from Nazareth—a matter that could change according to Christian doctrine—Nazism rejected the Jews due to “purity of blood, ” something that could not change in any constellation.
Additionally, the author predicted Nazi Germany’s invasion of European countries under false declarations of seeking peace by Hitler and his associates, six years before it was actually carried out. He also foresaw the totalitarianism of the racial doctrine that was destined to engulf all of Germany, as defined by Alfred Rosenberg: “Germany, a racial and national state as the central power of the continent and its stronghold, ” and more.
Hartley William Shawcross [1902-2003] was the British Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials against Nazi war criminals. A British barrister and Labour politician, he also served as Britain’s principal delegate to the United Nations immediately after World War II and as Attorney General of England. Shawcross is known for his advocacy outside the courtroom during the trials. In his opening speech at the trial, he addressed the persecution of the Jews: “The final solution of mass murder was already written in Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf, ‘ the Nazi bible… Terror, murder, and persecution of political opponents were only the prelude to the persecution of the Jews…” He detailed the crimes committed by the Nazis against the Jews, starting with the Nuremberg Laws and leading to their dispatch to death camps, outlining the role of each defendant in these horrific actions. Shawcross himself was born in Germany to British parents. In 1945, he was knighted upon his appointment as the United Kingdom’s Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials.
XXXIII, 208 p. Faded spine. good condition
