[Peace-discuss] 1919 Hitler letter reveals seeds of ethnic cleansing

[David Green]

1919 Hitler letter reveals seeds of ethnic cleansing
by David Samel on June 14, 2011 
  
A momentous historical find has provided insight into the manner in which 
sentiment against a particular ethnicity can grow from the ravings of a deranged 
individual into a frightening national movement with catastrophic consequences. 
A letter authored by Adolf Hitler in 1919 speaks of removal of the Jewish people 
from Germany. While even he surely did not dream at the time that mass 
extermination was feasible, he spoke openly of cleansing his country of an 
element that he considered to be polluting the national character. 

The enormous significance of this document from the youthful Hitler is aptly 
described by Steven A. Ludsin, a former member of the President’s Commission on 
the Holocaust and the original United States Holocaust Memorial Council, in a 
letter published in yesterday’s NY Times:
It shows that warnings existed that when a powerful speaker advocated that the 
Jewish people must be removed from Germany as a matter of national policy, his 
sick ideas should have been taken more seriously. Perhaps in this modern age of 
instant communication we can anticipate the virus of hatred and act faster and 
more effectively. Words have power, and anyone who ignores this may allow 
history to be repeated. The current economic downturn is fertile ground for 
hatred to spread. Let’s be vigilant.
It may start with the ravings of a lowly army corporal whom some find 
charismatic. As Mr. Ludsin notes, that’s when civilized society must intervene. 
If not, the fever might spread, and not only to marginalized sectors of the 
populace that are still considered by the unwary to be no threat. Without 
unequivocal condemnation of early manifestations of racism, the notion of forced 
transfer of an ethnically undesirable population will soon find expression in 
higher places, including prominent government ministers. Emboldened by silence, 
even supposedly liberal ministers may jump on the bandwagon, hoping to curry 
favor with a population that is hurtling toward barbarity. The problem can be 
especially insidious when it occurs in a country believed to be a culturally 
advanced liberal democracy, as was Germany. 

Other red-flag factors include whether religious or cultural leaders call for 
anti-miscegenation measures to protect the purity of one race from mixture of 
blood with the “underclass,” whether there is a long-standing tradition of 
calling for transfer of the ethnically undesirable, and whether there is a prior 
record of success at such transfer, which would only feed the ugly conviction 
that it can be accomplished again. Ninety-two years have now passed since the 
Hitler letter, and 66 years since the end of his nightmarish regime. While the 
Holocaust is a historical event that is receding in the past, we can only thank 
vigilant people and organizations like Mr. Ludsin and the President’s Commission 
on the Holocaust, and presumably the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Abe Foxman and the 
Anti-Defamation League, who surely will be the first to call attention to any 
early warning signs of a recurrence. In the words of Mr. Ludsin, who asks that 
we all join in this effort, we must “anticipate the virus of hatred and act 
faster and more effectively. . . Let’s be vigilant.” Amen!
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