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Kaufman, Theodore N : GERMANY MUST PERISH!

Newark, N. J. ; Argyle Press, 1941

1st edition. Original Boards in dust jacket. 8vo. [4], 104 pages. 19 cm. Fold out map by Kaufman titled, “Map Showing Possible Dissection of Germany and Apportionment of Its Territory.” This famous polemic “outlines a comprehensive plan for the extinction of the German nation and the total eradication from the earth, of all her people. ” (Back cover) Self-published and at first obscure, this anti-German book became a central strategic piece for infamous Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, who referenced the book throughout World War II claiming it as proof of a Jewish threat to Germany, writing in “his diary August 3, [1941], ‘He really could not have done it better and more advantageously for us if he had written the book to order. I will have this book distributed in millions of copies in Germany, above all on the front, and will write a preface and afterword myself. It will be most instructive for every German man and for every German woman to see what would happen to the German people if, as in November 1918, a sign of weakness were given. ’” (Herf, page 112, “The Jewish Enemy”) However, this mass publication plan never came to fruition, because Goebbels “feared copyright problems. The U.S. was still not in the war, and he worried that the U.S. might retaliate by stripping German works in the U.S. of copyright protection. ” (Bytwerk, 2012) Instead, edited and editorialized selections of the book were published in the widely circulated Nazi pamphlet DAS KRIEGSZIEL DER WELTPLUTOKRATIE alongside claims “that Kaufman was a close associate of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a member of his Brain Trust, and that Roosevelt himself had dictated some of Kaufman’s words. ” (Bytwerk, 2012). Theodore Newman Kaufman (1910 -1986; his middle name sometimes given “Nathan”), “was an American Jewish businessman,” born to German-Jewish immigrant parents, who became “known for his genocidal views on Germans. In 1941, he wrote and published ‘Germany Must Perish!’ which called for the sterilization of the German people and the distribution of the German lands. The text was used extensively in Nazi propaganda, often as a justification for the persecution of Jews and was specifically cited as a reason to round up the Jews of Hanover, Germany….Kaufman was a radical intent on preventing American involvement in future wars in Europe. In 1939, under the auspices of the ‘American Federation of Peace’, an unknown entity of which he was the president and probably only member, Kaufman produced several publications. One pamphlet….read:‘A possible plea to Congress. ... Have Us All Sterilized! ... If You Plan On Sending Us To A Foreign War ... Spare Us Any Possibility Of Ever Bringing Children Into This World — Into This Country Of Ours!’”It was with his famous fold-out map in “Germany Must Perish,” that Kaufman Germany and Austria showed how Germany and Austria could be dismembered; In those same pages he also advocated the forced mass-sterilization of all German men under 65 and the sterilization of most German women under 45. “This would eliminate 'inbred Germanism,' he proposed, thus solving a great deal of humanity's problems. He also promoted the distribution of Germany's lands among the neighboring countries,” illustrated in his famous map in his book. Indeed, “His effort was spearheaded by the self-publication of the book ‘Germany Must Perish!’ 'Since Germans are the perennial disturbers of the world's peace ... they must be dealt with like any homicidal criminals. But it is unnecessary to put the whole German nation to the sword. It is more humane to sterilize them. The army groups, as organized units, would be the easiest and quickest to deal with. ... The population of Germany, excluding conquered and annexed territories, is about 70,000,000, almost equally divided between male and female. To achieve the purpose of German extinction it would be necessary to only sterilize some 48,000,000 -- a figure which excludes, because of their limited power to procreate, males over 60 years of age, and females over 45. ...Complete sterilization of both sexes, and not only one, is to be considered necessary in view of the present German doctrine that so much as one drop of true German blood constitutes a German.’.... Kaufman's book…gained attention in Nazi Germany, where propagandists used it as evidence of an international Jewish plan to destroy the German people. On July 24, 1941, the Nazi Party's newspaper, Völkischer Beobachter, published a front-page article on the book titled: 'The Product of Criminal Jewish Sadism: Roosevelt Demands the Sterilization of the German People.' The newspaper alleged that Kaufman was a close ally of Samuel Irving Rosenman, an advisor to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and that: 'Given the close relationship of the writer to the White House, this monstrous war program can be seen as a synthesis of genuine Talmudic hatred and Roosevelt's views on foreign policy.' At the time, the German leadership was engaged in a propaganda campaign designed to rally popular support for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Antisemitism in general, and Kaufman's ideas in particular, became a focus of this campaign.Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels read the book in early August and immediately grasped its value, writing in his diary: 'This Jew did a real service for the enemy [German] side. Had he written this book for us, he could not have made it any better.' Under Goebbels' direction, Germany Must Perish! continued to receive significant media attention in Germany. Portions of the book were read on national radio, and Goebbels ordered the printing of five million copies of a pamphlet that summarized Kaufman's ideas.”As an example, “Kaufman was condemned on the August 1942 edition of the Nazi wall newspaper ‘Parole der Woche’ [see photo] Nazi propaganda often used Kaufman's pamphlet as a justification for the persecution of Jews. When the Nazis required German Jews to wear a yellow badge on their clothing on September 1, 1941, they published a flyer explaining to the German people that those individuals wearing the star were conspiring to implement Kaufman's plan for the destruction of Germany. When the Jews of Hanover were forced from their homes on September 8, 1941, German authorities cited Kaufman's book as one of the reasons….The Nazi propaganda ministry continued to publish pamphlets, posters and flyers on Kaufman's ideas through the end of the war, and also urged newspapers and public speakers to remind Germans of Kaufman's book. Kaufman's last major appearance in Nazi propaganda occurred in late 1944, when a five-page section on him was included in the widely published booklet ‘Never!,’ which described a number of alleged plots to destroy Germany. Randall Bytwerk, an historian of communications at Calvin College, concluded that '[a] German at the time could not have missed encountering' propaganda about Kaufman.” The Nation Magazine (Nov 14, 1942) noted, “Few Americans have ever heard of a prominent fellow-citizen named Kaufmann ... In Germany every child has known of him for a long time. Germans are so well informed about Mr. Kaufmann that the mere mention of his name recalls what he stands for. In one of his recent articles Dr. Goebbels wrote, 'Thanks to the Jew Kaufmann, we Germans know only too well what to expect in case of defeat.'” (Wikipedia) "On 1 September 1941 all Jews remaining in Germany were forced to wear the Yellow Star when in public. In late September 1941, the Nazis released a remarkable mass pamphlet based on a book published in the United States titled 'Germany Must Perish!' The book proposed the partitioning of Germany and the sterilization of its population. The author, Theodore N. Kaufman, was an American Jew of no influence. The pamphlet, titled 'The War Aim of World Plutocracy,' [see photo] included excerpts from Kaufman’s book. In early November 1941, this four-page flyer was released. It justified the Yellow Star by reminding Germans of Kaufman’s pamphlet, which supposedly was the common goal of 'World Jewry.' Howard K. Smith’s 1942 book Last Train from Berlin (p. 197) states that every German got copies of the pamphlet along with the monthly ration card" (Calvin College German Propaganda Archive, 2022). Includes bibliographical references on page 104. SUBJECT(S): World War, 1939-1945. Guerre mondiale, 1939-1945. Politics and government National socialism -- Foreign public opinion, American. Pangermanism. National characteristics, German. Germans -- Foreign countries. -- Reparations. Reconstruction (1939-1951) -- Germany. Allemagne -- Politique et gouvernement. In 25 years this is only the 3rd copy of the 1st edition, in hardback, we have ever seen, and only the second in a dust jacket. The 96 page paperback second edition, though scarce, is far more common. Later reprints of American Neo-Nazi groups were distributed to "prove" Goebel's claims about the Jewish conspiracy against Germany. (More at https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/kriegsziel.htm; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany_Must_Perish!) OCLC: 3619129. Dust Jacket in about very good condition with light edge wear, protected in mylar cover. Light shelf wear. Some discoloration to end pages Binding is tight. Text block is fresh and clean. Very good + condition in about Very Good Jacket. Rare and important (HOLO2-109-62-AELXCC+)

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