A genocide against us is unfathomable and should not be examined with normal academic methods. We are beyond examination. Our suffering is special, mystical, divine. Other genocides are explainable. But we are special.
“It’s probably inevitable — the process of ‘normalizing’ Hitler into just another tyrant, whose words are to be parsed and contextualized,” said Ron Rosenbaum, the author of “Explaining Hitler,” considered one of the definitive examinations of the Nazi dictator’s mind. “Nonetheless, it feels deeply disturbing, especially when Hitler’s image has returned in hate rallies around the world.”
Jewish groups in Germany have been split over the publication. The Central Council of Jews in Germany, which has long warned against further publication of the original work, welcomed the critical edition on Friday as an effort to counter anti-Semitism by placing Hitler’s ideas in historical context. But the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany called for an absolute ban on any new editions.
“For many survivors, a new publication is a fresh slap in the face that damages Germany’s international reputation,” said Rüdiger Mahlo, the German representative of the claims conference. “Such irrational racist slogans should not be spread anywhere, least of all in Germany.”
The introduction to the new edition describes Hitler’s writing as “half-baked, incoherent and difficult to read,” partly because of the many grammatical errors. It goes on to examine how the work laid out the four ideas on which Hitler based his worldview and that later formed the basis of Nazi ideology: race, space, violence and dictatorship.
I suspect most peoples have a similarly strong sense of peoplehood, space, violence and leadership. The Torah certainly outlines these principles for Israel. Jews are to be a people apart and should stay away from the unclean and idolatrous goyim. Jews need their sacred space — the land of Israel. They are commanded by God to commit genocide against the original inhabitants of Israel. And they are to be ruled by a king or by Torah scholars. That’s a dictatorship.
