Sever Plocker's Op-ed: Nazi obsession with Jews: Annihilation as a mission

Originally written in April, 2017

Sever Plocker's Op-ed in Ynet today seems more a survey of what he describes as Professor Alon Confino's historical-cultural analysis appearing in his book, "A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide" than an opinion piece. Certainly a departure from the typical historical conclusion reducing Hitler's obsession to a "unique event in history," or religious/artist reductionist conclusion that the Holocaust was a "mystery" beyond human reason. Still, Confino's conclusion that the War Against the Jews was the result of a German "obsession" brings his audience no closer to an explanation according to History than does the conclusions by many academic historians leaving one to wonder if that conclusion is meant to reassure self or audience.

Academia, even those aware that the history of political antisemitism did not emerge de novo in the early 20th century, but rather in the nineteenth in reaction to the much anticipated-by-Jews, Emancipation. Neither did Jew-hatred first appear in the 18th century with the birth of the nation-state and the French Enlightenment. Judeophobia, to engage Professor Confino on his own terms, began with the emergence of Christianity at the turn of the first-second century. It became "state policy," that is was adopted as doctrine by the newly established Vatican in the late fourth century. The Jewish Problem which Hitler and Germany sought to solve in the twentieth century was, and continues, a Christian "problem" represented by the inexplicable survival of "the Jews" following the arrival of that religion's messiah. How, according to St. Augustine, understand God providing for the survival of Jews and Judaism, described in Paul and the four canonical gospels as first rejecting, and then demanding the crucifixion of Jesus? If "the Jews" are, in fact, guilty as charged (a foundational "fact" in Christian scripture; if Gentile Christianity now represented God's "chosen," the New over the old Israel: If, as Augustine struggled, Christian reading of Jewish scripture was true and not "forged" then how explain God providing for Jewish survival? 

It is this conundrum that is Christianity's Jewish Problem: the survival of "the Jews".

Nazi obsession with Jews: Annihilation as a mission

Op-ed: According to Prof. Alon Confino’s historical-cultural analysis, the extermination of the entire Jewish people was the Nazis’ supreme goal in World War II. They came to save the world from the Jews and from Judaism, and this annihilation was an imperative condition for the establishment of the German Reich.

Sever Plocker|Published:  24.04.17 , 08:51

Nazis and other Germans, Prof. Alon Confino writes in his book, "A World Without Jews: The Nazi Imagination from Persecution to Genocide" (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), labeled the Jews as one group which was responsible for all the problems in the world, from the dawn of humanity to the modern age.

The Jews were described as inherently evil, as the first modern Satan, as the embodiment of historical evil and as an eternal enemy—the enemy—of the German people. The Jews, Judaism and the Jewish civilization were described in the Nazi culture as a world that must be destroyed to the ground, so that the new German civilization could be created on its ruins.

The Jews, according to the Nazis, held the key to the revival of the new Nazi world: A world without Jews. It was necessary, therefore, to exterminate them. The annihilation of the Jews was described in the Nazi fantasy as a genesis, in which the Jewish world would be destroyed and make room for the Nazi world, Confino writes.

As the danger of being defeated in the war became more evident, wiping the Jews off the face of the earth became more and more pressing for the Germans. The Jews, Confino reiterates throughout his book, were at the center of the Nazi life—their annihilation was supposed to provide meaning to the Nazi empire.

According to Confino’s historical-cultural analysis, the Holocaust cannot be explained as just another one of the events of the horrible war, or as an outcome of its circumstances. The Nazi urgency to murder all the Jews but not the members of other persecuted groups, Confino writes, is explained by the Jews’ consistent apocalyptic role in the Nazi imagination. In other words, and Prof. Confino says it brilliantly numerous times, the annihilation of the entire Jewish people was the Nazis’ supreme goal in World War II. They came to save the world from the Jews and from Judaism, regardless of the price of this “salvation.” It was their mission in this world.

Providence, as Adolf Hitler told the Reichstag in December 1941, when he declared war on the United States, consigned to the German people the leadership of the battle which would shape the world’s image in the following 1,000 years—the uncompromising battle against the Jews and Judaism. This perception was not limited to the members of the Nazi party: Many Germans participated in the persecution of Jews, Confino states, while many others—basically, the entire German society—did not oppose the Nazi regime’s anti-Jewish initiatives. Not a single group in the German society rejected the Nazi offensive on the Jews and on Judaism—for the information of Israelis and Jews in Berlin.

Alon Confino, a Jerusalem resident and professor of history at Ben-Gurion University and at the University of Virginia, originally published his book in English. His research drew critical acclaim and a lot of professional appreciation, but it created quite a lot of discomfort as well.

In the past generation, the research of the history of Nazism has been dominated by schools of thought that deny the Holocaust’s historic-civilizationist uniqueness and see it as one component in the series of tragedies of the 20th century. The denial of the Holocaust’s uniqueness is also reflected in modern politics: In a Twitter post, for example, Radical left-wing French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon likened the ban on the Muslim burkini to the persecution of French Jews during the Holocaust.

The readers of Confino’s book, however, are exposed to a different historic truth: The annihilation of the Jews was the leading axis of the Nazi vision.

The Nazis saw the Jews as the world’s Satan, Confino writes, which is why they made the annihilation of the Jews their top priority and even more than that. The Holocaust alone provided meaning to the Nazi Armageddon. The idea of exterminating the Jews was, therefore, not a Nazi version of European anti-Semitism or part of the policy of oppressing populations in occupied countries. It was, according to Confino, a cornerstone, a redemption commandment and an imperative condition for the establishment of the German Reich.

The Israeli public would benefit from discussions of Confino’s book and of the Holocaust research in general on the electronic media during Holocaust Remembrance Day, instead of more photographed personal stories. And if not instead, then at least in addition. On Holocaust Remembrance Day, we must not only cry—we must also learn.

Introduction: Christian Insecurity and its Jewish Problem

"...the very presence of the Jewish people in the world ... puts a great question against Christian belief in a new covenant made through Christ. The presence of this question, often buried deep in the Christian mind, could not fail to cause profound and gnawing anxiety. Anxiety usually leads to hostility." (Episcopal minister Professor William Nicholls, Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate)

"...we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary; and other sources about Jesus do not exist." (Rudolf Karl Bultmann, Lutheran theologian, professor of New Testament studies)

Scripture and anti-Judaism

          The four gospels familiar today were selected soon after the Roman Empire adopted Christianity to replace paganism as official religion in the fourth century, At about this time the Vatican selected the four gospels familiar today as canon from among many and diverse gospels existing at the time. The basis for their selection may have reflected their general agreement regarding Jesus or possibly due to their origins in four important communities. As the four come down to us today they are in general agreement in describing the trial and execution of Jesus, and in blaming "the Jews" instead of the Romans responsible for Jesus' death. As regards their tone regarding Jesus' fate two stand out as particularly graphic and strident. "Mathew" not only blames “the Jews” but depicts then as having accepted blame not only for Jews present at the trial, or even alive at that time, but attributing blame upon all Jews and for all time: “His blood is on us, and on our children.” Over the centuries this became known as the Blood Curse, generally recognized as responsible for the deaths of millions of Jews over the centuries before the Holocaust.
          As with "Matthew" the “John” gospel fans the flames of Judeophobia and persecution beyond its emotionally-charged description of the trial and crucifixion. In "John" Jesus is presented as describing Jews as “children of your father the devil." Particularly in the hyper-superstitious Middle Ages, a period of uncertainty brought on by rapid social change, crop-damaging weather and the Black Plague the identification of Jews with Satan, another force beyond their control, inspired frightening stereotypes of Jews which, one thousand years later, would be employed by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust. Those and other such scripture-inspired anti-Jewish stereotypes remain today as cultural stereotypes, a continuing threat to Jews across Christendom.
          At about the time the four gospels were adopted as canon Augustine wrote his seminal Kingdom of God which many credit as providing for Jewish survival alongside Christianity. Not that he was overly concerned regarding the welfare of Jews. Augustine was aware that Christianity was entirely dependent on a "Christian" reading of those scriptures as "prophetic" regarding the coming of Jesus as messiah. Augustine conditionally insisted that Jews be allowed to live amidst Christians as witness to Jesus as messiah. By surviving they would preserve their scriptures which, he felt, would support Christian claims for Jesus messiahship. As he wrote in Kingdom of God, his intention was to prove "that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ.” Augustine also suggested that Jews en-masse would eventually convert to Christianity thereby providing absolute proof that Jesus was the prophesied messiah and son of God.
          Why the concern over early Christian reading and understanding of Jewish scripture regarding prophesy for the future appearance of Jesus? Why would Augustine, giant of Christian theology and philosophy, have even raised the suggestion that the Christian reading of Jewish scripture might have been “forged”?

The Problem of Christ’s Second Coming

          Across the decades of his ministry Paul, “father of Christianity,” assured his communities of faith that Jesus would return within their lifetime. This was important since with Jesus return the promises Paul made for the new religion would by fulfilled. Among those promises was “eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." At one point Paul promised that the Parousia was so close that the faithful should arrange their earthly affairs. As assurances passed unfilled Paul was forced to apologize:

“I beg you, my friends, not to be so easily confused in your thinking or upset by the claim that the Day of the Lord has come. Perhaps it is thought that we [Paul] said this while prophesying or preaching, or that we wrote it in a letter. Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For the Day will not come until the final Rebellion takes place and the Wicked One appears, who is destined to hell.”

          Over the centuries Paul’s “prophesying or preaching” and the unfulfilled promises inspired periods of intense anticipation regarding Jesus' return at times considered to correspond with his birth and death. In the Middle Ages the years 1000 and 1033 (corresponding to dates attributed to the birth and death of Jesus) brought with them, according to the medieval monk Rodolfus Glaber, "the growth of heresy in Italy, the success of false miracles wrought by evil spirits, and another three years of famine and cannibalism… charismatic preachers traveled from town to town, preaching that before the Second Coming would occur that all unbelievers must first be removed from society.”
          Among those "unbelievers" were, most notably, "the Jews". Possibly due to heightened emotionality, or in fulfillment of ridding society of "all unbelievers," during the decades before the year 1000, a new and deadly phenomenon swept Europe. Jews were collected in town centers and burned alive. The word holocaust derives from the words holos meaning whole, and kaustos meaning burned. One-thousand years before the twentieth century Europe had already set the precedent for the Holocaust, its Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.

The Search for the Historical Jesus

          The most obvious indication of Christian insecurity is the academic need to prove the physical existence of Jesus, what today is known as the Search for the Historical Jesus. What inspires this need to prove Jesus walked the earth two thousand years ago? At least as far back as the late fourth century Augustine recognized that the only "evidence" for Jesus was provided by the four gospels and Paul's letters. Outside of Christian scripture there existed no independent and contemporary reference to Jesus, person or mission, alive in first century Judea. Augustine sought to put Jesus firmly in history, the Christian reading of Jewish Scripture as legitimate. He maintained that Christianity had "not forged the prophecies about Christ.” The only way to preserve Jewish Scripture as evidence was through the survival of Jews and their religion. A secondary benefit of providing for Jewish survival was Augustine's expectation that the Jewish people would eventually accept Jesus as their hoped for messiah, and convert. Jewish survival also describes Augustine's Witness theory which was adopted soon after as doctrine by the Vatican, the reason Jews were allowed to survive even as the church hunted down heresies to the faith, destroyed their gospels, and murdered their adherents.
           But the specter of doubt was not so easily dispelled by Augustine's reasoning. Doubt was certainly what motivated that which, in the 18th century, emerged as the need to prove Jesus had lived as a man; that material evidence would prove his existence. And two centuries of sometimes intense effort has yet to provide any historical and confirmable evidence for Jesus corporeality. Most authorities refer to the gospels as legendary, as a form of literature. And even Paul, a person for whom historical evidence does exist, only claimed to encounter the central figure of Christianity in a vision.

Among those who early challenged the gospels as “historical” was Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. He produced a version of the Bible purged of "miracles," considering their authors “untrustworthy correspondents,” their creations as “the corruption of schismatizing followers.”
          In 1906 Albert Schweitzer, a Lutheran theologian and missionary wrote Von Riemarus su Vrede, which was translated into English as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. That volume is considered the beginning of the modern “scientific” Search for the Historical Jesus. Many works by serious scholars followed, and most share a common fault: nearly all started with the assumption that that which they set out to prove, the existence of Jesus, already existed!
          According to the Science Council, scientific investigation begins with “objective investigation.” Assuming the investigation's outcome even before the investigation, as most authors of the Search, hardly satisfies that condition. The problem is clearly the distinction between religious acceptance of Jesus son of God on faith and the necessary skepticism of science reliant on material evidence to support the assumption. Faith is most immediately realized in accepting the inerrancy of Scripture as the "inerrant Word of God." Faith needs neither evidence or justification. As Augustine raised doubt by suggesting the possibility of a misreading of Jewish Scripture, so also does the need for historical evidence in support of a corporeal Jesus describe doubt. Both describe insecurity regarding the foundation of Christian religion.
          Consider as “scientific method” that employed by the Jesus Seminar. The Seminar studied the gospels with the intention of determining which sayings attributed to Jesus in the gospels were actually spoken by him. The Seminar summarized their findings in The Five Gospels, What did Jesus Really say? In their Introduction the authors provide a sound description of the problems facing any serious work of history:

“the alleged verbal inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible.[faces the difficulties that] we do not have original copies of any gospels… The oldest surviving copies of the gospels date from about one hundred and seventy-five years after the death of Jesus, and no two copies are precisely alike… And handmade manuscripts have almost always been ‘corrected’ here and there, often by more than one hand… Even careful copyists make some mistakes, as any proofreader knows. So we will never be able to claim certain knowledge of exactly what the original text of any biblical writing was.”

          The Seminar, usually consisting of 100+ scholars of various disciplines, was clearly not attempting to prove Jesus corporeality. That is explicit in their stated objective: to separate the wheat from the chaff and determine what Jesus actually said. The Seminar concluded that just 18% of gospel sayings attributed to him were actually spoken by him. But even if that agreed 18% does represent actual speech attributable to first century Judea, how conclude that it was spoken by a single individual from among ten million or so Jews alive at that time; to conclude that single individual was Crossan's “itinerant preacher”? (John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant)

Whether or not Jesus lived and died in the early first-century insecurity regarding Christian origins has haunted the scriptural narrative from its earliest beginnings. Paul, Christianity’s parent and primary theologian, only experienced Jesus in a vision. And while some of his writings are "historical" since attributed to his person, his writings regarding Jesus do not establish Jesus' historicity since Paul never experienced Jesus in the flesh so could not provide direct testimony necessary to historical record. Paul introduced another layer of doubt that would haunt the Christian project through the ages: his repeated promises regarding the timing of Jesus' Return, and their serial failure.
          Doubt regarding a historical base for the central figure of Christianity was evident three centuries later in Augustine's effort to prove “that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ." And finally, what more clearly illustrates doubt and insecurity than the need to prove Jesus lived, to establish through scientific method that Jesus existed: The Search for the Historical Jesus.


I take no position regarding the corporeality of Jesus. My sole interest is to describe the sources for Christian insecurity as a major contributor explaining the continuing threat, both from religious and secular sources to Jewish survival. The Holocaust, the systematic and determined murder of six million Jews, was promulgated by a democratically elected western government supported by many, or most European governments. And throughout the massacre described in detail in Western media, non-European western states were content to mutely remain on the sidelines. Not even the United States who self-described as haven for those fleeing tyranny was willing to accept Jews facing certain death.
          In the early 1930’s Germany's Reichstag passed a series of laws establishing the legal precedent for genocide. We live today in a period where populist, racist governments are no longer the exception. And even as most attention is today focused on Muslims and other non-white minorities, antisemitism continues to rise dramatically. Jewish leaders, not previously outspoken, are alarmed, describe antisemitism in Europe and the United States at levels not seen since the 1930's. In itself that should provide warning enough regarding Jewish security in the West.
          The ideal solution to the Jewish Problem described by the Church in the fourth century was the disappearance of "the Jews" by conversion. The secular nation-state has no interest in religious conversion. But the original "solution" to the West's Jewish Problem remains unchanged: the "disappearance of the Jewish people." Under secularism supported by modern technology disappearance as solution to the Jewish Problem has taken on a wholly radical and final meaning.