Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, especially Vol. I , chapters 2, 3 , and 11, and Vol. II, chapters 2 and 10; Theodor Fritsch, Handbook of the Jewish Question;
Schwartz-Bostunitsch , Jewish Imperialism, Chapter 2.
Folk and the Jewish Question
From Politische Fibel by Hansjoerg Maennel, 16th edition (1940). Translated by Hadding Scott (2009).
Folk (Nation) is a community of human beings with the same descent, language, culture, history, and homeland, and the same political will. The folk is a community of blood and destiny. Shared ancestry is the most important characteristic. We Germans are all related to each other. Other characteristics of a folk, language, culture, history, and homeland are not as important.
Language is the most conspicuous sign of nationality. One recognizes the scion of a folk by his language. It can also happen however that a folk adopts an alien tongue. The Jewish folk for example speaks the language of the respective host nation.
Every true culture is bound to the folk. Art is always rooted in folkdom; it is never “international.” This does not rule out the possibility that certain masterworks acquire supranational importance. On the other hand there are peoples that are capable of no cultural achievement.
Every folk has its own history. Perhaps no people has a past so great and proud as ours. In the convoluted course of German history the German folk was indeed torn asunder again and again into separate states, but, because of the mighty, historic deed of our Leader, united Germandom now will bear a single shared destiny.
Every folk has a special settlement region, a homeland. It is one of the greatest tasks of every nation to adjust its living space to fit its population-count. Germany was for centuries a “folk without space,” while other European peoples ruled great world-empires. Because German living space was too small, hundreds of thousands of the best Germans emigrated to foreign lands, with the result that they were mostly lost to Germandom. We therefore demand living space which corresponds to the accomplishments of the German people upon this earth (cf. the Party Program, Point 3). No people has a greater right to colonies than the German people.
An important characteristic is the common political will. The awareness of belonging together, national consciousness, is of decisive importance for a people. A folk becomes a nation when it is animated by a unitary political will and unifies itself in a durable state. It was through the National-Socialist Revolution that the Germans first became a nation. Adolf Hitler has given to the German people a singular political will; he has thereby made it into a true nation. While the concept “folk” in German history often expressed something contemptible (niederes Volk, “common folk”), National-Socialism has elevated the folk to the central and most important value.
The folk articulates itself organically into tribes (Stämme), clans (Sippen), and families.
The family is the germ-cell of the folk. It is, as the smallest and most natural blood-bond, one of the most important foundations of our entire life. Every human being is decisively influenced in the house of his parents. The Jew knows very well that he can only destroy the peoples among whom he lives if he destroys the family. On the other hand the soundness of our folk is only possible through a purposeful nurturing of the family.
While one understands by “family” only the nearest relatives, one calls the broader circle of blood-relationship the clan. In Germanic prehistory the clan played a major role. It will again acquire greater importance in the folkish state.
The largest hereditary units within a people are the tribes. They define themselves through the same dialect, through the same customs and usages, and through a common homeland. In Germany we are acquainted for example with the tribes of Lower Saxony, Franconia, Swabia, Bavaria, Saxony, Silesia, etc. However great the differences between the particular German tribes may appear, the commonality which binds them all is greater by far. The tribes are only parts of the folk, a community of destiny.
Folk and race are not the same. “Folk” is a political and cultural concept; “race” is a concept of biology and natural science. The folk is a bond of destiny; the race by contrast is not a political community but the eternal spring from which the folk derives its strength.
The folk is the only political community. Everything we do should be for the benefit of the German folk. We struggle and sacrifice for our German folk.
Adolf Hitler: “By fending off the Jew, I fight for the work of the Lord.”
The Jews are a folk, not a race. They are often portrayed as a race in order to emphasize their distinctness. They are a folk completely alien to us Germans, with an entirely different racial composition. The chief racial components of Jewry are the Armenoid (vorderasiatische) and Semitic (orientalische) races. In the course of their history they have mixed themselves with almost all other races of the world.
We National-Socialists are anti-Semites, i.e. adversaries of the Jews. We do not oppose Jewry as a religion. A baptized Jew remains racially and folkishly still a Jew. – We are likewise not gutter anti-Semites (Radau-Antisemiten) nor are we strictly anti-Semites (Nur-Antisemiten). Rather, we are adversaries of the Jews for the following reasons:
1. Jewry is a foreign folk. The Jew is of completely different descent, of alien blood; he has an entirely different political will. A Jew is always in the first place only a Jew, then also perhaps – when it is of benefit to him – “German,” “English,” “French,” etc. – Jewry considers itself the “Chosen People” and strives for world power.
2. The Jew is a parasite, a sponger. He always corrupts the folk in which he dwells. Jewry deliberately destroys the host people’s basic prerequisites for life. Jewry is the “ferment of decomposition” (Mommsen), i.e. the force of destruction. The Jew knows very well how to camouflage himself and to adapt himself (to “assimilate”) to the people among whom he dwells. He systematically poisons every healthy folk; for in an unhealthy folk the Jewish sponger thrives better.
Jews were most of the black-marketeers and profiteers from war and inflation. Jews were the key “leaders” of the Marxist and Liberal parties. The Jew systematically divided the German people in order to be able to govern. He corrupted art, undermined all moral and heroic strengths of our people. All of public life became more and more judaized. This alien folk pushes its way into all important positions (examples!). Almost the entire press, and thus public opinion, were controlled by Jews. Above all the economic power of the Jew escalated more and more. He prevailed not because of his greater ability but as a consequence of his brazenness, brutality, and lack of conscience. The Jew ruled the German people. (Regarding the Jewish question cf. the entire following chapter!)
Against this, National-Socialism organizes the unified defense of the German nation.
Adolf Hitler has broken the Jewish influence in Germany. All the more does World Jewry now agitate throughout the world for the National-Socialist Reich, which it hates, to be destroyed in a second World War. But this war, on the contrary, will end Jewish world power. Through the victorious campaign of the 18 days in Poland and Galicia, the core province of today’s Jews, this world plague has already been struck to the core. Furthermore the Fuehrer will eliminate Jewry in all Europe, and thereby frustrate all Jewish plans for world government.*
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* This paragraph reflects the circumstances of 1940 and is totally absent from the original 1934 edition. It is an elaboration of a statement from Hitler’s speech of 30 January 1939, which said that if “international finance Jewry within Europe and abroad” succeeded in fomenting another world war, the result would be the Vernichtung of the Jewish race in Europe. The rationale given in this paragraph is that getting the Jews out of Europe gets them away from the centers of power in the world.