[go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd
Upload
235 views1 page

A Pedagogy of Hatred

The document discusses and summarizes a children's book published in Germany in 1936 called "Don't Trust Any Fox from a Heath or Any Jew on his Oath". The book aims to instill distrust and animosity toward Jews in German children through rhyming verses and colorful illustrations. It depicts Jews as dark, hairy, greedy, dishonest stereotypes and Germans as clean, handsome, honest stereotypes. The author is outraged by this "textbook of hatred", not just because it offends Jews but because it corrupts German civilization with teachings of hatred.

Uploaded by

Victor Hazel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
235 views1 page

A Pedagogy of Hatred

The document discusses and summarizes a children's book published in Germany in 1936 called "Don't Trust Any Fox from a Heath or Any Jew on his Oath". The book aims to instill distrust and animosity toward Jews in German children through rhyming verses and colorful illustrations. It depicts Jews as dark, hairy, greedy, dishonest stereotypes and Germans as clean, handsome, honest stereotypes. The author is outraged by this "textbook of hatred", not just because it offends Jews but because it corrupts German civilization with teachings of hatred.

Uploaded by

Victor Hazel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

NOTES GERMANY & ON THE WAR

A Pedagogy of Hatred

Displays of hatred are even more obscene and denigrating than exhibitionism. I defy pornographers to show me a
picture more vile than any of the twenty-two illustrations that comprise the children's book Trau keinem Fuchs auf
gruener Heid und keinem Jud bei seinem Eid [Don't Trust Any Fox from a Heath or Any Jew on his Oath] whose fourth
edition now infests Bavaria. It was first published a year ago, in 1936, and has already sold 51,000 copies. Its goal is
to instill in the children of the Third Reich a distrust and animosity toward Jews. Verse (we know the mnemonic
virtues of rhyme) and color engravings (we know how effective images are) collaborate in this veritable textbook of
hatred.

Take any page: for example, page 5. Here I find, not without justifiable bewilderment, this didactic poem – "The
German is a proud man who knows how to work and struggle. Jews detest him because he is so handsome and
enterprising" – followed by an equally informative and explicit quatrain: "Here's the Jew, recognizable to all, the
biggest scoundrel in the whole kingdom. He thinks he's wonderful, and he's horrible." The engravings are more
astute: the German is a Scandinavian, eighteen-year-old athlete, plainly portrayed as a worker; the Jew is a dark
Turk, obese and middle-aged. Another sophistic feature is that the German is clean-shaven and the Jew, while bald,
is very hairy. (It is well known that German Jews are Ashkenazim, copper-haired Slavs. In this book they are
presented as dark half-breeds so that they'll appear to be the exact opposite of the blond beasts. Their attributes
also include the permanent use of a fez, a rolled cigar, and ruby rings.)

Another engraving shows a lecherous dwarf trying to seduce a young German lady with a necklace. In another, the
father reprimands his daughter for accepting the gifts and promises of Solly Rosenfeld, who certainly will not make
her his wife. Another depicts the foul body odor and shoddy negligence of Jewish butchers. (How could this be, with
all the precautions they take to make meat kosher?) Another, the disadvantages of being swindled by a lawyer, who
solicits from his clients a constant flow of flour, fresh eggs, and veal cutlets. After a year of this, the clients have lost
their case but the Jewish lawyer "weighs two hundred and forty pounds." Yet another depicts the opportune
expulsion of Jewish professors as a relief for the children: "We want a German teacher;' shout the enthusiastic
pupils, "a joyful teacher who knows how to play with us and maintain order and discipline. We want a German
teacher who will teach us common sense." It is difficult not to share such aspirations.

What can one say about such a book? Personally I am outraged, less for Israel's sake than for Germany's, less for the
offended community than for the offensive nation. I don't know if the world can do without German civilization, but
I do know that its corruption by the teachings of hatred is a crime.

[1937]

Jorge Luis Borges: Selected Non-Fictions, Penguin Books – (199-200)

You might also like