The Twisted Road to Auschwitz: Nazi Policy Toward German Jews, 1933-1939

Describes Nazi antisemitic policy as a political process triggered not only by ideological prejudices and Jew-hatred, but even more by social dynamics inherent to the Nazi movement and by pressures to preserve the unity of the party. Argues that Hitler was often only indirectly involved in anti-Jewish measures requested by Nazi radicals, and that the acceleration of anti-Jewish persecution was due less to ideological pressures than to internal struggles between competing public and party agencies for control over anti-Jewish policy. Pp. 3-61 trace Nazi antisemitism to its root-elements - Volkgeist (J.G. Herder), anti-cosmopolitanism (H. von Treitschke), race (W. Marr), pure blood (E. Dühring), and Aryan superiority (H.S. Chamberlain) - and analyze the stab-in-the-back legend, the rejection of liberalism, democracy, and socialism, as well as the demonization of the Jew after World War I. Pp. 62-213 describe the successive phases of anti-Jewish persecution.