{"id":13211,"date":"2025-02-16T16:01:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T21:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=13211"},"modified":"2025-02-16T16:01:03","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T21:01:03","slug":"misplaced-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/?p=13211","title":{"rendered":"Misplaced optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

To all who believe that concerns about Trump’s rapid actions — from his dismantling of the US government, following the Project 2025 playbook with the help of Elon Musk to his threats to annex Canada, Greenland, or the Panama Canal or his attempt to play a much greedier, more corrupt version of Chamberlain in a peace settlement forced upon Ukraine — are not to be taken seriously, here is<\/a> a cautionary tale, in the form of an editorial from the February 2, 1933 issue of Der Israelit<\/em><\/a>, a leading voice of German Jewry at the time (English translation below):<\/p>\n

\n

Die neue Lage<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Der Israelit, Heft 5, 02.02.1933<\/em><\/p>\n

Das Kabinett\u00a0Hitler<\/em>, das sich am Montag Mittag in Berlin etabliert hat, bedeutet eine schwere stimmungsm\u00e4\u00dfige Belastung der ganzen deutschen Judenheit, ja, dar\u00fcber hinaus, aller der Kreise, die in der Ueberspitzung des nationalistischen Rassen-Fanatismus unserer Tage ein Hemmnis auf dem Wege menschlicher Besittung und weltgeschichtlichen Fortschritts erblicken.<\/p>\n

Zwar sind wir keineswegs der Meinung, da\u00df Herr Hitler und seine Freunde, einmal in den Besitz der lange erstrebten Macht gelangt, nun etwa nach dem Rezept des \u201eAngriff\u201c oder des \u201eV\u00f6lkischen Beobachters\u201c vorgehn und kurzer Hand die deutschen Juden ihrer verfassungsm\u00e4\u00dfigen Rechte entkleiden, sie in ein Rassen-Ghetto sperren oder den Raub- und Mord-Instinkten des P\u00f6bels preisgeben werden. Das\u00a0k\u00f6nnen<\/em>\u00a0sie nicht nur nicht, weil ihre Macht ja durch eine ganze Reihe anderer Machtfaktoren vom Reichspr\u00e4sidenten bis zu den Nachbarparteien, beschr\u00e4nkt ist, sondern sie\u00a0wollen<\/em>\u00a0es sicherlich auch gar nicht; denn die ganze Atmosph\u00e4re auf der H\u00f6he einer europ\u00e4ischen Weltmacht, die ja mitten im Konzert der Kulturv\u00f6lker stehn und bleiben will, und dazu das\u00a0Bewu\u00dftsein, in der Wilhelmstra\u00dfe nun der Notwendigkeit des demagogischen Werbens um den dr\u00f6hnenden Beifall turbulenter Volksversammlungen bis auf weiteres \u00fcberhoben zu sein, ist der ethischen Besinnung auf das bessere Selbst g\u00fcnstiger als die bisherige Oppositionsstellung. Den Mitk\u00e4mpfern von gestern, den Parteifreunden, vermag der neue preu\u00dfische Innenminister durch Erneuerung des gro\u00dfen Beamtenk\u00f6rpers in nationalsozialistischem Sinne viel realere Dienste zu leisten als durch offene Zugest\u00e4ndnisse an den brutalen Judenha\u00df.<\/p>\n

Trotzdem w\u00e4re es str\u00e4flicher Optimismus, sich des\u00a0Ernstes der Lage<\/em>\u00a0nicht bewu\u00dft zu sein. Je weniger die neuen M\u00e4nner dem mit Hunger und Not verzweifelt ringenden deutschen Volk durch gesetzgeberische Wunder wirkliche Hilfe zu bringen verm\u00f6gen, desto n\u00e4her liet f\u00fcr sie der Wunsch, ut aliquid feci videatur doch wenigstens ein\u00a0paar Abs\u00e4tze<\/em>\u00a0aus dem\u00a0rassentheoretischen Programm<\/em>\u00a0der Partei in die politische Wirklichkeit umzusetzen, was ohne sensationelle und kompromittierende Judengesetze auf dem Wege des \u201etrockenen Pogroms\u201c, der systematischen Aussperrung und Aushungerung der Juden im wirtschaftlichen und kulturellen Leben leicht geschehen kann.<\/p>\n

Inwieweit in einem nationalsozialistischen\u00a0Beamtenk\u00f6rper<\/em>\u00a0das alte preu\u00dfische Beamtenpflichtgef\u00fchl \u00fcber die so lange gepflegten antisemitischen Instinkte Herr werden und Schikanen und Rechtsverk\u00fcrzungen gegen\u00fcber Juden ausschlie\u00dfen wird, in wieweit eine\u00a0Polizei<\/em>, die einen Nationalsozialisten als obersten Chef \u00fcber sich wei\u00df, in jedem Einzelfall zuverl\u00e4ssig und unparteiisch bleiben wird, wenn es sich um Juden (oder gar um sozialistische oder kommunistische Staatsb\u00fcrger) handelt \u2013 das sind Fragen und Zweifel, \u00fcber deren Berechtigung nur die Zukunft entscheiden kann.<\/p>\n

Wie die Dinge liegen, scheint es uns noch das kleinere Uebel zu sein, da\u00df durch Tolerierung der neuen Regierung von Seiten des Zentrums die parlamentarische Basis und Kontrolle \u2013 trotz eines befristeten Erm\u00e4chtigungsgesetzes \u2013 wenigstens grunds\u00e4tzlich aufrechterhalten bleibt (man denke zum Beispiel nur an die Gefahren, die sonst der \u05e9\u05d7\u05d9\u05d8\u05d4 drohen), als wenn ein Mi\u00dftrauensvotum des Reichstags die Aufl\u00f6sung mit allen ins Uferlose sich erstreckenden Aspekten aus Diktatur und Staatsnotstands-Experimenten herbeif\u00fchrt.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or, in English:<\/p>\n

\n

The New Situation<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Der Israelit, Issue 5, 02.02.1933<\/em><\/p>\n

The Hitler<\/em> cabinet, which established itself in Berlin on Monday afternoon, represents a severe emotional burden for all German Jewry, and beyond that, for all circles that see in the exaggeration of today’s nationalist racial fanaticism an obstacle on the path of human civilization and historical progress.<\/p>\n

To be sure, we are by no means of the opinion that Mr. Hitler and his friends, having finally attained their long-sought power, will now proceed according to the recipe of the “Angriff” or the “V\u00f6lkischer Beobachter” and summarily strip German Jews of their constitutional rights, confine them to a racial ghetto, or abandon them to the predatory and murderous instincts of the mob. They not only cannot<\/em> do this because their power is limited by a whole series of other power factors from the Reich President to the neighboring parties, but they certainly do not want<\/em> to do it either; for the whole atmosphere at the height of a European world power, which wants to and must remain in the concert of civilized nations, and in addition, the awareness of being relieved for the time being of the necessity of demagogic wooing for the thunderous applause of turbulent mass rallies in the Wilhelmstrasse, is more conducive to ethical reflection on one’s better self than the previous opposition position. The new Prussian Minister of the Interior can render much more real services to yesterday’s fellow combatants, the party friends, by renewing the large civil service corps in a National Socialist sense than by open concessions to brutal Jew-hatred.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it would be criminal optimism not to be aware of the seriousness of the situation<\/em>. The less the new men are able to bring real help to the German people desperately struggling with hunger and misery through legislative miracles, the closer lies for them the desire, ut aliquid feci videatur, to at least implement a few paragraphs<\/em> from the party’s racial theoretical program<\/em> into political reality, which can easily happen without sensational and compromising Jewish laws by way of the “dry pogrom,” the systematic exclusion and starvation of Jews in economic and cultural life.<\/p>\n

To what extent the old Prussian sense of official duty will prevail over the long-nurtured anti-Semitic instincts in a National Socialist civil service corps<\/em> and exclude harassment and curtailment of rights against Jews, to what extent a police force that knows it has a National Socialist as its supreme chief will remain reliable and impartial in every individual case when it comes to Jews (or even socialist or communist citizens) – these are questions and doubts whose justification only the future can decide.<\/p>\n

As things stand, it seems to us to be the lesser evil that through the toleration of the new government by the Center Party, the parliamentary basis and control – despite a time-limited enabling act – at least in principle remains intact (one need only think, for example, of the dangers that would otherwise threaten \u05e9\u05d7\u05d9\u05d8\u05d4*<\/sup>, than if a vote of no confidence in the Reichstag were to bring about dissolution with all its boundless aspects of dictatorship and state of emergency experiments.<\/p>\n

*<\/sup>shechita, ritual slaughter<\/small><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We all know what actually happened in the twelve years that followed this change in government in Berlin.<\/p>\n

We do not yet know what is going to happen with the Western alliance, or the United States, in the coming years. But there is zero reason for optimism.<\/p>\n<\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To all who believe that concerns about Trump’s rapid actions — from his dismantling of the US government, following the Project 2025 playbook with the help of Elon Musk to his threats to annex Canada, Greenland, or the Panama Canal or his attempt to play a much greedier, more corrupt version of Chamberlain in a […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-politics","category-25-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13215,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13211\/revisions\/13215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spinor.info\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}