Demonizing the Jews by Christopher J. Probst

Author:Christopher J. Probst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Only absolute misapprehension as to Luther’s aims and ideas can permit Christians to take the part of and intercede for Jews. . . . As Protestant Christians we fully recognize the great debt of gratitude we owe to Luther and we feel it our duty to warn all Protestant Christians in the whole world against the Jews and their protectors with Luther’s very own words.46

He regards the “measures adopted by National Socialist Germany” as “defensive provisions undertaken to protect the German nation against the Jewish race.”47 These words of warning presage the coming torrent of anti-Jewish rhetoric, which he lifts selectively from Luther’s works.

Similar to Theodor Pauls, Sasse simply places selected quotations from Luther under bald anti-Jewish headings such as “The Synagogue, the Lair of Satan,” “Jewish Lies,” and “Scum of Mankind.” There are literally dozens of quotations from Luther, with many taken from On the Jews and Their Lies and On the Ineffable Name. In the case of Jewish baptism, he cites only two cases from Luther, one of which entails a rejection of the practice, another of which merely demonstrates supposed Jewish animosity toward Christians.48

The target audience could not have been the highly educated or church elites. There is very little theological or biblical argumentation in the chosen passages, which indicates that contra fellow German Christian Vogelsang, but like Meyer-Erlach and others, Sasse was anything but conservative in his theological outlook. In any case, his main argument is clear: the Jews are a menace, and should be eliminated from German society.

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