Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

8 DER FUEHRERshed. To this end they persuaded him that the Jews of the whole worldhad devised a secret conspiracy to achieve domination, first over Russia,then over the whole world.Claims of this sort were not new; they lay to a certain extent in theair. In the nineteenth century the Jews had nearly everywhere — thoughnot in Russia — achieved civil equality and thus taken their place inmodern society. Some had amassed great wealth, a few — for example,the house of Rothschild — had even attained real influence, andinspired a venomous anti-Semitism. Soloviev, for example, quotes aFrench priest who wrote 'that he lived by anticipation of that gloriousday when, the skin stripped off ... the Jews will be used for makingcheap carpets.'This epoch lies behind us. Today Rothschild is a memory, no longer apower. Anonymous, massive concentrations of power in industry andfinance have relegated the Jewish bankers and big merchants — once soimpressive — to second or third rank. There is a Jewish problem; thisbook will not attempt to deny it. As a modern Jewish leader, TheodorHerzl, said, 'The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in anyconsiderable number. . . . The longer anti-Semitism lies dormant, themore furiously it must break out.' Nevertheless, painful as it is, itprincipally concerns the Jews themselves; it is not and never was thechief problem of society as a whole, which has other and graver worries.But in the nineteenth century, it was possible for imaginative minds tobe frightened by the aura of political power surrounding certain Jewishnames. In 1868, Hermann Godsche, a German signing himself Sir JohnRetcliffe the Younger, wrote a novel entitled Biarritz. In it twelve rabbisfrom all corners of the earth meet in the Jewish cemetery in Prague.There they set up a cry of Satanic glee, for through accursed gold,through its mighty bankers, Judah has conquered the world, boughtkings and the princes of the Church; Judah is wallowing in vice andglory. The rabbis represent the twelve tribes of Israel and speakChaldaean. Subsequently this chapter, somewhat revised, was printed inpamphlet form and translated into foreign languages. And now, lo andbehold, we have an 'authentic document,' proving the existence of aJewish world conspiracy.