Zydokomuna Backed Molotov Ribbentrop Pact Rubenstein

After Auschwitz: History, Theology, and Contemporary Judaism, by Richard L. Rubenstein. 1992

Jewish Communists Winked at Nazi Atrocities During the 1939-1941 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Planned Nazi German Extermination of Slavs

I focus on items of lasting significance in my review:

DEBUNKING THE EXCULPATORY MYTH OF THE ZYDOKOMUNA DRIVEN BY IDEALISM

In contrast to some commentators (e. g. Ann Landers vel Eppie Lederer) who had painted Jewish Communists as selfless progressives-in-a-hurry and heroic anti-fascists (antifascists) and anti-Nazis, Rubenstein touches on Jewish conduct during the 1939-1941 German-Soviet alliance (that included the conquest and dismemberment of Poland). He comments, (quote) I can never forget the way in which Communists of Jewish origin insisted that Hitler’s war was of no concern to them until the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. (unquote).(p. 151).

So much for the Zydokomuna-were-idealists exculpation! Selfless progressives indeed.

THE POLOKAUST AND THE PLANNED NAZI EXTERMINATION OF SLAVS

Author Richard L. Rubenstein departs from the usual Judeocentric mode of thinking as he acknowledges the following, (quote) The aim of creating a world in which God is dead (or, more precisely, in which the Judaeo-Christian God is NEGATED [emphasis his]) was at the heart of the Nazi program…Had the Nazis won, their death machines would have been self-perpetuating. The demise of the last Jew would have been followed by the acceleration of an enlarged extermination campaign against the Russians, Poles, and other Slavs…There is no more reason to doubt Hitler’s promise to find greater LEBENSRAUM by exterminating Slavs than his promise to exterminate the Jews. (unquote). (p. 35).

GERMAN GUILT DIFFUSION: STILL BLAMING CHRISTIANITY FOR THE GERMAN-MADE HOLOCAUST

Rubenstein recognizes that Christian teachings about Jews were very different from later Nazi teachings about Jews, and that Nazism itself was virulently anti-Christian. (pp. 2-3). However, he insists that the demonization of Jews in Christian thinking was “imported” by the Nazis into their radically exterminatory thinking (p. 3), and that Christian demonization of Jews was an “indispensable ingredient” in the Nazi demonization of the Jews. (p. 21).

There are a number of flaws in Rubenstein’s thinking, not the least of which is the genetic fallacy. Precedence does not equal causation. Were the Nazis, many of whom were intellectuals, so uncreative that they had to import previously existing modes of thinking into their own? In addition, Rubenstein’s thinking tacitly assumes that the demonization of Jews can ultimately arise from only one source–religiously-based Christian teachings. Thus, according to Rubenstein, in order to demonize Jews, one must rely on Christian modes of demonization of Jews, even if one is non-Christian or anti-Christian.

In actuality, Jews historically were demonized for many reasons, notably their role in the economic structure of European societies. Moreover, religious-based demonizations became more and more unimportant with the emergence of the modern secular state. In addition, unlike the measurement of ingredients in a cake, there is no way of determining if Christian demonization of Jews was a significant ingredient in Nazi ideology. Thus, even assuming that Christian demonization of Jews was in fact a significant ingredient, there is no way of determining if it was an essential ingredient or nonessential ingredient in Nazi ideology.

Pointedly, the experiences of the handicapped and the Gypsies (Sinti and Roma) prove that the Nazis were perfectly capable of conceiving and implementing an exterminationist strategy against identifiable groups that lacked any significant history of demonization by Christian theology.

Finally, Christian thinking about Jews had not been all demonization. Far from it. For instance, the much-condemned Christian prayers for the salvation of Jews implied a caring for the fate of the Jews, an affirmation of their worth as human beings, and a belief in their rehabilitation before God. Thus, upon close examination, it turns out that Rubenstein’s thinking, although relatively polished and relatively non-accusatory in tone, is animated by the usual anti-Christian bias.

JEWS AND CHRISTIANS: MUTUAL NEGATION

Although Rubenstein emphasizes Christian condemnations of Judaism, and attempts to link them to Nazism, he admits that Jews also demonized Christians. Thus, he writes, (quote) For a Jew who holds firmly to the doctrine of the election of Israel and the Torah as the sole content of God’s revelation to mankind, the Christian insistence upon the decisive character of the Christ-event in human history must be at best error and at worse blasphemy. (unquote). (p. 75). Considering the ferocity with which religious Jews dealt with blasphemy, this takes on further significance.