Holocaust Exceptional All Jews Die a Myth Hoffmann

Hitler’s Personal Security: Protecting the Führer, 1921-1945, by Peter Hoffmann. 2000

Not All Known Jews Were Targeted by the Nazis for Extermination: Honorary Aryan Emil Maurice. Hitler’s Last-Minute Obsessions With Slavs, and Not Only Jews

My review is based on the original 1979 edition.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE STANDARD “ALL JEWS WERE TARGETED” ARGUMENT

The chief talking point for Holocaust supremacism is the one that—unlike the case with other genocides—the perpetrators (Nazi Germany) sought the death of every single member of the targeted group (Jews). Even if it were true, it would not follow that the Holocaust is thereby entitled to special attention or recognition, as any “meritocracy” of genocides must necessarily rest on some arbitrary criterion (assuming that there should be ANY meritocracy of genocides in the first place). What if, for example, someone suggested that power disparity—between perpetrator and victim group—counts the most? On this basis, the Nazi-Gypsy power disparity was greater than the Nazi-Jewish power disparity (because Jews had some influence over the Allied powers, but the Gypsies had virtually none). Therefore, the Nazi genocide of Gypsies, and not that of the Jews, is entitled to special recognition.

Let us, however, us play along with the All-Jews-Were-Targeted Argument. Is it true?

EMIL MAURICE—A GERMAN JEW DELIBERATELY SPARED BY HITLER

Enter Emil Maurice, a long-term SS associate of Hitler, who sought to marry in 1935, had first to submit to the SS Race and Settlement Head Office for evaluation of his ancestry. The results were shocking to Heinrich Himmler. As author Peter Hoffmann comments on the newly-discovered Jewishness of Emil Maurice, “…one of the oldest fighters for the cause, Party member No. 594 (the count began with 501), a member from 1919, SS member No. 2, Hitler’s bodyguard and ‘permanent companion’ of many years, had Jewish ancestry. What a greater security risk thinkable than allowing such a person to come into the FUHRER’S immediate presence? Himmler certainly thought the idea preposterous and demanded of Hitler than Maurice be expelled from the SS, at the very least. But Hitler would not hear of it, and Himmler was forced to put the FUHRER’S decision in writing.” (p. 50).

HONORARY-ARYAN EMIL MAURICE PERMANENTLY SO-DESIGNATED. HE FACES MINIMAL DISCRIMINATION, AND FLOURISHES IN THE THIRD REICH

Author Peter Hoffmann continues, “Maurice remained banned from the inner circle around Hitler, but he enjoyed his FUHRER’S protection to the very end of the Nazi era. No disciplinary action was taken against him when he knocked down an old man in September 1935 who had unwittingly blocked the road for Maurice’s car with his bicycle; for Christmas of the same year, Himmler sent Maurice a present regarding as an honor in the SS (an SS candleholder). Maurice was promoted on 30 January 1939 to SS-OBERFUHRER; he operated a watch store; he was a member of the REICHSTAG; he was vice-president of regional chambers of commerce and trade; from January 1940 to October 1942 he served in the LUFTWAFFE as an officer.” (pp. 51-52).

Emil Maurice was no fluke. There were other part- and full-blooded Jews that were deliberately spared by Hitler and by other high-ranking Nazi officials. For details, see HITLER’S JEWISH SOLDIERS, by Bryan Rigg.

HITLER’S EPITAPH: CREDITING/BLAMING SLAVS AS WELL AS JEWS

It has been argued that the Holocaust is special because Hitler blamed Jews right to the bitter end. However, he entertained similar thinking about certain non-Jews as well, notably the Slavs.

Author Hoffman provides interesting details on how Hitler came to understand the impending demise of the Third Reich. Hoffman comments, “Even in his own defeat in April 1945 Hitler expressed his faith in the survival of the stronger, and declared the Slavic peoples to have proven themselves the stronger.” (p. 265).