HITLER'S APOCALYPSE: Jews and the Nazi Legacy

by Robert Wistrich ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 1986

A disturbing analysis of the origins of Nazism and its legacy in contemporary totalitarian anti-Semitism. The radical anti-Semitism envisioned and embraced by Hitler is discussed as the single necessary condition of WW II. In Wistrich's eyes, it was an anti-Semitism based on the notion that the Jews had created a God--and thereby given the world a conscience. Wistrich sees Hitler as seeking to destroy the Jewish root, along with its twin flowers of Christianity and Communism. so as to return humanity to a pre-religious, natural state. This analysis became apocalyptic in Hitler's mind: the confrontation between the natural man epitomized by the Nazis and the unnatural man (imprisoned by a conscience and a God) epitomized by Jews had to be a battle to the death. Backed by the technology of modern warfare, Hitler saw his role in history as a knight of goodness destroying evil. Had Wistrich stopped here, his book would have been simply interesting. Instead, though, he insightfully traces the life of the idea championed by Hitler in a post-Hitler world and finds the idea in remarkably good health, and now being vigorously championed by Arab, Islamic, Third World, and, most importantly, Soviet anti-semites. It is this tracing that is probing and historically useful, for it forces both Jews and finally the whole Western world to see how fundamentally their values are being challenged. Wistrich's description of Soviet anti-Semitism, in particular, is chilling.

Pub Date: March 3, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION