1944 anti-Zionist campaign in Nazi Germany

In June 1944, Otto Dietrich (head of the Nazi-owned Reich League of the German Press) and Helmut Sündermann (Nazi journalist) started a campaign against Zionism in Nazi Germany to promote the conspiracy theory that German wars across the continent were "defensive actions" in response to an alleged global Jewish conspiracy to "exterminate the Germans". 

Dietrich and Sündermann, in line with official Nazi propaganda, falsely accused the Jewish Agency for Israel – led by Chaim Weizmann – of being a Zionist secret group seeking to "exterminate the Germans".

Academic views

Michael Berkowitz

American historian Michael Berkowitz called the conspiracy theory "outrageous".

Jeffrey Herf

American Jewish historian Jeffrey Herf wrote in his book The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust that the Nazis justified the Holocaust based on self-victimization and inversion of reality:

Contrary to common perception, Herf said that Nazis' view of the Jews being an inferior race was not the motive for the Holocaust. Instead, it was the stereotype of Jews being an "all-powerful anti-German force" that made the Holocaust happen:

Kenneth L. Marcus

American legal scholar Kenneth L. Marcus presented the concept Accusation in a Mirror (AiM) to describe the tendency of genocide criminals – from Nazi Germans to Hutu nationalists – to accuse their victims of seeking a genocide against them in order to justify a genocide themselves. In psychology, such behaviour is called projection.

Related pages

 Antisemitism in Europe
 Antisemitism in East Germany
 Anti-Judaism and antisemitism

References

Category:1944 in Germany
Category:Antisemitism in Germany
Category:Nazi Germany