Hakluyt
09-14-2006, 09:06 PM
I scanned this in for another purpose and figured I'd post it. This was basically the only statement Strasser made on the Jews during the war period, that I'm aware of, written in 1939-40 sometime while hashing out his plans to return to Germany after the war and begin his 'Solidarist' movement. Eminently reasonable if you ask me.
Also note the casual reference to 'European Federation', which is expounded elsewhere in the book; along with Mosley and others, the moderate fascists were the first EU advocates.
A Word on the Jewish Problem
Strasser, Otto. (1940) Germany Tomorrow pp.73-78 London.
Theoretical and practical considerations make it expedient to add a few words about the problem which, since the rise of the Hitler System, has become a world-wide problem, and one whose settlement will be an urgent topic at the Peace Conference. I refer to the Jewish problem.
In various parts of my _Deutsche Revolution_ and in numerous articles in the international press I have expressed the utmost disapproval of the shameless and inhuman anti-Jewish campaign that has characterised the Hitler System; and I may also mention that as early as 1928, in a party periodical, I protested editorially against antisemitism of the Streicher brand, voicing the war-cry, 'Antisemitism is dead. Long live the idea of the People!'
This advocacy of the idea of the People logically implied the disavowal of any valuation of peoples or nations as good or bad, as better or worse, since they all have equal rights, equal needs, and equal duties, in accordance with the will of the Creator who gave each of them its own kind, its own nature, and its own tasks. This profound respect for organic life, and the fact that it is necessary for us and incumbent on us to recognise and maintain human dignity, imply that it will be an unconditional part of the social and political organisation of New Germany to maintain the equal rights of all human beings.
Yet this fundamental principle of equality must not invalidate the organic law that the peoples and nations are fundamentally different, with the result that they urgently need differences in their social and political institutions - a fact which every government is bound to take into account.
In practical politics, therefore, there arises the problem of national minorities, whose relations to the national majorities in any area may present difficulties not merely local (as in Germany, for instance), but pertaining to Europe as a whole. Speaking generally it may be said that a comprehensive and just solution will only be possible within the framework of the European Federation, where the simultaneous interests of almost all the European peoples, whether as States or as national minorities, will ensure that whatever legal arrangements are mad will be universally regarded as just, and will therefore be faithfully adhered to.
But since this desirable joint solution will need time to achieve, New Germany will have meanwhile to set to work by herself to solve the problem of national minorities (and therewith the Jewish problem) in that modern spirit which will pay due regard both to the organic laws of ethnical differences and to the moral laws according to which all human beings have equal rights. Politically considered there are three alternative solutions:
1) Persons of different racial origin from the majority may be described as foreigners.
2) Groups of persons of various racial stamps may be deemed to constitute national minorities.
3) Persons belonging to different stocks may be incorporated into the main body of the nation by assimilation.
All three methods are equally possible and equally honourable, with the urgent proviso that every adult person of another stock than that of the majority must himself or herself have full right to decide which method to adopt.
As a matter of general principle, there is no difference between the general treatment of the problem of national minorities and the treatment of the Jewish problem. If the latter is separately considered here, this is because the peculiar way in which the question has presented itself makes separate consideration expedient.
I recommend the above tripartite approach to the matter as regards the Jews, because the formulation is not the outcome of any fine-spun theory, but is grounded upon the actual circumstances which must form the basis of any new settlement of the Jewish problem.
1) The category of foreigners emerges from the fact that of late years there has been a widespread development of the movement known was Zionism, which should be supported by all 'nation-conscious' persons and peoples as a genuine endeavour for the renovation of Judaism.
2) The category of national minorities corresponds to the political fact that European Jewry has been domiciled in Europe for many centuries, and in each country rightly regards itself as belonging to that country, thought it does not wish to forsake its own national religion and its own national peculiarities.
3) The category of assimilation is nevertheless (despite Hitler and his materialistic racial theory) a datum of the position of Jews in Germany and the rest of Europe, in conformity with the accepted humanist doctrine that every human being is entitled to liberty and self-determination - a doctrine which New Germany will unhesitatingly accept. Although we do not deny our biological subordination to blood, race, and nationality, we must emphatically proclaim that the human spirit is privileged and competent to overcome this subordination, and, as knowledge and choice may decide, to adopt the present and future views upon these matters.
It is likely enough that the preponderant majority of German Jews will prefer to belong to the Jewish commonwealth. Among these there will doubtless be many who in former days were antagonistic to Zionism, and perhaps even now are by no means wholly reconciled to it but will lose their scruples when they become aware that as Jews, as members of the Jewish commonwealth, they can still remain united to Germany while preserving a Jewish stamp - inasmuch as the Jewish national group will be incorporated into New Germany. This very fact, their permanent incorporation into Germany, will distinguish them from Jews, say, of Palestine or Poland - not in substance, but in many off the forms of life.
Of course this incorporation into Germany is fundamentally diverse from the complete assimilation that will occur in the case of those belonging to the third category. These latter will have to abandon Judaism as a national religion, and will have to give this and other guarantees of their determination to become Germans in every respect. (Consider here the demands which every modern State tends more and more to make of alien elements that are to be incorporated and fully assimilated.)
Of decisive importance as regards this question of the political treatment of minorities (including the Jews) is it that there should be established a State Department of National Minorities whose head must be a member of the government, and would automatically become the representative of the national minorities of his country in the League of Nations (and in due course in the European Federation). Inasmuch as he would naturally be chosen from the largest national minority, this minister of State would in Germany obviously be of Jewish blood - a fact which would indicate the soundness of the proposed solution, and would have an excellent effect both at home and abroad.
http://geocities.com/yipperson23/A_Word_on_the_Jewish_Problem.htm
Also note the casual reference to 'European Federation', which is expounded elsewhere in the book; along with Mosley and others, the moderate fascists were the first EU advocates.
A Word on the Jewish Problem
Strasser, Otto. (1940) Germany Tomorrow pp.73-78 London.
Theoretical and practical considerations make it expedient to add a few words about the problem which, since the rise of the Hitler System, has become a world-wide problem, and one whose settlement will be an urgent topic at the Peace Conference. I refer to the Jewish problem.
In various parts of my _Deutsche Revolution_ and in numerous articles in the international press I have expressed the utmost disapproval of the shameless and inhuman anti-Jewish campaign that has characterised the Hitler System; and I may also mention that as early as 1928, in a party periodical, I protested editorially against antisemitism of the Streicher brand, voicing the war-cry, 'Antisemitism is dead. Long live the idea of the People!'
This advocacy of the idea of the People logically implied the disavowal of any valuation of peoples or nations as good or bad, as better or worse, since they all have equal rights, equal needs, and equal duties, in accordance with the will of the Creator who gave each of them its own kind, its own nature, and its own tasks. This profound respect for organic life, and the fact that it is necessary for us and incumbent on us to recognise and maintain human dignity, imply that it will be an unconditional part of the social and political organisation of New Germany to maintain the equal rights of all human beings.
Yet this fundamental principle of equality must not invalidate the organic law that the peoples and nations are fundamentally different, with the result that they urgently need differences in their social and political institutions - a fact which every government is bound to take into account.
In practical politics, therefore, there arises the problem of national minorities, whose relations to the national majorities in any area may present difficulties not merely local (as in Germany, for instance), but pertaining to Europe as a whole. Speaking generally it may be said that a comprehensive and just solution will only be possible within the framework of the European Federation, where the simultaneous interests of almost all the European peoples, whether as States or as national minorities, will ensure that whatever legal arrangements are mad will be universally regarded as just, and will therefore be faithfully adhered to.
But since this desirable joint solution will need time to achieve, New Germany will have meanwhile to set to work by herself to solve the problem of national minorities (and therewith the Jewish problem) in that modern spirit which will pay due regard both to the organic laws of ethnical differences and to the moral laws according to which all human beings have equal rights. Politically considered there are three alternative solutions:
1) Persons of different racial origin from the majority may be described as foreigners.
2) Groups of persons of various racial stamps may be deemed to constitute national minorities.
3) Persons belonging to different stocks may be incorporated into the main body of the nation by assimilation.
All three methods are equally possible and equally honourable, with the urgent proviso that every adult person of another stock than that of the majority must himself or herself have full right to decide which method to adopt.
As a matter of general principle, there is no difference between the general treatment of the problem of national minorities and the treatment of the Jewish problem. If the latter is separately considered here, this is because the peculiar way in which the question has presented itself makes separate consideration expedient.
I recommend the above tripartite approach to the matter as regards the Jews, because the formulation is not the outcome of any fine-spun theory, but is grounded upon the actual circumstances which must form the basis of any new settlement of the Jewish problem.
1) The category of foreigners emerges from the fact that of late years there has been a widespread development of the movement known was Zionism, which should be supported by all 'nation-conscious' persons and peoples as a genuine endeavour for the renovation of Judaism.
2) The category of national minorities corresponds to the political fact that European Jewry has been domiciled in Europe for many centuries, and in each country rightly regards itself as belonging to that country, thought it does not wish to forsake its own national religion and its own national peculiarities.
3) The category of assimilation is nevertheless (despite Hitler and his materialistic racial theory) a datum of the position of Jews in Germany and the rest of Europe, in conformity with the accepted humanist doctrine that every human being is entitled to liberty and self-determination - a doctrine which New Germany will unhesitatingly accept. Although we do not deny our biological subordination to blood, race, and nationality, we must emphatically proclaim that the human spirit is privileged and competent to overcome this subordination, and, as knowledge and choice may decide, to adopt the present and future views upon these matters.
It is likely enough that the preponderant majority of German Jews will prefer to belong to the Jewish commonwealth. Among these there will doubtless be many who in former days were antagonistic to Zionism, and perhaps even now are by no means wholly reconciled to it but will lose their scruples when they become aware that as Jews, as members of the Jewish commonwealth, they can still remain united to Germany while preserving a Jewish stamp - inasmuch as the Jewish national group will be incorporated into New Germany. This very fact, their permanent incorporation into Germany, will distinguish them from Jews, say, of Palestine or Poland - not in substance, but in many off the forms of life.
Of course this incorporation into Germany is fundamentally diverse from the complete assimilation that will occur in the case of those belonging to the third category. These latter will have to abandon Judaism as a national religion, and will have to give this and other guarantees of their determination to become Germans in every respect. (Consider here the demands which every modern State tends more and more to make of alien elements that are to be incorporated and fully assimilated.)
Of decisive importance as regards this question of the political treatment of minorities (including the Jews) is it that there should be established a State Department of National Minorities whose head must be a member of the government, and would automatically become the representative of the national minorities of his country in the League of Nations (and in due course in the European Federation). Inasmuch as he would naturally be chosen from the largest national minority, this minister of State would in Germany obviously be of Jewish blood - a fact which would indicate the soundness of the proposed solution, and would have an excellent effect both at home and abroad.
http://geocities.com/yipperson23/A_Word_on_the_Jewish_Problem.htm