Prof. Ernst Nolte's 'Three Faces of Fascism' 'Judaism in Sigmund Freud's World'
Outlines Attitude on His Heritage
Introduces Insulting, Note About Zionism
In "Three Faces of Fascism,"
published by Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, Ernst Nolte deals with
Action Francaise, Italian Fascism
and National Socialism.
With a translation from the
German by Leila Vennewitz, the
German author who is currently
professor of European history at
Marburg University commences
his study on the premise that "it
is obvious that the question of
fascism cannot be separated from
the question of its era, since no
universally acknowledged a n d
meaningful concept of the era be-
tween 1919 and 1945 exists."
Reviewing the three fascist move-
ments under discussion in this
volume, Prof. Nolte offers a defini-
tion of the term and he places it in
capital letters in his volume, thus:
"FASCISM IS ANTI-MARXISM
- WHICH SEEKS TO DESTROY
THE ENEMY BY THE EVOLVE-
MENT OF A RADICALLY OP-
POSED AND YET RELATED
IDEOLOGY AND BY THE USE
OF ALMOST IDENTICAL AND
YET TYPICALLY MODIFIED
METHODS, ALWAYS, HOW-
EVER, WITHIN THE 'UNYIELD-
ING FRAMEWORK OF NA-
TIONAL SELF - ASSERTION
AND AUTONOMY."
In this definition, he states, is
implied "that without Marxism
there is no fascism, that fascism is
at the same time closer to and
further from communism than is
liberal anti-communism, that it
necessarily shows at least an in-
clination toward a radical ideology,
that fascism should never be said
to exist in the absence of at least
the rudiments of an organization
and propaganda comparable to
those of Marxism."
And at the outset he comments I
upon "the Jewish interpretation,
which is based on the most appall-
ing of all human experiences."
On this score he declares: "Noth-
ing is more natural than that this
conception should bring the whole
weight of this experience to bear
in favor of a distinction between
National Socialism and fascism.
Generally speaking, the anti-Semi-
tic nature of almost all other fasc-
ist movements cannot deflect the
horrified eyes of the world from
National Socialism . . ."
Analyzing the .writings of fascist
ideologists, turning back the pages
of history to the time when France
was a country divided into Drey-
f u s s a r d s and anti-Dreyfussardrs,
Nolte devotes much space to a
discussion, among others, of the
writings and ideas of Charles
Maurras. He quotes the violently
anti-Semitic song that was com-
posed by Maurras together with
Maurice Pujo—a song that became
the official "Battle Song of the
Camelots du Roi." Under the Nazis
in occupied France, in 1942, Maur-
ras regarded "the German anti-
semitisme de peau" as a "suitable
opportunity to rid France, too, of
the 'Jewish scourge.' "
Yet, when he was arrested, and
tried, his trial is depicted as hav-
ing had similarities to those of
Dreyfus'. He was released in 1952
because of his age.
Nolte's evaluation of Maurras is
puzzling in many respects. He por-
trays the fascist writer as propag-
ating that while "Jewry must pro-
vide the connecting link," Maur-
ras is "a long way from identifying
finance with Jewry." In spots, the
Maurras position emerges as very
confusing in an interpretation that
could well be viewed as a glorifica-
tion of Maurras by the German
author.
But many of the fascist theoreti-
cians, the anti-Semites who inspired
the haters—Chamberlain, Gobineau
and others—are introduced here
to provide the background to the
story of fascism.
Mussolini's role is reviewed in
contrast with Maurras' and Hitler's
to indicate a difference in mental-
ity and presumably the chief rea-
son for Mussolini's "lack of anti-
Semitism."
But in 1935 "Hitler wrote a pre-
face to the German translation of
an Italian book on fascism in which
he stated that the intimate rela-
tionship between the new Italian
and German concepts of state was
indisputable."
Calling Hitler's anti-Jewish at-
titude part of an "infantile per-
sonality," Nolte shows how the
Nazi veered away from Mussolini's
views towards the extremes of
Maurras. As early as 1919 Hitler
already propagated "the total
elimination of the Jews."
As in most such studies, Henry
Ford's name is dragged in as one
of the chief distributors of the
nefarious "Protocols of the -Elders
of Zion."
Nolte's study adds vastly to an
understanding of many of the as-
pects of fascism, of the theoretici-
ans, the movement's propagators,
the functionaries who were respon-
sible for the years of horror.
But there is another aspect of
this book which is most disturb-
ing. It is the equating of Zionism
with reaction, the attribution to it
of destructive factors.
Under czarism, Zionism was
equated with Bolshevism; and Al-
fred Rosenberg equated Zionism
with communism during the Nazi
regime. (See Walter Laqueur,
"Russia and German y," Little
Brown and Co.). At the United Na-
tions r e c e n t 1 y, the Communist
spokesmen sought to equate Zion-
ism with Nazism.
In Nolte's "Three Faces of Fas-
cism" we read:
"Anti-Semitism is by no means
a relic of the Middle Ages or an
expression of petit-bourgeois social
envy; in an age of the growing
awareness of national and social
differences it is under certain con-
ditions an element of national con-
sciousness itself. Even liberals, far
from being philo-Semitic, were
hostile to the idea of 'Jewish self-
segregation,' although, of course,
they were also against segregation
counter to the will of those con-
cerned as carried out by the pro-.
ponents of racial anti-Semitism.
However, the consciousness that
the Jews were not merely a religi-
ous community but a people had
been roused just as much by Zion-
ism as by anti-Semitism. It may
sound hard, but it remains a fact
that German Jewry, as a group
which, though not without its own
differentiations, was on the whole
readily distinguishable, faced an
inexorable decline after the decep-
tive upsurge of the first years of
its complete emancipation; it could
not escape being crushed between
the two extremes which it had W._
self generated—complete emancip-
ation and Zionism. Even with the
most terrible of his deeds Hitler
did not simply fly in the face of
history: here, too, he rode its
trends which he then manipulated
so that they could operate in rev-
erse. In this way he transformed
the inevitable restoration of Ger-
many into a war of aggression, the
expansion of German influence in
the world into the conquest of liv-
ing space, the spiritual self-dissolu-
tion of German Jewry into physi-
cal annihilation."
One wonders whether this is an
apology for. Hitler, whether a Jew-
ish will to live might be inter,
preted as a sin for which Jews
either were punished or were pun-
ishing themselves.
Nolte qualifies the above by as-
serting: "This last transformation,
even in its early phase before the
war, was no less fatal to Germany
than to the Jews, however little
public evidence of this catastrophe
there was . . ."
But the major insult will be
found in one of the notes, referred
to in the above quotation, in which
Nolte wrote:
"Nothing throws a better light
on the nature of National Socialism
than Zionism. Zionism represented
a new national and race-conscious-
ness on the part of what were at
first only a few Jews who sharply
attacked the 'completely de-Juda-
ized' assimilationists and accused
them of 'degeneration' and 'be-
trayal of their people.' An even
worse enemy in their eyes was
the Marxist doctrine, since they
regarded it as stifling all interest
in purely Jewish affairs. Here, too,
the notion of humanity was termed
an abstraction, an empty concept;
and with the ignis fatuus of uni-
versal brotherhood were contrasted
the love of one's native soil, the
ideal of the healthy, land-rooted
peasant. An escape was sought from
the "threat of asphyxiation" and
impending racial death, and much
thought was given to Palestine, al-
though little to its Arab inhabit-
ants. Moses Hess had already said
in 1863 that "race" was the pri-
mary factor in the historical pro-
cess; in 1882 Leo Pinsker added
that the Jews represented a non-
assimilable element. The symptoms
of degeneration contained in as-
similation were at times depicted
in terms not far removed from anti-
Semitic ones.
"Even if one supports the doubt-
ful thesis that Zionism was noth-
ing but an imitation of European
nationalism, there is no justifica-
tion for blaming National Social-
ism per -se for ideas and concepts
which found such wide response
among the Jews. The point is, how-
ever, that for the Jews everything
was reality which for the National
Socialists were the imaginings in-
duced by pathological fear; im-
pending racial extinction, lack of
national 'Lebensraum,' equal hos-
tility from all contending powers.
The great differences that never-
theless did exist cannot be gone
into here, nor the question of
whether it is permissible to speak
of a 'Jewish fascism' within Zion-
ism. The parallels themselves are
enough to demonstrate the absurd-
ity of National Socialism's central
thesis. How could a people which
suffered so greatly from the re-
sults of emancipation, be the cause
of that emancipation? Cf. Adolf
Bohm's comprehensive work, 'Die
Zionistische Bewegung bis zum
Ende des Weltkrieges.' The laws
for the protection of minorities
contained in the Treaty of Versail-
les are due in large part to the
efforts of Jewish world organiza-
tions."
Thus we detect in a work of
scholarship a devilish annotation
that seems definitely intended to
denigrate a great libertarian move-
ment; an abusive definition of Zion-
ism that can only do harm, that
can, retroactively, almost be in-
terpreted as saying that Maurras
and Hitler and Houston Stewart
Chamberlain and Edouard Dru-
mont and the entire anti-Semitic
cabal might have been right. On
the score of the abuse of Zionism
and its equation with reactionary
movement, on a par with the Czar-
ist, then Alfred Rosenberg's and
finally the Communists at the UN,
the Nolte approach must be severe-
ly rebuked.
--P.S.
"Judaism in Sigmund Freud's
World" by Rabbi Earl A. Grol-
hnan, published by Bloch, reviews,
"in retrospective study," the in-
fluence his Jewishness had upon
Freud.
This thorough study analyzes the
effects of Jewish ethical teachings
upon Freud's creative efforts. It
points to the positive aspects, and
also indicates that there were
negative strictures.
This work is biographical as well
as sociological. It seeks to clarify
"the connection between Freud's
personal life and psychology."
Dr. Grollman asserts that
"despite the fact that Freud, in a
humorous vein of self-evalua-
tion and understatement, called
himself 'an unrepentant atheist,'
some religionists sincerely be-
lieve that Freud's 'atheistic'
theory can admirably and ef-
fectively be applied to religious
thought."
Rabbi Grollman commences • his
evaluative study by dealing with
"an anatomy of anti-Semitism" and
he explains that Freud w a s
"plagued by a vague self-image as
to the meaning of being a Jew,"
that his "understanding of Jewish
content was circumscribed," hav-
ing received little direction from
his confused parents. Outlining the
cumulative effects of anti-Semitic
incidents in Austria, the author
states that Freud's "anxiety was
heightened when he was perched
uncomfortably between two cul-
tures and often feeling a part of
neither."
Nevertheless Rabbi Groll in a n
writes that Freud "would not be
intimidated; he faced his tormen-
tors and shook his fist right back.
He was a thrice-homeless man: a
revolutionary scientist among
Austrians, an Austrian among
Germans, and a Jew among the
people of the world. Yet he re-
fused to be bound by the fetters
of a hostile society. Rising above
prejudice, he was able to expend
his energy in an exploration into
a bold, hitherto undiscovered field,
to the benefit of his tormentors
and all mankind."
Discussing "The Essence of
Jewishness," Rabbi Grollman
writes: "Freud persisted in main-
taining his Jewish selfhood. He
retained the essence of his faith
and hearkened through blood
and tears to the wise master of
Proverbs: `R, e m o v e not the
ancient landmark which your
fathers have set' and make loyal-
ty a signet seal of thy faith. He
was proud of his heritage. He
was like the Gaon Saadiah who
a thousand years before saw the
sufferings of his people and said:
Anyone who ridicules us because
of our faith, and who thinks us
fools for enduring so much when
we could readily find happiness
by leaving the fold is truly lack-
ing in understanding. He may be
compared with a man who ob-
serves the sowing of precious
seeds of grain for the first time.
Such a man would laugh at any-
one whom he saw toiling to throw
the seeds out over a field. He
would not understand that the
harvest would follow, and bring
in many times more precious
food than that which has been
cast out."
The major portion of the book
is devoted to "Sigmund Freud, His
Religion and His World" which is
both biographical and analytical.
There is much of Freud's self-
criticism here and his negative as
well as defensive attitude related
to his Jewish heritage. He ques-
tioned what Judaism stood for,
but when it was called "inferior"
he resented and repudiated it.
The Nazi threat, at first ignored
to a degree, soon caught up with
Freud who had to leave Austria
for England. While the persecu-
tions were going on, Freud com-
pleted his much-challenged work
on Moses. Rabbi Grollman analyzes
the debate over "Moses and Mono-
theism," discusses Freud's rejec-
tion of some Jewish practices and
reaches the conclusion that the
Freud story never ends, that "his
work continues to invade the • in-
ner recesses of our minds and
disturb our sleep."
Holocaust Shattering to Jewish Faith
BROOKLINE, Mass. (JTA) —
The effect of the Nazi holocaust
on the religious faith of modern
Jews who ask "Why did God per-
mit it to happen?" was stressed
here Sunday by Prof. Emil C.
Fackenheim of the University of
Toronto, who was one of the Jew-
ish participants in a symposium of
all three faiths sponsored by the
American Academy of Arts and
Sciences on religion and American
culture. Prof. Fackenheim said
that the holocaust had dealt a
shattering blow to Jewish faith..
Commenting on the concern ex-
pressed by many of the participat-
ing intellectuals over what they
described as a "religious crisis in
America," Prof. Fackenheim said
that affluence was a root cause of
the crisis. Nothing makes anyone
less interested in basic questions
than affluence, he declared.
Another Jewish participant, Mil-
ton Himmelfarb, editor of the
American Jewish Year Book, said
that "with Jews, the religious crisis
is chronic." Prof. Charles S. Lieb-
man, of Yeshiva University, also
addressed the symposium.
Morris Schappes"Pictorial History of the Jews
in the United States' in New Revised Edition
"A Pictorial History of the Jews
in the United States" by Morris U.
Schappes, which gained widest at
tention when it first appeared in
1958, has just been reissued in a
new and revised edition by its
publishers, Marzani and Munsell
(100 W. 23rd, NY 11). Covering
the story of American Jewry from
1654 to the present time, it is a
text of more than 100,000 words
and is illustrated with more than
400 photographs.
The new edition has the distinc-
tion of including a foreword by
Dr. David de Sola Pool who makes
this comment:
"What makes a Jew is history
expressed through the law of
Moses, the moral vision of the
biblical prophets, the spiritual
aspirations of the Psalmist, the
wisdom of the rabbis and the
spirit of martyrs. These tradi-
tions the Jew brought with him
to America. They gave him the
will to persist and preserve his
unique historic consciousness
and help build up the character
of the United States."
This is the spirit in evidence in
this work. Schappes has diligently
compiled the record. He has aimed
at thoroughness and accuracy and
whatever . errors may have crept
into the first edition have been
corrected in the revised text.
As told by Schappes, the story
of the American Jew is told with
sufficient clarity, emphasized by
brevity, to give the reader a full
and a good view of what had tran-
spired from the time that Colum-
bus reached this hemisphere unto
the present time. The Schappes
account also has a viewpoint. He
does not accept in its totality the
organizational efforts in protest
against Soviet anti-Semitism, but
neither does he deny that there
must be an effort to secure an
amelioration. There are, therefore,
opinions by the author but they
must be accepted as a viewpoint
of a writer who has produced an
impressive work.
Schappes' history deals with
many aspects. It traces the anti-
Semitic trendS, it covers the
events in Detroit and in Dear-
born, it deals with the Zionist
and Israeli developments and it
touches on the philanthropic
aspects.
When he deals with the social
problems, with the labor move-
ment, with the role Jews plays in
many activities against racism and
bigotry, he is at his best.
Good judgment has been shown
in the selection . of photographs
and the effort to secure un-
usual illustrations certainly adds
to the merits of this history. It is
not the best available work deal-
ing with American' Jewry, but it
serves a most valuable purpose
because it so pointedly accounts
for many occurrences.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
48—Friday, May 20, 1966