Language:
English
Year of publication:
1994
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Contemporary History
Angaben zur Quelle:
29,4 (1994) 627-661
Keywords:
Merker, Paul,
;
Anti-Nazi propaganda
;
Antisemitism History 1933-1945
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) Influence
;
Communism History
;
Philosemitism
Abstract:
Traces the political biography of the German communist leader Paul Merker (1894-1969), and his "heretical" stance on the Holocaust and Jewish issues within the East German Communist party. As a German (non-Jewish) émigré in Mexico, Merker published an article, "Hitlers Antisemitismus und wir", in the journal "Freies Deutschland" (October 1942), and a two-volume study, "Deutschland - sein oder nicht sein" (1944). He was the only leading communist who saw antisemitism as an essential element of Nazi ideology, and placed the Jewish catastrophe at the center of the struggle against Nazism. Back in East Germany after the war, his political career ended in 1950. In 1952 he was arrested and accused of being an agent of the Americans and the Zionists, a member of a conspiracy including Rudolf Slánský and other Jewish communists. Freed in 1956, he was never politically rehabilitated. The recently available proceedings of his secret trial attest that Merker's position concerning the "Jewish question" and his support of the State of Israel were major accusations during his trial.
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