March 1933

Judea Declares War on Germany

Before Hitler had passed a single anti-Jewish law, Jewish leadership in the UK and US launched a massive economic attack on the new German government.

• Declaration: On March 24, 1933, the Daily Express (London) ran a massive front-page headline: “Judea Declares War on Germany.”
• Army: The article stated that “14 million Jews, dispersed throughout the world, have banded together as one man to declare war on the German persecutors.”
• Commercial Crusade: This was not a minor protest. It was described as a “Holy War.” Merchants in London, New York, Paris, and Warsaw united for a commercial crusade to sever trade relations with Germany.

Economic Warfare

Specifics of the Global Boycott

The goal of this crusade was to destroy the German export trade and bankrupt the regime. The threats were specific and coordinated across multiple sectors.

• Banking & Finance:
  • Leverage: Germany was a “heavy borrower” in foreign money markets where Jewish influence was large.
  • Threat: Jewish financiers prepared to exert pressure on these markets to force anti-Jewish action to stop.
• London (The Hub):
  • Merchants: Large numbers of London merchants resolved to stop buying German goods, “even at the cost of suffering heavy loss.”
  • Textile Trade: A meeting of the Jewish textile trade was called to organize a total ban on German fabrics.
  • Youth & Leadership: The “Organization of Jewish Youth in Britain” organized demonstrations, and the “Board of Deputies of British Jews” met in a special session to coordinate the response for the entire British community.
• Shipping (The Liners):
  • Targets: Germany’s transatlantic shipping traffic was threatened. Specifically, the famous German crack liners The Bremen and The Europa faced a massive boycott.
  • Impact: Jewish travelers formed an important part of the patrons for these ships due to their extensive role in international trade. The loss of their business would be a “heavy blow” to Germany’s Atlantic trade.
• New York (The Protest):
  • March: 10,000 Jewish ex-soldiers marched to City Hall to petition the mayor for a boycott. Some wore their old British uniforms.
  • Trade Unions: American trade unions, representing 3,000,000 workers, decided to join the protests.
  • Religious Decree: A Rabbinical decree declared a day of fasting and prayer. All Jewish shops in New York were ordered closed on Monday during a parade.
  • Madison Square Garden: A “monster meeting” was held where Bishop Manning spoke from a Jewish platform appealing for an end to the “Hitler Terror.” Simultaneous meetings were held in 300 American cities.
• Poland & France:
  • Poland: A trade embargo on Germany was already in operation.
  • France: A ban on German imports was being widely canvassed in Jewish circles.

April 1, 1933

Nazi Reprisal

The famous image of Nazis boycotting Jewish shops is often shown without context. It was explicitly a reaction to the “Commercial Crusade” described above.

• Foolish Reprisal: One week after the Daily Express headline, the Nazis retaliated. On Saturday, April 1, 1933, the government announced a one-day boycott of Jewish businesses.
• Action: SA Stormtroopers stood outside Jewish shops. They did not attack; they admonished Germans against entering.
• Goebbels’ Logic: The propaganda aim was to show the “International Jewish Powers” that if they hurt the German economy, the German government would hurt Jewish businesses in Germany.

1936–1938

Assassination Campaign

The conflict moved from economic warfare to targeted killings. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels used these events to convince Hitler that the Jews would “stop at nothing” and that Germany was facing a coordinated attack.

• Wilhelm Gustloff (1936): Gustloff was the leader of the Nazi Party in Switzerland. In February 1936, he was shot and killed by David Frankfurter, a Jewish student.
• Police Harassment (June 1938): Tensions rose in Berlin. In a letter to Hitler, Goebbels reported on a campaign to pressure Jews to leave. Police confiscated Jewish cars (claiming they were “unroadworthy”) and cut off Jewish telephones. This was described as “petty police harassment.”
• Ernst vom Rath (1938): On November 7, 1938, a 17-year-old Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan walked into the German Embassy in Paris and assassinated Ernst vom Rath, a German diplomat.
• Goebbels’ Reaction: Goebbels viewed these not as crimes by individuals, but as acts of war. He told Hitler that the Germans needed to strike back hard to prevent further assassinations.

Nov 9, 1938

Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass)

The assassination of vom Rath was the trigger for the event. However, the internal orders and Goebbels’ diaries paint a more complex picture of who was in charge and what the specific rules were.

• Spark: Vom Rath died on November 9, 1938. This was the anniversary of the “Beer Hall Putsch.” Goebbels announced to the party leaders: “A Jew has fired a shot. A German has died.”
• Goebbels as Mastermind: Historical evidence from diaries suggests Goebbels was the “moving force” behind the violence, not Hitler. Hitler’s primary goal at this time was the Madagascar Plan (moving Jews to an island off Africa), not mass violence. Goebbels pushed for the radical “pogrom” and Hitler simply authorized it. Goebbels noted: “The Führer fully endorsed what I had done.”
• Specific Orders: Instructions were sent to the SA (Stormtroopers) giving strict rules for the operation. Contrary to the belief that it was a lawless riot, there were specific constraints:
  • No Looting: “There is to be no looting.”
  • No Bloodshed: “Nobody is to be roughed up.”
  • Foreigners Safe: “Foreign Jews are not to be touched.”
  • Armed Resistance: The orders stated to “Meet any resistance with firearms.” This authorized violence specifically against those who fought back.
  • Deadline: The action had to be finished by 5:00 a.m.
• Damage:
  • Synagogues: About 150 were burned (6 or 7 in Berlin).
  • Shops: Thousands of windows smashed.
  • Deaths: The official report the following morning stated that 38 Jews had been killed.
  • Arrests: On orders authorized by Hitler, 20,000 Jews were rounded up and temporarily held in concentration camps.
• Goebbels’ Diary: His entry the next day was unrepentant. He wrote: “This is one dead man who is costing the Jews dear. Our darling Jews will think twice in future before simply gunning down German diplomats.”

1939

War Declarations

When World War II officially began, the leadership of the Zionist movement took a side immediately.

• Chaim Weizmann: In September 1939, Chaim Weizmann (President of the World Zionist Organization) wrote a letter to the British Prime Minister.
• Statement: He declared that the Jews “stand by Great Britain and will fight on the side of the democracies.”
• Nazi Interpretation: Historian Ernst Nolte argues that this gave the Nazis a “legal” justification to treat German Jews as enemies of the state. Since the “Leader of the Jews” had declared war on Germany, the Nazis argued they were entitled to intern Jews just as the US interned Japanese citizens.

1941

“Germany Must Perish!”

The final piece of the puzzle was an American book that convinced Hitler the Allies planned to exterminate the German race.

• Book: Germany Must Perish! was written by Theodore N. Kaufman, an American Jew.

• Plan: Kaufman proposed a “Final Solution” for Germans: devastating the country and sterilizing the entire German population so they would go extinct.
• Goebbels’ Use: Although Kaufman was not a government official, Goebbels treated the book as the official Allied plan.
• Yellow Star: In August 1941, Goebbels showed this book to Hitler. He argued that since the enemy planned to exterminate Germans, the Jews needed to be marked. Hitler agreed, and the Yellow Star decree was issued shortly after.

Historical Perspective

The Culprit

“So there are the facts about Dr. Goebbels and the “final solution.” If we’re looking for a culprit, if we’re looking for a criminal behind the “final solution” or the “Holocaust,” whatever it was, for the man who started it in motion, then it was undoubtedly Dr. Goebbels first and foremost. Not Julius Streicher, not Adolf Hitler, nor any of the other Nazis. Goebbels was the moving force, and the brain behind it in every sense of the word. We still don’t know if he knew what exactly happened at the other end, but then this isn’t surprising, because we ourselves don’t know either.”

Primary Source: The Daily Express, “Judea Declares War on Germany” (March 24, 1933).
Primary Source: The Goebbels Diaries (Nov 9-10, 1938 & Aug 1941).
Primary Book: Germany Must Perish! by Theodore N. Kaufman (1941).
Primary Letter: Chaim Weizmann to Neville Chamberlain, August 29, 1939.
Analysis: Ernst Nolte, The European Civil War (1987).
Analysis: Goebbels and the Final Solution (Historical review).