{"id":106894,"date":"2023-09-07T17:05:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T15:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=106894"},"modified":"2023-09-07T08:36:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T06:36:09","slug":"12-05-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=106894","title":{"rendered":"8 Historical Figures You Didn\u2019t Know Were Antisemitic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>8 Historical Figures You Didn\u2019t Know Were Antisemitic<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Mark Miller<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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<\/h3>\n

These diverse historical figures are all dead. Sadly, antisemitism did not die with them.<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Some of history\u2019s most accomplished men and women revealed their repugnant antisemitic nature.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will that knowledge about their character change how you think of them? Should we excuse them because antisemitic sentiment was so prevalent in their time? Will you still be able to admire and appreciate their creations when you\u2019re aware of this poisonous part of their souls?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gabrielle \u201cCoco\u201d Chanel<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Coco Chanel<\/a> has long been admired as a fashion and feminist icon. For her reputation as an antisemite\u2014less so. Despite having used Jewish investors to fund her fashion empire before World War II, she had a notorious affair with a Nazi officer. At one point, she fled to Switzerland to avoid criminal charges for her collaboration as a Nazi spy.
\nChanel was \u201coften given to antisemitic outbursts\u201d about the “greedy” and “aggressive” nature of Jewish people. The French editor-in-chief of\u00a0Marie Claire\u00a0<\/i>observed after a conversation\u00a0with Chanel<\/a>, \u201cChanel\u2019s antisemitism was not only verbal; but passionate and often embarrassing.\u201d But she did popularize the Chanel tweed suit and the little black dress, so there\u2019s that.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

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Martin Luther<\/strong><\/h4>\n

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No, not the Black leader Martin Luther King who shares part of his name but thankfully not his prejudices. This is the\u00a0Martin Luther, the Father of the Protestant Reformation<\/a>. In terms of his antisemitism, let\u2019s just say that subtlety and humanity weren\u2019t Luther\u2019s strong points. In his 1543 treatise, “On the Jews and Their Lies,” Luther called for synagogues to be burned, Jewish homes to be destroyed, and Jewish people to be expelled from their communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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There is something uncannily adaptive about antisemitism: the way it can hide, unsuspected, in the most progressive minds. Author James Lasdun<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So, while he gets points for establishing the Lutheran Church, we\u2019ll have to deduct points for his referring to Jews as “venomous beasts” and “rejected and condemned by God.” Apparently, as Luther saw it, spreading love and peace is not all-encompassing.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ezra Pound<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Ezra Pound was a distinguished poet and writer, but pound for pound, he was also a malignant antisemite. He believed Jews to be responsible for a multitude of the world\u2019s problems and embraced stereotypical conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the media and banking industries.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pound was an ardent supporter of Hitler and Mussolini, going so far as to give radio broadcasts for the Italian Fascist government during World War II. He described the U.S. president as \u201cFranklin D. Frankfurter Jewsfeld,\u201d and the Chinese leader as \u201cChiang Kike Chek.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He had an impressive \u201cear\u201d for words, a faultless sense of cadence, and appealed through the sheer beauty of language \u201cto people who would rather talk about poets than read them.\u201d And yet this was the same man who said things like, \u201cThe Jew alone can retain his detestable qualities, despite climatic conditions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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T.S. Eliot<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

T.S. Eliot was a poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic, editor \u2013 and antisemite. One of the most acclaimed poets of the 20th century, T.S. Eliot, actually incorporated his antisemitism into his poetry. In his poem “Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar,” Eliot wrote, “The rats are underneath the piles, the Jew is underneath the lot. Money and furs.”<\/span><\/p>\n

In his private letters, Elliot referred to Jews as “unpleasant people” and “a race that has no sense of proportion.” As Joseph Black observes, \u201cFew published works displayed the consistency of association that one finds in Eliot\u2019s early poetry between what is Jewish and what is squalid and distasteful.\u201d And during a 1934 lecture in Virginia, Eliot stressed the importance of social \u201cunity of religious background\u2026. Reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable.\u201d Apparently, we can rule out \u201cTorah study\u201d for what the T.S. in his name stood for.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Charles Lindbergh<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Charles Lindbergh<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was one of the greatest American heroes. He was an aviator who made the first solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He was also a Nazi sympathizer and unapologetic antisemite. In a speech in 1941, Lindbergh claimed that Jewish people were trying to drag the United States into World War II for their own benefit. He even gave speeches in which he warned of a Jewish “stranglehold” on America and praised Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews.<\/span><\/p>\n

As late as April 1939‍\u2014\u200cafter Germany overtook Czechoslovakia‍\u2014\u200cLindbergh was willing to make excuses for Adolf Hitler. In a 1941 speech, Lindbergh said of the Jews, \u201cTheir greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government.” Perhaps the thin air and lack of oxygen while doing all that flying, affected his brain and reason. But you didn\u2019t hear it from me.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Richard Wagner<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Wilhelm Richard Wagner<\/span><\/a>\u00a0was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. He also openly articulated his antisemitic views in a number of publications. Wagner wrote that the German people were repelled by Jews due to their ‘alien’ appearance and behavior. The favorite composer of Adolf Hitler, Wagner often found a scapegoat\u2014such as the Jewish population\u2014to account for his personal and musical misfortunes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Victims of Hitler have associated Wagner and his music with Nazism to such an extent that in Israel a ban on public performance of that music is upheld to this day. Perhaps karma kicked in, however, as payback for his views: Until his final years, Wagner’s life was characterized by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty, and repeated flight from his creditors. What a life he might have had if there were no Jews!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Charles Dickens<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Charles Dickens was an English writer and social critic who created some of the world’s best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. His works, however clearly have their antisemitic aspects.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, along with Shakespeare\u2019s Shylock, Dickens\u2019s Fagin is probably the best-known Jewish character in English literature \u2014 and perhaps also the most repellent. He is described in\u00a0Oliver Twist<\/i>\u00a0as \u201ca very old shriveled Jew whose villainous-looking and repulsive face was obscured by a quantity of matted old hair.\u201d In the book, in case you didn\u2019t get the message of the character, Dickens refers to the odious, criminal Fagin as \u201cthe Jew\u201d more than 250 times in its first 38 chapters.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other works, Dickens describes the dirty ways, thieving tendencies, and lisping accents of Jews, along with Jewish \u201cmammas\u201d who are obese and averse to using soap and water. Dickens even refers to a situation in which he wanted to borrow money and was offered a loan at an outrageous interest rate of 120 percent by a Jew of \u201cdecidedly Israelite caste of countenance.\u201d To paraphrase Dickens\u2019 opening of\u00a0A Tale of Two Cities<\/i>, \u201cIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the most prejudiced of times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

Roald Dahl<\/strong><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Much beloved author\u00a0Roald Dahl<\/a>\u00a0is celebrated for his whimsical children\u2019s books, including\u00a0Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0Matilda<\/i>. He is understandably less known for his darker side, illustrated by a number of antisemitic comments he\u2019s on record for making throughout his life. He referred, for example, to Jews as, \u201ca filthy, dirty, noxious, and repellent race\u201d and \u201cthe hardest people to teach a lesson to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dahl said, \u201cThere\u2019s a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity, maybe it\u2019s a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews.\u201d Sounds like a guy who might go so far as defending Hitler? You betcha. Said Dahl, \u201cI mean, there\u2019s always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere; even a stinker like Hitler didn\u2019t just pick on them for no reason.\u201d Well, firstly, I believe that what Hitler did went lightyears beyond \u201cpicking on them.\u201d And secondly, apparently, the Holocaust was our own fault.<\/span><\/p>\n

These diverse historical figures are all dead. Sadly, antisemitism did not die with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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More About The Author – Mark Miller<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mark Miller has held positions as a nationally syndicated humor columnist for the\u00a0Los Angeles Times, an interviewer and humor blogger for\u00a0The Huffington Post\u00a0(along with a wealth of other publications), a TV sitcom staff writer\/producer, a stand-up comic in nightclubs and on TV, and a writer for comedians such as Jay Leno, Dana Carvey, Roseanne Barr, Rodney Dangerfield, and Jim Carrey. His first book, a collection of his humor essays on dating and romance, is\u00a0500 Dates: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Online Dating Wars<\/a>. But he says he\u2019d trade all his success away in a minute for immortality, inner peace and limitless wealth. Follow his website\/blog at:\u00a0http:\/\/www.markmillerhumorist.com\/<\/a>. Reach him at:\u00a0mark.writer@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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8 Historical Figures You Didn\u2019t Know Were Antisemitic Mark Miller These diverse historical figures are all dead. Sadly, antisemitism did not die with them. Some of history\u2019s most accomplished men and women revealed their repugnant antisemitic nature. Will that knowledge about their character change how you think of them? Should we excuse them because antisemitic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106894"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106912,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106894\/revisions\/106912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}