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KAUFMAN'S ADVERTISING According to a March 24 1941 , Time Magazine review, Kaufman founded Argyle because, "he did not want to be edited."'' Ibid ''. The unnamed ''Time'' reviewer compared the book to Jonathan Swift's '' A Modest Proposal ,'' noting that, unlike Swift, Kaufman's work was not satirical.Time An advertisement in the '' New York Times ,'' stated that the book was released to the public on March 1 , 1941 , which Kaufman also promoted by mailing a miniature black cardboard coffin with a hinged lid to reviewers.Anonymous. Advertisement for ''Germany Must Perish!''. ''New York Times''. 1 March 1941 . p. 13. Inside the coffin was a card proclaiming, ''"Read GERMANY MUST PERISH! Tomorrow you will receive your copy."''"A Modest Proposal (Books)." CONTENTS The back of the book's dust jacket contains excerpts from purported reviews of the book. For instance, one blurb reads, ''"A PLAN FOR PERMANENT PEACE AMONG CIVILIZED NATIONS! --''New York Times.''"'' In reality, the ''Times'' never reviewed the book. The quotation is the entirety, plus an exclamation point, of a one-line summary of ''Germany Must Perish!'' published in "Latest Books Received" section of the paper.Anonymous. "Latest Books Received." ''New York Times''. of the entire German people by forced Sterilization and the territorial dismemberment of Germany after an Allied victory in World War II . HISTORICAL CIRCUMSTANCES At the time that ''Germany Must Perish!'' was first published, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was still nine months away and the United States had not yet entered the war. However, through the T-4 Euthanasia Program , mass sterilization had already begun. Some cite this "medicalized mass murder" as the beginning of the Holocaust. Still, the Wannsee Conference was more than a year in the future and stories of Genocide by the Nazi Party were neither widely known nor believed. NAZI REACTION AND USE IN PROPAGANDA The book soon came to the attention of the Nazis. It was - and still is - widely quoted as advocating genocide by "the Jews" against the German people.See Nazi and Holocaust Denial Propaganda links below. Kaufman was a Manhattan-born Jew, so his advocacy of such an idea attracted great attention."A Modest Proposal (Books)." Nazi propaganda denounced the book as an "orgy of Jewish hatred" and accused President Franklin D. Roosevelt of having inspired it.Anonymous. "Nazis Attack Roosevelt." ''New York Times''. July 24 1941 . p. 8. Additionally, ''Germany Must Perish!'' coincided with other Nazi proclamations about "Anglo-American" intentions, which the German population digested in the midst of ongoing economic sanctions against their country, Roosevelt's Lend Lease program and the widely reported failure of the United States to sponsor negotiations after Poland's defeat. American journalist Howard K. Smith was in Germany when ''Germany Must Perish!'' came to light. He wrote: ::''No man has ever done so irresponsible a disservice to the cause his nation is fighting and suffering for than Nathan Kaufmann {Link without Title} . His half-baked brochure provided the Nazis with one of the best light artillery pieces they have, for, used as the Nazis used it, it served to bolster up that terror which forces Germans who dislike the Nazis to support, fight and die to keep Nazism alive ...Howard K. Smith. ''Last Train from Berlin''. London: Phoenix Pr., 1942, 2000. p. 134'' Likewise, when the Jews of Hanover were forced from their homes on September 8 , 1941 , German authorities cited Kaufman's book as one of the reasons.Anonymous. "Jews of Hanover Forced from Homes." ''New York Times''. September 9 1941 . p. 4. The controversial German nationalist philosopher and historian Ernst Nolte argues that the German reaction to ''Germany Must Perish'' supports his contention that the Holocaust was a reasonable, if excessive, response to German fears of worldwide Jewish plot. In answer to this claim, it has been pointed out that while the book was a welcome piece of propaganda, its actual impact on Nazi genocide policies was not notable, and that Nolte argues as if the radical views of one single American Jew can be construed to be representative of Jews worldwide.Vidal-Naquet, Pierre ''Assassins of Memory'', New York: Columbia University Press, 1992 page 126.. NOTES REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS Nazi propaganda about ''Germany Must Perish!'': (from Calvin College's German Propaganda Archive )
Holocaust Denial propaganda About ''Germany Must Perish!'':
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