Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany

by Alan E Steinweis

Overview

“Exposes the culpability of scholars who collaborated with Nazi race policy . . . an excellent [book] . . . to understand the mentality of ‘desk murderers.’” (Claudia Koonz, author of The Nazi Conscience)

Early in his political career, Adolf Hitler declared the importance of what he called “an antisemitism of reason.” He hoped that his exclusionary and violent policies would be legitimized by scientific scholarship. The result was a disturbing, and long-overlooked, aspect of National Socialism: Nazi Jewish Studies.

Studying the Jew investigates the careers of a few dozen German scholars who forged an interdisciplinary field, drawing upon studies in anthropology, biology, religion, history, and the social sciences to create a comprehensive portrait of the Jew?one with devastating consequences. Working within the universities and research institutions of the Third Reich, these men fabricated an elaborate empirical basis to support the Nazi campaign against Jews by defining them as racially alien, morally corrupt, and inherently criminal.

A chilling story of academics who distorted their research in support of persecution and genocide, Studying the Jew explores the intersection of ideology and scholarship to provide a new appreciation of the horrors perpetrated in the name of reason.

“This brilliant new book reveals how the academy became nazified, shaping a new interdisciplinary enterprise: pathologizing the Jew.” —Susannah Heschel, author of Abraham Geigerand theJewish Jesus

“An essential sequel to Max Weinreich's classic of 1946, Hitler's Professors. [Studying the Jew] is a valuable contribution to the extensive history of politicization of scholarship in modern dictatorships.” —Jeffrey Herf, author of The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674267541
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	01/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	214
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Alan E. Steinweis is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Vermont.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction 1 An “Antisemitism of Reason” 2 Racializing the Jew 3 The Blood and Sins of Their Fathers 4 Dissimilation through Scholarship 5 Pathologizing the Jew Epilogue Notes Acknowledgments Index

What People are Saying About This

Jeffrey Herf

In this excellent work of enduring importance, Steinweis offers new insight, astute judgment and fresh research concerning the antisemitic scholars in Nazi Germany who lent intellectual respectability to the policies of racial persecution. Studying the Jew is an essential sequel to Max Weinreich's classic of 1946, Hitler's Professors. It is a valuable contribution to the extensive history of politicization of scholarship in modern dictatorships. --(Jeffrey Herf, author of The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust)

Christopher R. Browning

Although the complicity of various professions with the Nazi regime has been well demonstrated, Alan Steinweis shifts the focus beyond the free professions, hard sciences, and technocrats to scholars in the humanities and "soft" social sciences. He is concerned with how scholars in these disciplines both legitimized the regime's insistence that there was a "Jewish problem" to be solved and lent their expertise on Jewish matters to help the regime shape its destructive policies. Steinweis makes clear that this "tainted" scholarship was not done by a tiny minority of "quacks" and infiltrating radicals but was produced by respectable and mainstream scholars. --(Christopher R. Browning, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Claudia Koonz

In his meticulously researched study, Alan Steinweis reconstructs the academic networks that provided an aura of respectability for antisemitic persecution. Studying the Jew exposes the culpability of scholars who collaborated with Nazi race policy and nevertheless continued their careers after 1945 with barely a hitch. If one wants to understand the mentality of "desk murderers," this is an excellent place to start. --(Claudia Koonz, author of The Nazi Conscience)

Susannah Heschel

By demonstrating how Nazi scholars and professors perverted their scholarship with a hatred of Jews, Alan Steinweis has written a work of great importance. "Jewish Studies" was an antisemitic movement within the universities that included theologians, historians, sociologists, biologists, and others across the academic disciplines. This brilliant new book reveals how the academy became nazified, shaping a new interdisciplinary enterprise: pathologizing the Jew.
--(Susannah Heschel, author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus)