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Götz Aly
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Why the Germans? Why the Jews?: Envy, Race Hatred, and the Prehistory of the Holocaust Kindle Edition

by Götz Aly (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 131 ratings
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A provocative and insightful analysis that sheds new light on one of the most puzzling and historically unsettling conundrums

Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Countless historians have grappled with these questions, but few have come up with answers as original and insightful as those of maverick German historian Götz Aly. Tracing the prehistory of the Holocaust from the 1800s to the Nazis' assumption of power in 1933, Aly shows that German anti-Semitism was—to a previously overlooked extent—driven in large part by material concerns, not racist ideology or religious animosity. As Germany made its way through the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, the difficulties of the lethargic, economically backward German majority stood in marked contrast to the social and economic success of the agile Jewish minority. This success aroused envy and fear among the Gentile population, creating fertile ground for murderous Nazi politics.

Surprisingly, and controversially, Aly shows that the roots of the Holocaust are deeply intertwined with German efforts to create greater social equality. Redistributing wealth from the well-off to the less fortunate was in many respects a laudable goal, particularly at a time when many lived in poverty. But as the notion of material equality took over the public imagination, the skilled, well-educated Jewish population came to be seen as having more than its fair share. Aly's account of this fatal social dynamic opens up a new vantage point on the greatest crime in history and is sure to prompt heated debate for years to come.

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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Metropolitan Books
  5. Publication date
    April 15, 2014
  6. File size
    772 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Aly is a historian specializing in the Third Reich and the Holocaust. In this provocative and disturbing book, he has set himself an impossible task: to explain why the effort to exterminate the Jews of Europe happened in Germany rather than other European nations with stronger histories of anti-­Semitism. Other historians have tried, most notably and recently Daniel Goldhagen, who saw eliminationist strains embedded in German culture. But Aly posits a simpler explanation. Despite Nazi ideology and incessant campaigning about the Jewish race, it was simple jealousy and greed that led to the persecution of Jews. He convincingly illustrates how German Jews were especially proficient in coping with the challenges of rapid industrialization and other aspects of modernity that swept Germany in the late nineteenth century. Despite their relatively small numbers, Jews rose to astounding heights in business, academia, and eventually politics. Their prominence seemed to threaten the status and well-being of other groups, especially in the lower middle class. When world depression devastated the German economy, Jewish wealth was fair game for plunder. Aly has provided a useful emphasis on this aspect of German anti-Semitism, but it is ultimately no more satisfying than earlier efforts to explain the unexplainable. --Jay Freeman

Review

“Brilliant, passionate, provocative.” ―Micha Brumlik, Die Zeit

“Consistently absorbing ... a penetrating and provocative study [that] offers shrewd insight into the German mindset over the last two centuries.” ―The Jewish Daily Forward

“The most important contribution to the massive literature on the subject. Aly's analysis of a deeply rooted social malady has made the incomprehensible comprehensible.” ―Michael Blumenthal, director of the Jewish Museum Berlin

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00FOBA3CK
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Metropolitan Books; First edition (April 15, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 15, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 772 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 131 ratings

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Götz Aly

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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
131 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Henry Carton
5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice Copy
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2024
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Delivered on time and a nice clean copy. Thanks
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Joris
4.0 out of 5 stars Scholarly discourse of German nationalist angst
Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2014
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German historian Götz Aly has built a well-deserved reputation for his innovative approach (re)examining the causes of the Holocaust and the rise of Nazism. Aside from a short case study, his works place (social)-economic considerations front and center. In his latest work, this this theme takes a backseat to fear and envy, though Aly is swift to point out its economic root causes. In well delineated chapters, Aly offers a rich analysis of German national identity and nationalist angst - the rise of the Jewish voice one amongst them - placing the latter as both a catalyst for and victim of internal turmoil. The book also provides rich cause and context for the indifference and latent animosity of many Germans to the fate of their Jewish peers; interspersing case studies and personal history; before completing with a chapter on the rise of the Nazi party. This book is intended for a scholarly audience and thus not necessarily a captivating read. It certainly does not (profess to) offer a comprehensive analysis to the rise of Nazism and the foundations of the Holocaust. However, Götz Aly fills in a part of the narrative that is often overlooked. As such, this is a valuable study.
7 people found this helpful
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Philip G. Eidelberg
5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding familiarity with pre 1933 German society.
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2015
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Very movingly and poignantly written.
The strong point of Aly is empathy: he identifies convincingly with both Jews and German anti Semites. The fact that he himself derives from a German Gentile family, many of whose members were themselves anti Semites gives him a special authenticity.

But I have several reservations:
1) He makes the German non Jews appear as dull witted simpletons and country bumpkins adapting to city life with great difficulty. How do you reconcile this picture with the general image abroad during the 19th and early 20th centuries of a highly sophisticated people excelling in science, technology and medicine?
2) It is understandable that the Germans should have been anti-Semitic. But even strong anti-Semitism bears little resemblance to Nazi anti Semitism. Traditional anti Semitism viewed Jews as disreputable human beings but human nonetheless. Nazi anti Semitism (Joseph Goebbels, Alfred Rosenberg, etc.) viewed Jews as "lice" or "bacteria" in human form, as Aly himself implies (206-207).
3) Traditional anti Semitism, as Aly himself stresses repeatedly, was opportunistic and pragmatic. Nazi anti Semitism was total - it refused to make any compromises whatsoever. Every single Jew had to be removed from German society, including Jews whose skills and knowledge would have been of great use to the Third Reich. This is in sharp contrast to anti Semitism in the Soviet Union. There, Jews in science and technology were discriminated against (for example they were much less likely to be promoted), but they were usually (if not always) allowed to keep their jobs. Stalin may have been strongly anti Semitic but even he allowed his foreign minister, Vladislav Molotov, to have a Jewish wife. Likewise, his minister of heavy industry, Lazar Kaganovich, was a Jew.
4) While Aly's bibliography is extensive and very knowledgeable, I was surprised at the omission of Peter Fritzsche's excellent Germans into Nazis (1998) which treats the same subject and from a similar perspective.
But I loved the book anyway, despite its limitations, if only for its outstanding familiarity with pre 1933 German society.
15 people found this helpful
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L. White
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book - logical arguments
Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2014
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Going back to 1800, this case lays out the basis for the hatred of Jews in Germany that led to the Holocaust. The premise is that the Jewish people were much more flexible than the Germans in taking advantage of opportunities and shows how the Germans twisted this Jewish passion for hard work as taking a "shortcut" as opposed to the "honest work" done by the Germans.

Professor Aly also shows the Weimar Republic in a much more favorable light than I have seen before, arguing that in fact it would have been successful but for some mistakes made -- that it was not in fact fundamentally flawed.

The book is very readable even though it is a translation -- a very good translation; I found only two minor disagreements with the translations made.
13 people found this helpful
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Jean Fried
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read if we want "never again"
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2015
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A new and very interesting explanation of the antisemitic murderous hatred of the German population after the First World War, leading to the physical extermination of the Jews: a kind of intellectual lethargy resulting from societal habits yielding a lack of confidence and development failures of the gentile German population, compared to their Jewish counterpart. As a result, a deep, murderous envy and the search for a scapegoat instead of assuming their own responsibility. And with the new rise of antisemitism linked to Islamism, this book provides fresh approaches of thought to the Middle East political situation and the demonization of Israel
One person found this helpful
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Richard E. Hegner
3.0 out of 5 stars Book offers an interesting thesis, but is not complete or convincing
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2015
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This book posits that the roots of German anti-Semitism prior to 1933 rested on envy of the Jews' relatively advanced economic and professional status. This is a plausible explanation but flies in the face of most of the vast literature on this subject, and the author makes no attempt to refute what other analyses present. Nor does he present the case for his thesis in a convincing fashion. Surely, other factors were also at play, since it is difficult to conceive of a Holocaust based merely on envy and jealousy, and of Germans' acquiescence in genocide solely because of these purported causes.

The book is also remarkably discursive and rambling. For example, it discusses the socioeconomic background of Nazi Gauleiter (regional officials), as if this were a contributing factor to the genocide. It is also rather poorly written--or the translation is a poor one. If you are seeking an explanation of German anti-Semitism, look elsewhere--the works of Michael Burleigh, Ian Kershaw, and even Daniel Goldhagen offer more complete and thorough analyses.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Haron Ezer
5.0 out of 5 stars Hollocaust or present antics
Reviewed in Canada on August 9, 2020
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An original relevant thesis not only applicable to Germany but insightful for America today. (Social nationalism and hatred )
Well written and well documented.
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Anna
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 12, 2017
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Fast delivery. Excellent book
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Ojeda, Eduardo
1.0 out of 5 stars is das in english sprache..aber ich wollte auf deutsch
Reviewed in Germany on October 2, 2016
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Ich habe bestellt das buch auf deutsch und sie senden auf english. Ich hofe kann ich retouren das buch und einkaufen das gleiche aber jetzt auf deutsch
2 people found this helpful
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