Bidspirit auction | Johannes Pohl - a sharply

Johannes Pohl - a sharply anti-Semitic publication distorting the “Spirit of the Talmud” of the Jews. Berlin, 1941 - First edition - “Hatred of Jews toward the nations of the world runs like a red thread through the text of the Talmud, which extends over thousands of folio pages...” - Talmud-Geist (“Spirit of the Talmud”), an anti-Semitic publication by the anti-Semitic librarian Johannes Pohl, who was effectively responsible for the plundering of the cultural treasures of the Jews of Vienna. Published by the Nazi SS Nordland Verlag. Berlin, 1941 - First edition. Extremely rare. German. An anti-Semitic publication presenting the Talmud and Jewish tradition in a distorted manner in order to justify the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Throughout the book, partial quotations, falsified contexts, and false claims are employed - supposedly in the name of halakha, the Talmud, and Jewish tradition, as if the Jewish religion commands its adherents to hate the non-Jew, persecute him, murder him, and promises its believers a reward for this in the World to Come. The author claims that the Jews maintained an extensive internal system of self-censorship over hundreds of years, in order to alter expressions that appeared in the original text of the Talmud so that the nations of the world would not “discover” the Jews’ secret. He then chooses to focus on those passages in the Talmud from which a supposedly hostile attitude toward non-Jews emerges, “statements filled with hatred and contempt” - as well as what he calls the “war propaganda” of the Talmud, citing passages that allegedly deal with Jewish world domination, and what he describes as “various offenses such as usury, fraud, deceit, exploitation, theft, robbery, tax and wage evasion, permissive rulings regarding non-Jewish property, and more, ” concluding: “Hatred of Jews toward non-Jews runs like a red thread through the text of the Talmud, which extends over thousands of folio pages...”. The book is filled throughout with harsh statements of hatred such as: “Judaism comes from a world that is an abomination to European sensibilities, ” “It is a fossilized religion..., ” “Incitement to hatred against non-Jews is part of the Jewish religion, ” “A characteristic feature of the Jewish Talmud is that it deals extensively with the dark and shadowy aspects of human life... it may be called a doctrine of sin rather than a doctrine of morality.” Countless passages from the Jewish Talmud are quoted in a distorted manner, through which the author seeks to “expose” to the German reader the “truth” about Judaism. In a chapter titled: “From Talmudic Ethics, ” the author claims that Judaism incites the murder of non-Jews, thereby effectively creating a blood libel in the spirit of Nazi Germany, supposedly based on Jewish sources. The rhetorical mechanism of the book consists of taking complex halakhic rulings, written among rabbis within a specific historical-legal context, and removing them from their context in order to create an impression of hostility, scheming, and hatred toward non-Jews. A ridiculous use is made here of omissions, abridgments, and the substitution of terms (such as “Akum, ” “goy, ” “Kuti, ” “mumar”) in order to make it easier for the unskilled reader to link halakha with modern racial propaganda. Pamphlets of this kind were intended to present themselves as mediators between a complex, closed, and multi-layered world of Jewish halakha and a simple, stereotypical, and suspicious image, exploiting the reader’s ignorance of the internal Jewish code. A reader who had no prior familiarity with Judaism encountered for the first time the concept of the “Shulchan Aruch” through a caricatured presentation, ostensibly built on “quotations” that “prove” hatred or discrimination. Judaism was transformed in the eyes of the reader from a religious-legal tradition into a foreign and hostile phenomenon, and the atmosphere of the book presents to the reader a kind of “Jewish secret” that has been revealed. The author Johannes Pohl (1904–1960), a German priest, a National Socialist - who was responsible for the destruction of the spiritual treasures of the Jews of Vilna. Pohl worked in the Eastern Department of the Prussian State Library between the years 1935–1936 and between 1939–1941. Pohl, who was then dismissed from his position as a priest, became increasingly enthusiastic about National Socialism and joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1940. He wrote for Mitteilungen über die Judenfrage (“Communications on the Jewish Question”), published by the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question, as well as for the anti-Semitic weekly newspaper Der Stürmer, founded by Julius Streicher. During World War II, Pohl established collaborative ties with Rosenberg’s office. Based on these connections, in 1941 he became a librarian at the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Question. At the invitation of Alfred Rosenberg, Pohl,