Bidspirit auction | ”Wasn't your surname Cohen? As

”Wasn't your surname Cohen? As such, you possess racial characteristics that are hostile to our German spirit...” - Early ”Personal Letter” - Gleichgeschalteter Abschiedsbrief (”Politically Coordinated Farewell Letter”) - An early anti-Nazi publication satirizing the process of Gleichschaltung and the infiltration of Nazi racial ideology into the emotional lives of German youth following Hitler's rise to power. Presented in the form of a fictional letter purportedly written by a young woman to her former Jewish boyfriend, from whom she is compelled to part solely because of his Jewish ancestry. Nazi Germany, [1933]. German. A document written in the form of a farewell letter from a young German woman to her Jewish sweetheart following the Nazi rise to power and the imposition of the racial laws. The ”letter” was intended to ridicule the absurdity, racism, and totalitarian intrusion of Nazi ideology into private life and human emotions. The author deliberately employs the infamous German term Gleichschaltung, which described the process by which every institution of German society, culture, and private life was brought under complete Nazi control in 1933. Written in an ironic and biting tone, the letter depicts how an innocent and deeply human romantic relationship is mechanically and coldly dismantled in the name of racial doctrine, state decrees, and institutionalized racism. ”My dear Fritz, I can no longer love you, because your grandmother is not of impeccable ancestry. I know, my darling, that this will make you very sad, but things are no longer as they were back in May. For in May, when our friendship began, we simply and naturally loved one another. We kissed each other and were like companions on life's journey, that was the curse of the Weimar system. We dreamed of weekends by the seaside and paid little attention to matters of race. We were always happy together; even the gloomiest day seemed as blue as the sky. Those were beautiful times - there is no denying it. We never asked about race or blood, nor did we struggle with matters of belief, because our only creed was this: that we were good to one another. My dear Fritz, the spirit of the times has changed. I have awakened from my Sleeping Beauty slumber, and today, as a German girl, I must ask you: was what we did truly in keeping with the national spirit? You must not take this personally. I am thinking now of the Volk and the nation, and I do not wish to be ashamed of what existed between us, but objectively speaking—wasn't your surname Cohen? As such, you possess racial characteristics that are hostile to our German spirit. (Heavens, I do not wish to hurt you. I loved you - but love, after all, is blind.) Now I see clearly. I have become German once again, and I am breaking with you because you are a stranger. A German man is coming to put me in line, approved by the Racial Office, dressed in a brown shirt. Farewell, Fritz, and try to understand that our parting is only natural. In the Third Reich, one must whistle away love, for it is the State, totalitarianism itself—that commands us. You were a dear young man, or so I believe, but unfortunately you are racially inferior. It is difficult for me, Fritz, but I do not wish to cry, because a German woman bears such things with composure.” The letter was apparently written by members of the opposition, German émigrés, or Jewish critics of the Nazi regime. It reflects the immediate reality of 1933, when social and political pressure in Germany led to the dissolution of relationships between Jews and non-Jews even before the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws on September 15, 1935, which formally prohibited such relationships as ”racial defilement.” The letter satirizes a phenomenon that had only begun to emerge on a relatively limited scale at the time - the transformation of ordinary citizens into obedient automatons willing to sacrifice their personal emotions for the totalitarian state. Its typewritten format on plain paper is characteristic of the satirical texts and poems that circulated clandestinely during this period, in émigré publications or among opponents of the regime, exposing both the absurdity and the terror of the new ideology. [1] typewritten leaf. 26×21 cm. Fold marks. Good condition.