Bidspirit auction | ”Hitler Reads the Bible” —

”Hitler Reads the Bible” — An Early, unknown Satirical Publication: How the Bible Appears Through Adolf Hitler's Eyes. Presentation Copy Inscribed and Signed by the Author - ”The earth was without form and void—fire of battle, cannons, tanks, and bombs; darkness upon the face of the deep...”.  Hitler Reads the Bible, by Shimon Gans - a satirical work imagining how the weekly Torah portions and readings from the Prophets would be interpreted through the eyes of Adolf Hitler. An early satirical publication issued in the Land of Israel at the height of Hitler's rule, only a few months into the Second World War. Published by Kav Maginot, Tel Aviv, 1940. First edition. Presentation copy inscribed and signed by the author: ”To my dear friend Shmuel Brodner, with sentiments of friendship, Shimon Gans.” Unknown satirical work presenting the Hebrew Bible as if read through the eyes of Adolf Hitler. The author recasts passages from the Torah, Prophets, and Writings, imagining that Hitler perceives in Scripture nothing but dictatorship, bloodshed, and war. Thus, the account of Creation is transformed into Hitler's vision of the world: ”The earth was without form and void, fire of battle, cannons, tanks, and bombs; darkness upon the face of the deep...”. Each day of Creation brings forth new instruments of destruction: ”Let the earth bring forth poisonous gases and gunpowder, making deserts after their kind. And it was so.” The Garden of Eden becomes the ”Garden of War”: ”And G-d formed the Man of War from the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils a fiery soul; and the man became a fighting being.” The story of Sdom is inverted: ”Even if a million righteous men should be found in the city of Sodom, I will not destroy the crown of my Sodom.” Pharaoh's Dream becomes ”Hitler's Dream”: ”The seven withered ears are seven swastikas; they are seven years of Nazism... And the matter pleased Hitler well...”. In the section devoted to the Writings, Ezekiel's Vision of the Dry Bones is reimagined as the transformation of dry bones into machines of war. Job appears as ”Job in the Concentration Camp, ” where he is persecuted by Hitler, while Ecclesiastes is recast as ”Kohelet in Berlin”: ”And the swastika rises, and the swastika sets, and hastens back to Berlin, where it rises again... I, the Führer, dictator in Berlin, applied my heart to inquire into international Jewry and to search with racial wisdom into all that is done beneath the Judaized heavens. Evil indeed is racial science, and grievous is the occupation of war, which God has given me to afflict myself with, and in which pure racial blood is mingled with impure blood... He who increases peace increases sorrow.” The concluding vision of the End of Days imagines Hitler foreseeing the establishment of a worldwide dictatorial regime. 59 pages. Wear to the spine. Good condition.