I would guess that if you asked Jews what the worst book of the 20th century was, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) would be chosen by many or most Jews. The book was written by Adolf Hitler and published in two volumes in 1925 and 1926 while he was incarcerated as a result of his attempt to take over the German government by force in 1923. It contains many anti-Semitic themes and foreshadowed what he would do to European Jewry if he gained power.
Hitler repeatedly attacked the Jewish control of the media such as:
“The activity of the so-called liberal press was the work of gravediggers for the German people and the German Reich. One can pass by in silence the Marxist papers of lies; to them lying is as necessary to their life as catching mice is to the cat; but its task is only to break the people’s folkish and national spine, in order to make it ripe for the yoke of slavery of international capital and its masters, the Jews.” (pg. 331, Reynal & Hitchcock 1941 with annotations)
“The German government’s defensive against the press horde, slowly corrupting the nation, of chiefly Jewish origin and of Jewish journals, was without a straight line, without determination, but above all without any visible goal.” (pg. 331, 332)
“Surely in the future, the Jew will certainly raise an enormous clamor in his newspapers, once the hand is put on his favorite nest and an end is made of the misuse of the press, and once also this instrument of education is put into the service of the State and is no longer left in the hand of strangers and enemies of the people. But I also believe that this will annoy us younger ones less than it once did our fathers. A 30 cm. shell has always hissed more than a thousand Jewish newspaper vipers; therefore, let them hiss.” (pg. 336)
A couple of weeks ago, right after Attorney General Barr gave his four-page summary of the Mueller report, Alabama Republican Congressman Mo Brooks made a speech on the floor of the House in which he repeatedly referred to the “Democratic Socialists” and the “fake news media” who were perpetrating the Big Lie concerning the president. He decided to quote from Mein Kampf, where Hitler addressed the idea of the Big Lie. He did not quote from the remainder of the paragraph about the Big Lie, which stated:
“From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious community, whereas in reality they are a race? And what a race! One of the greatest thinkers that mankind has produced has branded the Jews for all time with a statement which is profoundly and exactly true. Schopenhauer called the Jew “The Great Master of Lies.” Those who do not realize the truth of that statement, or do not wish to believe it, will never be able to lend a hand in helping Truth to prevail.” (Jewish Virtual Library.org, p. 134)
There are so many books that address this issue, and yet Brooks felt the need to quote from the autobiography of the mastermind of the murder of six million Jews.
Furthermore, Brooks used the quote from Mein Kampf to address the issue of media bias. As the examples from Mein Kampf mentioned above indicate, Hitler believed that the media was controlled by the Jews. It did not bother Brooks that in the same paragraph that he quoted about the Big Lie, Hitler indicated that Jews are the masters of lying.
I would have expected a great outcry by the Jewish community. I waited a week to see if those who attack the Democrats for making statements or acts that could merely be interpreted as anti-Semitic or not being sensitive to the Jewish community would speak out. As I expected, they were quiet.
Besides Brooks’ insensitivity to the Jewish community in making these comments, it is shocking that he believed that since the Nazi Party used the world Socialist in their name, they were a Socialist party. He was not the only Republican to believe this. Rep. Louie Gohmert also made the same argument the next day. That misunderstanding could be excused in 1932; however, it is incomprehensible in 2019. It has been less than 75 years since the end of World War II, and two sitting members of Congress do not know that the Nazis were fascists and not socialists.
The Nazis, and in particular Hitler, are the poster child for fascism and not socialism. When this was pointed out to Gohmert by two Jewish members of Congress, Gohmert denied it.
Ignorance and insensitivity toward the Jewish community and implied anti-Semitism is alive in Congress on both sides of the aisle. When are the Jewish Trumpians going to speak up and criticize the Republican members of Congress?
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.