Hannah Arendt: Anti-semitism

Hannah Arendt's book, The Origins of Totalitarianism is split in to three parts. Anti-semitism, Imperialism and Totalitarianism. I hope to do three blogs in which I explain each one in simple detail. Meaning that you, as my reader understand fully what the book is about and the key elements of the book and Arendt's ideologies.

Rich Jews lead to a bad reaction from society:
- Neither oppression nor exploitation as such is ever the main cause for resentment; wealth without visible function is much more intolerable because nobody can understand why it should be tolerated. - This is what happened when noble people lost their privileges and we just rich people, people that the masses did not want to tolerate anymore; they got their money for doing nothing.
- This is then what happened to the Jews when they lost their public functions and their influence; they were left with nothing but their money. The masses then did not tolerate them because they were rich but did not do anything for the public.
- Same as the top point in the oppressor cannot oppress if the masses are not scared or do not respect them. “Organized hatred of the Jews cannot but be a reaction to their importance and power.”

- Arendt says that the Nazis sped up what was going to happen to the Jews anyway. The Jews were losing their key positions so rapidly that statisticians predicted its disappearance in a few decades.

Why the Jews were chosen as Hitlers scapegoat:
- Arendt says that as part of the scapegoat the Jews were chosen because they were innocent. Anyone could have been chosen but it was the Jews. They were “chosen regardless of what they may or may not have done.”
- The terror theory is that the Jews are innocent and that no matter what they do or say their fate is sealed even though they are innocent and the dictator/oppressor knows this.
- Plato said, “for from opinions comes persuasion and not from the truth” – means that it does not have to be the truth that persuasion comes from, it is an idea that is sprouted and then comes the persuasion.

How Jews did not fit in to the caste system:
- After the feudal order had been broken down people thought that everyone would start to be equal. This meant that the ‘nation-within-a-nation’ could no longer be tolerated. “Jewish restrictions and privileges had to be abolished together with all other special rights and liberties.”
- Germany was beginning to have a class system but the Jews did not fit in to the classes, they were their own group and did not have classes in the group. “They became a well-defined, self-preserving group within one of the classes, the aristocracy of the bourgeoisie.” These classes were the highest class. The Jews were not middle or lower class, they were at the top. They were not the proletariat being exposed and oppressed but the exploiter and the oppressor. This may have contributed to their hatred and anti-semitism.
- “Being born a Jew would either mean that one was over privileged – under special protection of government-or underprivileged, lacking certain rights and opportunities which were withheld from the Jews in order to prevent their assimilation.” Assimilation means: The process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs.

Jews in power:
- In the C17th and C18th Jews started to rise from nothing in to high positions of power. Then after the French Revolution, Princes had more at their disposal and wanted things only the Jews could offer. Then at the end of the C19th Jews lost their exclusive position in state business to imperialistically minded business men; they declined in importance as a group. “Although individual Jews kept their influence as financial advisers and as inter-European middlemen.”
- “Jewish wealth had become insignificant; to a inter-European solidarity, the non-national, inter-European Jewish element became an object of universal hatred because of its useless wealth, and of contempt because of its lack of power.”
- “Before the emancipation edicts, every princely household and every monarch in Europe already had a court Jew to handle financial business.” Jews were reliable and trusted to deal with people money and vast quantities of it. These Jews were individuals that had inter-European connections and inter-European credit at their disposal.

Allying with the Monarchs:
- Jews were the only ones left to help the nation state and willing to finance it after the nobility and the caste system had failed. Nobody would ally itself with the monarchy but the Jews. This then meant that they tied themselves to the future of the nation state and any further developments. This in turn gave the Jews equality. Even though the Jews doing the work were reluctant to the other Jews getting it when they were the ones taking the risks.

- The leftist movement of the lower middle class and the entire propaganda against banking capital turned more or less anti-semetic”. For the first time it looked like the Jews had come in to direct conflict between the classes without interference from the state. Also, because the Jews mainly dealt with large state loans they were seen to be getting close to political power. Another reason for the rest of society to not like the Jews.
- Jews began to lose their exclusive position to the governments in the C19th when , with the Imperialist expansion the state looked like more of an interesting business proposition and more and more people bought in to making it no longer exclusive and no longer just a Jewish job.
- Even when their exclusive financial elements were finished with others buying in to the business of government the Jews were still useful due to their inter-European element, their national status, due to their religion not being based in one country.

The Jews ignorance toward politics, society and the State:
- “Loyalty meant honesty; it did not mean taking sides in a conflict or remaining true for political reasons. To buy up provisions, to clothe and feed an army, to lend currency for the hiring of mercenaries, meant simply an interest in the well being of a business partner.” This means that the Jews did not have to support the government, their master had to and then the Jew would provide for its master who in turn was providing for the state. The Jews were purveyors in wars and servants of kings.
- “Just as the Jews ignored completely the growing tension between state and society, they were also the last to be aware that circumstances had forced them into the centre of the conflict.”
- The Jews were strong in number but weak in every other aspect. Jews had become a middle class but did not fill any of the jobs the middle class was meant to. As a result they stood in the way of industrialization and capitalization

Anti-semetic Parties:
- The anti-semetic parties claimed they were a party above all other parties. They wanted to, “represent the whole nation, to get exclusive power, to take possession of the state machinery, to substitute themselves for state”.
- The anti-semetic parties believed that if they attacked the Jews, who were believed to be the secret power behind governments, they could openly attack the state itself. The parties then wanted to rule over the nation and wanted the inter-European government, above all nations, (above all parties).

I hope that these notes of the first part of the book are useful and give a simpler insight in to Hannah Arendt's ideologies of anti-semitism.