{"id":316,"date":"1942-01-31T16:44:04","date_gmt":"1942-01-31T21:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/?p=316"},"modified":"2017-01-31T21:21:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-01T02:21:00","slug":"hitler-accuses-roosevelt-jews-in-speech-at-berlin-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/1942\/01\/31\/hitler-accuses-roosevelt-jews-in-speech-at-berlin-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitler Accuses Roosevelt, Jews in Speech at Berlin Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adolf Hitler declared Franklin D. Roosevelt the \u201cnumber one enemy\u201d and blamed both world wars on the Jewish people in his annual address to the people of Germany last night. <\/span><\/p>\n

President Roosevelt celebrated his 60<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> birthday the same way he\u2019s celebrated it for nine years, since Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Every year, on the day that the United States president enjoys festivities (or at least cake) in his honor, Hitler offers what seems like the same speech to the people of his nation. While the responding American citizens now expect outrageous baseless comments, antagonism, and egotism, last night\u2019s speech featured alarmingly sharp and brand new accusations. <\/span><\/p>\n

Roosevelt and Hitler have been in political contention ever since they each assumed power in 1933. During last night\u2019s speech, however, Hitler alleged that Roosevelt had been plotting the downfall of the German people from before his time in office. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hitler dramatically asserted that the \u201cgrand colonial power\u201d of Germany received unwarranted attacks in the first world war, this time blaming Roosevelt specifically for every grievance to affect German citizens since 1918. Obviously, that accusation is out of date, as Roosevelt hadn\u2019t been in a direct position of power, but rather the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Great War. It must have surprised the president to hear that he should assume the weight of Woodrow Wilson\u2019s decisions as president. Second, Germany initiated the war by invading Belgium in 1914, as it would do again in 1940.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the factual inaccuracies, Hitler (and by default his minister of propaganda, Josef Goebbels) pursued a narrative of anti-Americanism, targeting Roosevelt as the purveyor of the \u201cevils\u201d that befall Hitler\u2019s constituents. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Hitler delivers a speech declaring war against the United States, Dec. 11, 1941. From Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe shall see who wins this war,\u201d Hitler said last night. \u201cThose who have nothing to lose and everything to gain, or those who have everything to lose and nothing to gain.\u201d Understanding the strategic framing of this war from the German perspective by Hitler and Goebbels is crucial to realizing the weight that the cultural controversies have. This war is not about land so much as it is about ideology. Americans side with equal and fair democracy, and Germany stands with outlandish egotism and unrelenting dictatorship. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hitler sugarcoated the allegations of Roosevelt with the evidently more digestible notion that Jews had been the sole \u201cbut for cause\u201d in both wars. Had the Jews not been part of the equation, Hitler argued, the wars wouldn\u2019t have taken place. This was a predictable theme. Since the late 30s, the Nazi regime has slowly closed in on German Jews, ensuring an exclusionary existence. Those familiar with Hitler\u2019s work \u201cMein Kampf\u201d could see this coming. However, the implications of this accusation, while mild in comparison to his accusations against the U.S. and its allies, could be large and grave. <\/span><\/p>\n

Citizens of the U.S. often question the intentions of the German people and wonder at their apparent\u00a0ignorance when they willingly accept the accusations that Hitler tosses at them. How can people accept his word as fact, when he has contradicted himself and his messaging is inconsistent? How can they trust a man with such ludicrous allegations?<\/span><\/p>\n

James Ferguson, a BBC analyst, begins to address these questions: \u201cGerman morale is deteriorating but not German tenacity. That tenacity is no longer based on a feeling of confidence, but on a feeling of fear \u2013 a sense of danger\u2026 The German people today are tough but they are not confident. They are strong but they know they are no longer attacking but being attacked.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Sources:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

McCormick, Anne. \u201cHitler\u2019s Birthday Greeting To The President.\u201d New York Times.\u00a0<\/i><\/span>Jan, 31, 1942, p. 16.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHITLER TO HIS PEOPLE.\u201d New York Times.<\/em>\u00a0Jan 31, 1942, p. 16<\/span><\/p>\n

James, Edwin L. \u201cAgain Hitler Rewrites Vital Page of History: Fuehrer Gives Roosevelt 1918 Role he Did Not Have and gets Mixed Up About British Empire.\u201d New York Times. <\/i>Feb 1, 1942.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harris, George. \u201cIF HITLER WINS THE WAR: How Would Colored Americans Fare Under Hitler-Ruled U. S. A.\u201d New York Amsterdam Star-News<\/i>. Feb 7, 1942; pg. 12. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adolf Hitler declared Franklin D. Roosevelt the \u201cnumber one enemy\u201d and blamed both world wars on the Jewish people in his annual address to the people of Germany last night. President Roosevelt celebrated his 60th birthday the same way he\u2019s celebrated it for nine years, since Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. Every year, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3651,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-war-in-europe","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8bpwr-56","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3651"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":707,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/ww2-0\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}