On the Jews and Their Lies

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Martin Luther's views on the Jews are described as racial or religious anti-Semitism, or as anti-Judaism. In his pamphlet Von den Juden und ihren Lügen (On the Jews and their Lies), published in 1543, he wrote that Jews' synagogues should be set on fire, prayerbooks destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes "smashed and destroyed," property seized, money confiscated, and that these "poisonous envenomed worms" be drafted into forced labor or expelled "for all time." He also appeared to sanction their murder: "Jerusalem was destroyed over 1400 years ago, and at that time we Christians were harassed and persecuted by the Jews throughout the world ... So we are even at fault for not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for 300 years after the destruction of Jerusalem ... We are at fault in not slaying them."

British historian Paul Johnson has called On the Jews and their Lies the "first work of modern anti-Semitism, and a giant step forward on the road to the Holocaust." Four centuries after it was written, the Nazis cited Luther's treatise to justify the Final Solution. Uwe Siemon-Netto, a veteran German journalist and Lutheran lay theologian working in the United States, argues against linking Luther to the anti-Semitism of the Nazis: "Most of Luther’s anti-Jewish diatribes were forgotten until anti-Semites dug them up in the 20th century. To suggest that Lutheran theology turned Germans into Nazis is a false charge that simply cannot be substantiated by the facts." Since the 1980s, Lutheran church bodies and organizations have begun a process of formally denouncing these writings.

Luther's statements about the Jews

Luther's Spalatin Letter

Luther's first known comment on the Jews is in a letter written to Reverend Spalatin in 1514:

I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted. He who neither reads nor understands this, as yet knows no theology, in my opinion. And I presume the men of Cologne cannot understand the Scripture, because it is necessary that such things take place to fulfill prophecy. If they are trying to stop the Jews blaspheming, they are working to prove the Bible and God liars.

But trust God to be true, even if a million men of Cologne sweat to make him false. Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working -- or rather playing -- from without. If these offences be taken away, worse will follow. For they are thus given over by the wrath of God to reprobation, that they may become incorrigible, as Ecclesiastes says, for every one who is incorrigible is rendered worse rather than better by correction.

Servitude of the Jews

In 1519, Luther challenged the doctrine "Servitus Judaeorum" ("Servitude of the Jews"), established in Corpus Juris Civilis by Justinian I in 529. He wrote: "Absurd theologians defend hatred for the Jews. ... What Jew would consent to enter our ranks when he sees the cruelty and enmity we wreak on them—that in our behavior towards them we less resemble Christians than beasts?"

Commentary on the Magnificat

In his commentary on the Magnificat, Martin Luther is critical of the emphasis Judaism places on God's Law. He states that they "undertook to keep the law by their own strength, and failed to learn from it their needy and cursed state." Yet, he concludes, that God's grace will continue for Jews as Abraham's descendents for all time, since they may always become Christians. "We ought...not to treat the Jews in so unkindly a spirit, for there are future Christians among them."

That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew

In his 1523 essay That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew, Luther condemned the inhuman treatment of the Jews and urged Christians to treat them kindly. Luther's fervent desire was that Jews would hear the Gospel proclaimed clearly and be moved to convert to Christianity. Thus he argued:

If I had been a Jew and had seen such dolts and blockheads govern and teach the Christian faith, I would sooner have become a hog than a Christian. They have dealt with the Jews as if they were dogs rather than human beings; they have done little else than deride them and seize their property. When they baptize them they show them nothing of Christian doctrine or life, but only subject them to popishness and monkery...If the apostles, who also were Jews, had dealt with us Gentiles as we Gentiles deal with the Jews, there would never have been a Christian among the Gentiles ... When we are inclined to boast of our position we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord. Therefore, if one is to boast of flesh and blood the Jews are actually nearer to Christ than we are...If we really want to help them, we must be guided in our dealings with them not by papal law but by the law of Christian love. We must receive them cordially, and permit them to trade and work with us, that they may have occasion and opportunity to associate with us, hear our Christian teaching, and witness our Christian life. If some of them should prove stiff-necked, what of it? After all, we ourselves are not all good Christians either.

Luther and Josel of Rosheim

In August 1536, Luther's prince Elector of Saxony John Frederick issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm. An Alsatian shtadlan, Rabbi Josel of Rosheim, asked a reformer Wolfgang Capito to approach Luther in order to obtain an audience with the prince, but Luther refused every intercession. In response to Josel, Luther referred to his unsuccessful attempts to convert the Jews: "... I would willingly do my best for your people but I will not contribute to your obstinacy by my own kind actions. You must find another intermediary with my good lord." Heiko Oberman notes this event as significant in Luther’s attitude toward the Jews: "Even today this refusal is often judged to be the decisive turning point in Luther’s career from friendliness to hostility toward the Jews." The order of expulsion was repealed after Josel found an occasion to appeal to the prince in 1539.

Main article: On the Jews and Their Lies

In On the Jews and Their Lies, written in 1543 three years before his death, Luther recommends that Jews be deprived of money, civil rights, religious teaching, and education, and that they be forced to labor on the land, or else be expelled from Germany and possibly killed.

He refers to Jews as "a brood of vipers and children of the devil" (from Matthew 12:34), "miserable, blind, and senseless", "truly stupid fools", "thieves and robbers", "lazy rogues", "daily murderers", and "vermin", likens them to "gangrene", and recommends that Jewish synagogues and schools be burned, their homes razed and destroyed, their writings confiscated, their rabbis forbidden to teach, their travel restricted, that lending money be outlawed for them, and that they be forced to earn their wages in farming. Luther advised "f we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs." In conclusion, he wrote:

There is no other explanation for this than the one cited earlier from Moses — namely, that God has struck with 'madness and blindness and confusion of mind.' So we are even at fault in not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians which they shed for three hundred years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the blood of the children they have shed since then (which still shines forth from their eyes and their skin). We are at fault in not slaying them. Rather we allow them to live freely in our midst despite all their murdering, cursing, blaspheming, lying, and defaming; we protect and shield their synagogues, houses, life, and property. In this way we make them lazy and secure and encourage them to fleece us boldly of our money and goods, as well as to mock and deride us, with a view to finally overcoming us, killing us all for such a great sin, and robbing us of all our property (as they daily pray and hope). Now tell me whether they do not have every reason to be the enemies of us accursed Goyim, to curse us and to strive for our final, complete, and eternal ruin!

Luther advocated an eight-point plan to get rid of the Jews either by religious conversion or by expulsion:

"First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. ..."
"Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. ..."
"Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. ..."
"Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ..."
"Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. ..."
"Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them. ... Such money should now be used in ... the following ... Whenever a Jew is sincerely converted, he should be handed ..."
"Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow... For it is not fitting that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove, feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants."
"If we wish to wash our hands of the Jews' blasphemy and not share in their guilt, we have to part company with them. They must be driven from our country" and "we must drive them out like mad dogs."

Schem Hamephoras and Luther's final sermon

Several months after publishing On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther wrote another attack on Jews titled Schem Hamephoras, in which he explicitly equated Jews with the Devil.

In his final sermon shortly before his death, Luther preached "We want to treat them with Christian love and to pray for them, so that they might become converted and would receive the Lord."

The influence of Luther's views

16th and 17th century

Paul Johnson notes Luther's influence on the fate of German Jews: "Luther was not content with verbal abuse. Even before he wrote his anti-Semitic pamphlet, he got Jews expelled from Saxony in 1537, and in the 1540s he drove them from many German towns; he tried unsuccessfully to get the elector to expel them from Brandenburg in 1543. His followers continued to agitate against Jews there: they sacked Berlin in 1572 and the following year finally got their way, the Jews being banned from the entire country."

In 1543, Luther's Prince, Elector John Frederick of Saxony, revoked some of the concessions he gave to Josel of Rosheim in 1539. Johann of Küstrin, Margrave of Neumark, repealed the safe conduct of Jews in his territories. Philip of Hesse added restrictions to his Order Concerning the Jews. No ruler attempted to enact all of Luther's recommendations.

During the twenty-five years following Luther's death, Luther's polemics had very little effect on the treatment of Jews. In the 1570s, however, Pastor Georg Nigrinus published a book, Enemy Jew, which reiterated Luther's anti-Jewish program of On the Jews and Their Lies, and Nikolaus Selnecker, one of the authors of the Formula of Concord, reprinted Luther's Against the Sabbatarians, On the Jews and Their Lies, and Vom Schem Hamphoras. Neither appear to have influenced either princes or the general population.

Luther's treatises against the Jews were reprinted early in the 17th century at Dortmund, where they were seized by the Emperor. In 1613 and 1617, they were again published at Frankfurt am Main in support of the banishment of Jews from Frankfurt and Worms. These editions were the last popular publication of these works prior to the 20th Century.

The Nazis

The line of "anti-Semitic descent" from Luther to Hitler is "easy to draw," according to American historian Lucy Dawidowicz. In her The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945, she writes that both Luther and Hitler were obsessed by the "demonologized universe" inhabited by Jews, with Hitler asserting that the later Luther, the author of On the Jews and Their Lies was the real Luther.

Dawidowicz writes that the similarities between Luther's anti-Jewish writings and modern anti-Semitism are no cooincidence, because they derived from a common history of Judenhass, which can be traced to Haman's advice to Ahasuerus, although modern German anti-Semitism also has its roots in German nationalism and Christian anti-Semitism, a foundation she says was laid by the Roman Catholic Church and "upon which Luther built."

Professor Robert Michael, Professor Emeritus of European History at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, has argued that Luther scholars who try to tone down Luther's views on the Jews ignore the murderous implications of his antisemitism. Michael argues that there is a "strong parallel" between Luther's ideas and the anti-Semitism of most German Lutherans throughout the Holocaust. Like the Nazis, Luther mythologized the Jews as evil, he writes. They could be saved only if they converted to Christianity, but their hostility to the idea made it inconceivable.

Luther's sentiments were widely echoed in the Germany of the 1930s, particularly within the Nazi party. Hitler's Education Minister, Bernhard Rust, was quoted by the Volkischer Beobachter as saying that: "Since Martin Luther closed his eyes, no such son of our people has appeared again. It has been decided that we shall be the first to witness his reappearance ... I think the time is past when one may not say the names of Hitler and Luther in the same breath. They belong together; they are of the same old stamp ".

Hans Hinkel, leader of the Luther League's magazine Deutsche Kultur-Wacht, and of the Berlin chapter of the Kampfbund, paid tribute to Luther in his acceptance speech as head of both the Jewish section and the film department of Goebbel's Chamber of Culture and Propaganda Ministry. "Through his acts and his spiritual attitude, he began the fight which we will wage today; with Luther, the revolution of German blood and feeling against alien elements of the Volk was begun. To continue and complete his Protestantism, nationalism must make the picture of Luther, of a German fighter, live as an example above the barriers of confession for all German blood comrades."

According to Daniel Goldhagen, Bishop Martin Sasse, a leading Protestant churchman, published a compendium Luther's writings shortly after Kristallnacht — which Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church in the University of Oxford argued Luther's writing was a "blueprint" for — in which Sasse "applauded the burning of the synagogues and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, "On November 10, 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany." The German people, he urged, ought to heed these words "of the greatest antisemite of his time, the warner of his people against the Jews."

William Nichols, Professor of Religious Studies, recounts, "At his trial in Nuremberg after the Second World War, Julius Streicher, the notorious Nazi propagandist, editor of the scurrilous antisemitic weekly, Der Stürmer, argued that if he should be standing there arraigned on such charges, so should Martin Luther. Reading such passages, it is hard not to agree with him. Luther's proposals read like a program for the Nazis." It was Luther's expression "The Jews are our misfortune" that centuries later would be repeated by Heinrich von Treitschke and appear as motto on the front page of Julius Streicher's Der Stürmer.

Some scholars have attributed the Nazi "Final Solution" directly to Martin Luther.. Others refute this point of view, pointedly taking issue with the thesis advanced by Shirer and others

Luthertag

In the course of the Luthertag (Luther Day) festivities, the Nazis emphasized their connection to Luther as being both nationalist revolutionaries and the heirs of the German traditionalist past. An article in the Chemnitzer Tageblatt stated that "he German Volk are united not only in loyalty and love for the Fatherland, but also once more in the old German beliefs of Luther ; a new epoch of strong, conscious religious life has dawned in Germany" and continues:

The leadership of the Protestant League espoused a similar view. Fahrenhorst, who was on the planning committee of the Luthertag, called Luther "the first German spiritual Fuhrer" who spoke to all Germans regardless of clamor confession. In a letter to Hitler, Fahrenhorst reminded him that his "Old Fighters" were mostly Protestants and that it was precisely in the Protestant regions of our Fatherland" in which Nazism found its greatest strength. Promising that the celebration of Luther's birthday would not turn into a confessional affair, Fahrenhorst invited Hitler to become the official patron of the Luthertag. In subsequent correspondence, Fahrenhorst again voiced the notion that reverence for Luther could somehow cross confessional boundaries: "Luther is truly not only the founder of a Christian confession; much more, his ideas had a fruitful impact on all Christianity in Germany." Precisely because of Luther's political as well as religious significance, the Luthertag would serve as a confession both "to church and Volk."

Luther's words and scholarship

Anglican Luther scholar Gordon Rupp wrote:

Luther's antagonism to the Jews was poles apart from the Nazi doctrine of "Race". It was based on medieval Catholic anti-semitism towards the people who crucified the Redeemer, turned their back on the way of Life, and whose very existence in the midst of a Christian society was considered a reproach and blasphemy. Luther is a small chapter in the large volume of Christian inhumanities toward the Jewish people.
...
"Needless to say, there is no trace of such a relation between Luther and Hitler. I suppose Hitler never once read a page by Luther. The fact that he and other Nazis claimed Luther on their side proves no more than the fact that they also numbered Almighty God among their supporters. Hitler mentions Luther once in Mein Kampf in a harmless context.

In his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William L. Shirer wrote:

It is difficult to understand the behavior of most German Protestants in the first Nazi years unless one is aware of two things: their history and the influence of Martin Luther. The great founder of Protestantism was both a passionate anti-Semite and a ferocious believer in absolute obedience to political authority. He wanted Germany rid of the Jews. Luther's advice was literally followed four centuries later by Hitler, Goering and Himmler.

Roland Bainton, noted church historian and Luther biographer, wrote with reference to On the Jews and Their Lies: "One could wish that Luther had died before ever this tract was written. His position was entirely religious and in no respect racial." In making this "declaration," "Roland Bainton effort is directed towards trying "to make the best of Luther," and "Luther's view of the Jews." This is later echoed by James M. Kittelson writing about Luther's correspondence with Jewish scholar Josel of Rosheim: "There was no anti-Semitism in this response. Moreover, Luther never became an anti-Semite in the modern, racial sense of the term."

Paul Halsall states, "In his Letters to Spalatin, we can already see that Luther's hatred of Jews, best seen in this 1543 letter On the Jews and Their Lies, was not some affectation of old age, but was present very early on. Luther expected Jews to convert to his purified Christianity. When they did not, he turned violently against them."

Gordon Rupp gives this evaluation of On the Jews and Their Lies: "I confess that I am ashamed as I am ashamed of some letters of St. Jerome, some paragraphs in Sir Thomas More, and some chapters in the Book of Revelation, and, must say, as of a deal else in Christian history, that their authors had not so learned Christ."

According to Heiko Oberman, "he basis of Luthers anti-Judaism was the conviction that ever since Christ's appearance on earth, the Jews have had no more future as Jews."

Richard Marius views Luther's remarks as part of a pattern of similar statements about various groups Luther viewed as enemies of Christianity. He states:

Although the Jews for him were only one among many enemies he castigated with equal fervor, although he did not sink to the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition against Jews, and although he was certainly not to blame for Adolf Hitler, Luther's hatred of the Jews is a sad and dishonorable part of his legacy, and it is not a fringe issue. It lay at the center of his concept of religion. He saw in the Jews a continuing moral depravity he did not see in Catholics. He did not accuse papists of the crimes that he laid at the feet of Jews.

Robert Waite, in his psychohistory of Hitler and Nazi Germany, devoted an entire section to Luther's influence on Hitler and Nazi ideology. He noted that Hitler kept a list of quotes from many prominent Germans (including Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzche, and Frederick the Great), as well as Luther, often using them out-of-context, and in a manner to make himself appear more well-read than he actually was.

Waite also compared his psychoanalysis with Erik Erikson's own psychoshistory of Luther, Young Man Luther and concluded that, had Luther been alive during the 1930s, he most likely would have spoke out against Nazi persecution of Jews, even if this placed his life in danger, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer (a Lutheran pastor) did. Waite, Robert G.L. The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. New York: First DaCapo Press Edition, 1993 (orig. pub. 1977). ISBN 0-306-80514-6.

In 1988 Lutheran theologian Stephen Westerholm argued that Luther's attacks on Jews were part and parcel of his attack on the Catholic Church — that Luther was applying a Pauline critique of Phariseism as legalistic and hypocritical to the Catholic Church. Westerholm rejects Luther's interpretation of Judaism and his apparent anti-Semitism but points out that whatever problems exist in Paul's and Luther's arguments against Jews, what Paul, and later, Luther, were arguing for was and continues to be an important vision of Christianity.

Reactions of Christian church bodies

Lutherans

In 1983, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, noting that "Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism are a continuing problem in our world," made an official statement disassociating themselves from what they describe as "intemperate remarks about Jews" in Luther's works.

In 1994, the Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America publicly rejected Luther's anti-Semitic statements, saying:

In the spirit of that truth-telling, we who bear his name and heritage must with pain acknowledge also Luther's anti-Judaic diatribes and the violent recommendations of his later writings against the Jews. As did many of Luther's own companions in the sixteenth century, we reject this violent invective, and yet more do we express our deep and abiding sorrow over its tragic effects on subsequent generations. In concert with the Lutheran World Federation, we particularly deplore the appropriation of Luther's words by modern anti-Semites for the teaching of hatred toward Judaism or toward the Jewish people in our day.

The statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada to the Jewish Community in Canada issued in 1995 says in part:

Lutherans belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada carry a special burden in this matter because of the anti-Semitic statements made by Martin Luther and because of the suffering inflicted on Jews during the Holocaust in countries and places where the Lutheran Church is strongly represented.

In 1998, the Austrian Evangelical Church declared that

not only individual Christians but also our churches share in the guilt of the Holocaust/Shoah. ... we as Protestant Christians are burdened by the late writings of Luther and their demand for expulsion and persecution of the Jews. We reject the contents of these writings..

In the same year, the Land Synod of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria issued a declaration saying in part:

It is imperative for the Lutheran Church, which knows itself to be indebted to the work and tradition of Martin Luther, to take seriously also his anti-Jewish utterances, to acknowledge their theological function, and to reflect on their consequences. ... The Lutheran Church of Bavaria... knows itself to be co-responsible for anti-Jewish thoughts and actions that made possible or at least tolerated the crimes of the "Third Reich" against children, women, and men of Jewish origin.

The statement went on to say that while there were in the Lutheran Church of Bavaria who recognized the issue, "the church as a whole did not take seriously the so-called Jewish Question as a theological issue."

Notes

Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987), p. 242.
Uwe Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews." Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19.
Martin Luther, "On the Jews and Their Lies," Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), pp. 268-271.
Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter, 46:4 (Autumn 1985), pp. 343.
On the Jews and Their Lies quoted in Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter, 46:4, (Autumn 1985), pp. 343-4.
^ Johnson, A History of the Jews, p. 242.
Egil Grislis, "Martin Luther and the Jews," Consensus 27 (2001) No. 1:64.
Uwe Siemon-Netto, "Luther and the Jews." Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:19, 21."
^ "Q&A: Luther's Anti-Semitism", Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. (Retrieved December 15, 2005); http://www.elca.org/ecumenical/interfaithrelations/jewish/declaration.html "Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community]", ELCA, April 18, 1994. (Retrieved December 15, 2005);"Statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada to the Jewish Communities in Canada", ELCIC, July 12 - 16, 1995. (Retrieved December 20, 2005); Time to Turn. The Evangelical Churches in Austria and the Jews. Declaration of the General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B., October 28, 1998. (Retrieved December 18, 2005); "Christians and Jews: A Declaration of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria", November 24, 1998. (Retrieved December 18, 2005) Also printed in Freiburger Rundbrief 6:3 (1999), pp.191-197. Cite error: The named reference "declaration1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
Martin Luther, "Luther to George Spalatin," in Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporaneous Letters, trans. Henry Preserved Smith (Philadelphia: Lutheran Publication Society, 1913), 1:29.
Luther quoted in Elliot Rosenberg, But Were They Good for the Jews? (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997), p.65.
Martin Luther, The Magnificat, Trans. A. T. W. Steinhaeuser, in Luther's Works (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1956), 21:354.
Russell Briese, "Martin Luther and the Jews," Lutheran Forum 34 (2000) No. 2:32.
Luther, Magnificat, 21:354f.
Martin Luther, "That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew," Trans. Walter I. Brandt, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1962), pp. 200-201, 229.
Martin Brecht, Martin Luther (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1985-1993), 3:336.
Luther’s letter to Rabbi Josel as cited by Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther and the Jews (London: The Council of Christians and Jews, 1972), 14. According to , this paragraph is not available in the English edition of Luther’s works.
Heiko Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil (New York: Image Books, 1989), p.293.
Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies, Trans. Martin H. Bertram, in Luther's Works (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), 47:267.
Luther, On the Jews, 47:268-288, 292.
"Reformation", Florida Holocaust Museum. (Retrieved December 15, 2005)
Martin Luther, D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesamtausgabe, Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger, 1920),51:195. Hereafter cited WA.
Mark U. Edwards, Jr. Luther's Last Battles: Politics and Polemics, 1531-46 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), pp. 135-136.
Johannes Wallmann, "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." Lutheran Quarterly ns 1 (1987) No. 1:72-78.
Wallman, p. 78.
Lucy Dawidowicz. The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945. First published 1975; this Bantam edition 1986, p.23. ISBN 055334532X
^ Cite error: The named reference Dawidowicz was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Robert Michael, "Luther, Luther Scholars, and the Jews," Encounter 46:4 (Autumn 1985), pp. 339-56.
Volkischer Beobachter, August 25, 1933 cited in Steigmann-Gall, Richard. The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1991-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 136-7. ISBN 0521823714
Steigmann-Gall 2003, p. 137.
Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd, 2004, pp. 666-667.
Bernd Nellessen, "Die schweigende Kirche: Katholiken und Judenverfolgung," in Büttner (ed), Die Deutchschen und die Jugendverfolg im Dritten Reich, p. 265, cited in Daniel Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners (Vintage, 1997).
William Nichols, Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1995), p. 271.
William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990), 91, 236
Uwe Siemon-Netto, The Fabricated Luther: The Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth, (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995), 17-20.
Richard Steigmann-Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945, (Cambridge University Press, 2003), p.138.
Gordon Rupp, Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure? (London: Lutterworth Press, 1945), p. 75.
Rupp, p. 84.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), p.236.
Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1978), p. 297.
Richard Marius. Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death, (Harvard University Press, 1999), 377.
James M. Kittelson, Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career, (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), p. 274.
Halsall, Paul, ed., Internet History Sourcebooks Project. (Retrieved April 25, 2006)
Halsall, Paul, Medieval Sourcebook: Martin Luther (1483-1546), Internet History Sourcebooks Project, Fordham University. (Retrieved January 4, 2005)
Rupp, p. 76.
Heiko Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984), p.46.
Richard Marius, Martin Luther: The Christian Between God and Death (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), p.482.
Declaration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Jewish Community, April 18, 1994, www.elca.org. Retrieved December 15, 2005.
Statement by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada to the Jewish Communities in Canada. 5th Biannual Convention of the ELCIC, July 12 - 16, 1995. Retrieved December 20, 2005.
Time to Turn. The Evangelical Churches in Austria and the Jews. Declaration of the General Synod of the Evangelical Church A.B. and H.B. (October 28, 1998). Retrieved December 18, 2005.
Christians and Jews A Declaration of the Lutheran Church of Bavaria] (November 24, 1998). Retrieved December 18, 2005. Also printed in Freiburger Rundbrief, vol. 6, no. 3 (1999), pp.191-197.

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Halpérin, Jean, and Arne Sovik, eds. Luther, Lutheranism and the Jews: A Record of the Second Consultation between Representatives of The International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultation and the Lutheran World Federation Held in Stockholm, Sweden, 11-13 July 1983. Geneva: LWF, 1984.
Johnson, Paul. A History of the Jews. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1987. ISBN 0060915331.
Kaennel, Lucie. Luther était-il antisémite? (Luther: Was He an Antisemite?). Entrée Libre N° 38. Geneva: Labor et Fides, 1997. ISBN 2830908694.
Kittelson, James M. Luther the Reformer: The Story of the Man and His Career. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986. ISBN 0806622407.
Luther, Martin. "On the Jews and Their Lies, 1543". Martin H. Bertram, trans. In Luther's Works. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971. 47:137-306.
Oberman, Heiko A. The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation. James I. Porter, trans. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984. ISBN 0800607090.
Rosenberg, Elliot, But Were They Good for the Jews? (New York: Birch Lane Press, 1997). ISBN 1559724366.
Roynesdal, Olaf. Martin Luther and the Jews. Ph.D. diss., Marquette University, 1986.
Rupp, Gordon. Martin Luther: Hitler's Cause or Cure? In Reply to Peter F. Wiener. London: Lutterworth Press, 1945.
Siemon-Netto, Uwe. The Fabricated Luther: the Rise and Fall of the Shirer Myth. Peter L. Berger, Foreward. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1995. ISBN 0570048001.
Siemon-Netto, Uwe. "Luther and the Jews". Lutheran Witness 123 (2004)No. 4:16-19. (PDF)
Steigmann-Gall, Richard. The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919-1945. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ISBN 0521823714.
Tjernagel, Neelak S. Martin Luther and the Jewish People. Milwaukee: Northwestern Publishing House, 1985. ISBN 0810002132.
Wallmann, Johannes. "The Reception of Luther's Writings on the Jews from the Reformation to the End of the 19th Century." Lutheran Quarterly 1 (Spring 1987) 1:72-97.

External links

On the Jews and their Lies (excerpts) at Medieval Sourcebook
Martin Luther and the Jews (PDF) by Albrecht, Mark. Essays Online Mequon, WI: Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, 1999.
Antisemitism - Reformation from the Florida Holocaust Museum.
Luther and the Jews (PDF) by Siemon-Netto, Uwe. Lutheran Witness 123 (2004) No. 4:16-19.
Martin Luther article in Jewish Encyclopedia (1906 ed.) by Gotthard Deutsch
Martin Luther’s Attitude Toward The Jews by James Swan
HTML Version in 4 parts from adolfhitler.ws

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