Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

Online  -­‐  ANTH  101:  Human  Bio-­‐Cultural   Origins   C O U R S E D E S C R I P T I O N

This course will introduce students to the study of biological anthropology. Anthropology is defined as the study of humans; therefore this course will focus on the evolution of humans and their closest relatives. We will delve into the theory of evolution (the development of the theory and the people behind the breakthrough), genetics (the proof needed to make evolution stick), human biology and variation, primatology, and the fossil record of the primate order (which includes humans). We will also investigate archaeological inquiries that have shaped much of what is known about past cultures.

I N S T R U C T O R : Sam Kobari Office: Arts and Letters 474 Office Hours: Thursdays 11:00 – 12:00 or by appointment. Email: skobari@mail.sdsu.edu Email is the best way to reach me. NOTE: I will try my best to return your emails promptly (at most 24 hours). However, I am away from Internet access most weekends. Emails sent to me Friday afternoons will not be read until Monday morning.

Teaching Assistant:

TBD. I will make an announcement C O U R S E O B J E C T I V E : GE Fulfillment: This course will count as 3 units toward your overall unit requirement. This course is part of the foundations courses for Natural Sciences required for all undergraduates. As a natural science class, the goal of this course is to improve your ability to:

1.   Understand and explain the fundamentals of evolutionary theory. 2.   Identify lines of human ancestry in the fossil record. 3.   Recognize how the study of nonhuman primates contributes to biological

anthropology. 4.   Differentiate between myths and reality regarding human variation around the

world. 5.   Demonstrate knowledge of the complex interface between biology and culture.

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

R E Q U I R E D M A T E R I A L :

Textbook: Is going to be available via Immediate Access Required course materials for this class, Larsen: Our Origins 4th edition with InQuizitive ISBN 9780393614947, are provided in a 180 day subscription digital format by the first day of classes and are free through Sept 11th at 11:59PM. After Sept 11th, your SDSU student account will be charged a special reduced price of $63.00 for access to the content in Blackboard for the remainder of the fall semester unless you opt-out of the content by 11:59 PM on Sept 11th. To opt out visit: www.shopaztecs.com/optout . For more information visit: www.shopaztecs.com/immediateaccess . Additionally, after the opt-out period ends and if you remain in the program, a reduced price print add-on will be available for $31.99 if you prefer print. For those opting out, you will need to procure digital and/or print materials at regular pricing through the bookstore or elsewhere. If you find another way to get the book and decide to opt out of immediate access, you are still going to have to register and pay for InQuizitive access separately. This costs $20.

InQuizitive: We will be using supplemental online material called InQuizitive in this course. Access to InQuizitive is included in the immediate access program. Meaning, if you do not opt out, you will have access to InQuizitive as well as use of the ebook. As stated above, if you do opt out and get the textbook through other means, you are going to have to sign up for InQuizitive separately. This costs $20 on top of the price of a textbook.

G R A D I N G :

The class will be based on a total of 100 percent. These percentage points will come from exams, participation, and assignments. Grades will not be curved. The total percentage earned will determine the grade:

100%-94%=A 93%-90% =A-   89%-87%=B+ 86%-84%=B 83%-80=B- 79%-77%=C+ 76%-74%=C 73%-70%=C- 69%-67%=D+ 66%-64%=D 63%-60%=D-

59% and lower=F

Points versus Weight: Your grade in this course is decided by the percentage each assignment is worth. Therefore, adding up all of the points you have earned will not give you an accurate grade. Please see me if this does not make sense.

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

B L A C K B O A R D a n d I N Q U I Z I T I V E : As this is an online course, all pertinent activity will take place on Blackboard.

InQuizitive is also going to be a large part of your overall grade (see below) Students should familiarize themselves with maneuvering around material with ease. Make sure you can maneuver through Blackboard in general and this course’s page in particular. I will post regular updates on Blackboard, as well as the weekly course material (described in detail below). Assessment for this course will be conducted on Blackboard. Make sure your email address listed on Blackboard is current, as that is the email address to which my announcements will be sent. Please look at Blackboard errors below.

S T U D E N T S W I T H D I S S A B L I L I T E S :

If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.

C O U R S E S T R U C T U R E :

Overview- Your grade in the course will be determined by the following: 35% contributions to weekly discussion board 30% successful completion of weekly InQuizitive 10% successful completion of weekly homework assignments 10% for exams 15% for a research paper

Every Monday, by 5:00 pm the entry point for the course will be adjusted in

Blackboard so that by clicking on the link to the course you will be directed to the correct week containing all relevant material. All material will be due by the following Monday at 11:59pm. This will give you a whole week to complete all assignments. DO NOT procrastinate. If you waited until 11 pm on Monday to start and suddenly your Internet goes out, you will not be allowed to make up anything.

Weekly modules will be broken down in the following order: Week Outline, Readings, Lectures, Discussion Board, Weekly Homework, InQuizitive assignment, and other relevant videos or links. Below is an explanation of what is expected of you regarding each section.

Time zone: All due dates and times are through Pacific Time Zone (San Diego’s time).

Lectures

Every week there will be a several (several means anywhere from 1 to 5) lectures posted. Lectures will be about 5 to 10 minutes in length. These lectures are intended to complement weekly readings by either reiterating certain points, providing clarification on some details, or providing further information I want you to learn. There may be a week or two where I will have a video in place of a lecture. Homework questions as well as exam questions will be based in part off of these lectures/videos.

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

Readings

There are going to be weekly readings. These readings will primarily be from your text. I will occasionally add articles as well. Weekly homework and InQuizitive questions will, in part, come from your readings. Please keep up with the readings to be able to keep up with the course. Lectures complement readings, they do NOT replace them. You will be lost and will not do well if you neglect weekly reading assignments.

Discussion Board Every week there will be a theme/question/prompt for the discussion board. In

order to get full credit you will need to provide an original post addressing that week’s prompt and reply to at least two threads other than your own. Each week’s discussion board is worth 40 points. You will get 30 points for an original post and 5 points for each reply. You may reply to a post made on your thread, but it will not count as one of your replies. Discussions go live on Monday and all of your posts and replies are due the following Monday by 11:59 pm. Do not procrastinate.

Although a discussion board can be fun and you may communicate colloquially, we are in college. This means that your posts are to be full sentences, with proper grammar. You have some time to submit a post, therefor I expect thought and substance. All comments are expected to be courteous and respectful (see “netiquette” below). I will be monitoring the discussion board. If I find that your post is lacking substance, with just a few thrown together words, I do reserve the right to deduct points or give you a zero for that week. Similarly, if any of your posts are vulgar or rude, I will deduct points.

Things to keep in mind for discussion boards: Once again, I am going to emphasis that your original posts are detailed and well written.

Break them down into paragraphs. Discussions are going to be the lion’s share of your grade in this class, take some time with them.

There is no statute of limitation for me to deduct points earned. For example, say it’s the 10th week of class and you make a subpar, unacceptable post, which puts you on my radar. I start looking at all of your posts from previous weeks and find you gave a one word post or response in Week 1 that was somehow overlooked. I can and will deduct points for both weeks.

You will not be able to reply to other classmates’ posts until you have submitted your own original post. I encourage all of you to submit an original post by Wednesday at the very latest.

Your replies are to be more than “ya I agree…” Think about what your classmates are posting. Full credit will be given to those that provide good substance in their replies.

I recommend you subscribe to you threads. This way you will get an email when someone comments on your post.

On the discussion forum you can also select “collect” on the top right corner. This will open all discussions so that you can see their content without having to click on them individually.

CITE! You are going to have the whole Internet at your disposal. You are more than welcome to research answers from outside sources. Make sure you do not copy and paste. I will count this as cheating and fail you from the discussion and possibly from the class. Even when you are using your own words cite your sources at the bottom.

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

Weekly Homework on Blackboard There will be weekly homework assignments. These will be a series of either

multiple-choice or true-or-false questions. Answers for the questions will be found in your weekly reading or from lecture. Weekly homework must be submitted before Monday 11:59 pm the week it is assigned. There is no time limit on weekly homework. You may take the all time you need prior to the due date. However, you may submit answers only once. After you have submitted an answer, backtracking will be restricted. Concepts and questions found on weekly homework will be used in exams.

InQuizitive Each week you will need to complete an InQuizitive assignment which relate to your reading for that week. This is an online platform intergraded into Blackboard. While figuring out how InQuizitive works is not hard it is still going to take a little time. I suggest you take a while to play around with using this platform

Additional Links and Videos I will occasionally provide additional links or videos as a means to enhance course

material. There will be homework, quiz, and exam questions related to these videos and links.

Exams There will be a total of three exams in this course. The questions will be multiple-choice and true-or-false. I will make exams available under their own link embedded in the week’s module. Exams are going to be about 50 to 60 questions and you will have 1 hour and 30 minutes to complete the exam once you have started. Please make sure you are ready to take the whole exam and finish in one sitting (no distractions, your computer is not going to die on you, you’ve paid your internet bill etc.) I will NOT provide a study guide for exams. Use course material and lectures to build your own study guide. Exams will be made available on Wednesdays and expire that Friday at 11:59pm. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time! I do not allow make-up exams. Your final is not cumulative. I understand that this in an online class and a lot of you are going to be tempted to use your book during an exam. Give in to that temptation. You are all welcome to use your books during an exam. Keep in mind you will not be allowed outside your browser once an exam starts. Taking exams as a group or sharing answers is NOT allowed. It is counted as cheating. Don’t do. People have tried, they have been caught, and it turns out really badly for them.

Research Paper

You will have to write and submit a 6-8 page research paper. This paper is going to be heavily reliant on your ability to conduct academic research. You will be using Tunitin to submit your paper. Turnitin will be available through a link in Blackboard. I will provide further details about this assignment in the coming few weeks.

Late Work I do not accept late work. You are given more than enough time to complete the necessary work for each week. Do not procrastinate. I will not offer partial credit. If you miss the deadline, you get a zero.

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

A C A D E M I C D I S H O N E S T Y : A c a d e m i c d i s h o n e s t y o f a n y f o r m w i l l N O T b e t o l e r a t e d . P l a g i a r i z i n g f r o m t h e t e x t b o o k , l e c t u r e m a t e r i a l , o n l i n e r e s o u r c e s o r o t h e r s t u d e n t s o n y o u r h o m e w o r k , e x a m s , o r e x t r a c r e d i t w i l l r e s u l t i n s w i f t p u n i s h m e n t f o r e a c h s t u d e n t i n v o l v e d . T h e s t u d e n t ( s ) w i l l r e c e i v e a s c o r e o f ‘ 0 ’ f o r t h e a s s i g n m e n t o r b e f a i l e d f r o m t h e c l a s s , a n d w i l l b e r e p o r t e d t o SDSU’s J u d i c i a l C o o r d i n a t o r f o r f u r t h e r d i s c i p l i n a r y a c t i o n .

Quick points on plagiarism and essay responses/extra credit:

1)   Essays should be in your own words 2)   Do NOT copy and paste from, or use the exact same wording as, any

other source for your answer, including, but not limited to, the lecture material, textbook, online resources, or fellow students. This is plagiarism and will result in disciplinary action, as outlined above.

3)   You may use key terms without citing them. Key terms (e.g., “bipedalism”; “Oldowan stone tool technology”) do not need to be reinterpreted into your own words or even cited. It is clear they are from lecture or the textbook.

4)   This is not a group class. Getting together to take exams, quizzes, homework, or any other assignments is counted as cheating. DON’T DO IT.

F o r m o r e i n f o r m a t i o n o n p l a g i a r i s m , v i s i t t h e w e b s i t e f o r SDSU’s C e n t e r f o r S t u d e n t R i g h t s a n d R e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s h t t p : / / c s r r . s d s u . e d u / c h e a t i n g – p l a g i a r i s m . h t m l

NETIQUETTE GUIDELINES: Proper netiquette is important in this class. Please read the following guidelines and make sure you adhere to them. If you do not your grade and your standing in class can seriously suffer.

http://its.sdsu.edu/blackboard/student/gettingstarted/netiquette.html

B L A C K B O A R D E R R O R S :

While taking homework assignments and exams online, errors may occur. There are a few steps that can be taken to avoid errors, and this section will introduce them.

Steps to avoid Blackboard errors:

The following advice comes from Blackboard’s ‘Help’ website. It details what not to do while you are in the exam/homework interface.

1)   Do not refresh the browser page. 2)   Do not close the browser window. 3)   Do not click the browser’s back button. 4)   Do not allow the browser to timeout by leaving the exam open for too long

without working on it. Blackboard  does  not  do  great  with  the  Safari  web-­‐‑browser.  I  suggest  you  use  something  else.     ***Begin all assignments with enough time to allow for potential errors to be fixed. If you wait until the last minute and run into an error your grade may suffer. Remember I

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

don’t accept late work. C L A S S S C H E D U L E : A N T H 1 0 1 Fall 2 0 1 7 The schedule below indicates the general topics for each week as well as exam dates. Topics are subject (and probably will) to change throughout the semester.

W E E K 1 8/28 – 9/4 Syllabus Introduction to the Class

W E E K 2 9/4 – 9/11 Understanding how to maneuver the class. What is anthropology?

W E E K 3 9/11 – 9/18 Genetics Cell Biology

W E E K 4 9/18 – 9/25 Mechanisms of Evolution

W E E K 5 9/25 –10/2 Human Biology – Race and Adaptability E X A M 1 w i l l g o l i v e Wednesday (10:00am) a n d expire F r i d a y (11:59pm)

WEEK 6 10/2 – 10/9 Classification of a Species and Introduction to Primates

W E E K 7 10/9 – 10/16 Fossils and Understanding the Past.

W E E K 8 10/16 – 10/23 Primate Origins and Evolution W E E K 9 10/23 – 10/30 Early hominids and Australopithecines

W E E K 1 0 10/30 – 11/6 The genus Homo Archaic Humans E X A M 2 w i l l g o l i v e Wednesday (10:00am) a n d expire F r i d a y (11:59pm)   W E E K 1 1 11/6 – 11/13 The Origins and Dispersal of Modern People

W E E K 1 2 11/13 – 11/20 Neanderthals WEEK 13 11/20 – 11/27 Thanksgiving Break

WEEK 14 11/27 – 12/4 – The Modern World and Our Continuing Evolution. WEEK 15

Fall    2017    Anthropology  101  Kobari

12/4 – 12/11: Forensics WEEK 16 12/11 – 12/14 Course Overview: What have we learned? Exam 3 Will go live 12/15 to 12/20

NOTE: This syllabus is a general plan for the course; deviations may be necessary and will be announced in class.

Primary Sources on Nazi Germany, the Jewish Holocaust, & Its Relation to Israel-Palestine

HIST 105/305, RCI, © 2015 – RC Weller

Excerpts from… Martin Luther, On the Jews and Their Lies (1543)

“However, it all coincides with the judgment of Christ which declares that they are venomous, bitter, vindictive, tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil who sting and work harm stealthily wherever they cannot do it openly. …these venomous serpents and young devils. …next to the devil, a Christian has no more bitter and galling foe than a Jew. There is no other to whom we accord as many benefactions and from whom we suffer as much as we do from these base children of the devil, this brood of vipers… these venomous serpents and devil’s children, who are the most vehement enemies of Christ our Lord and of us all.

What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and blasphemy. …I shall give you my sincere advice: 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. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom,…

Moses writes that any city that is given to idolatry shall be totally destroyed by fire, and nothing of it shall be preserved. If he were alive today, he would be the first to set fire to the synagogues and houses of the Jews. …I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed. …I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them. …I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. ….I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. …

My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian…with enough material not only to defend himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the foe of the Jews’ malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully…”

Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 12, pp. 316-317 ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEENTH DAY

Monday, 29 April 1946 (Morning Session) http://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/04-29-46.asp

“DR. MARX: Yes. With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall then continue with my examination.

Witness, what aims did you pursue with your speeches and your articles in [your official Nazi propagandist journal] Der Stuermer?

[Julius] STREICHER [chief editor of Der Stuermer]: The speeches and articles which I wrote were meant to inform the public on a question which appeared to me one of the most important questions. I did not intend to agitate or inflame but to enlighten.

DR. MARX: Apart from your weekly journal, and particularly after the Party came into power, were there any other publications in Germany which treated the Jewish question in an anti-Semitic way?

STREICHER: Anti-Semitic publications have existed in Germany for centuries. A book I had, written by Dr. Martin Luther, was, for instance, confiscated. Dr. Martin Luther would very probably sit in my place in the defendants’ dock today, if this book had been taken into consideration by the Prosecution [in this trial]. In the book The Jews and Their Lies, Dr. Martin Luther writes that the Jews are a serpent’s brood and one should burn down their synagogues and destroy them…”

Note: Luther’s Lies of the Jews was also displayed at the 1934 Nuremburg Rally (and probably other places) as an official piece of Nazi propaganda.

——————————————————————————————-

C.J. Probst, Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany (Indiana University Press, 2012). “In this book, Christopher J. Probst demonstrates that a significant number of German theologians and clergy [in Nazi Germany] made use of the 16th-century writings by Martin Luther on Jews and Judaism to reinforce the racial antisemitism and religious anti-Judaism already present among Protestants.”

Adolph Hitler, Mein Kampf [My Struggle] (1924-26) Excerpts on the Jews

Translated by James Murphy, edited by RC Weller

http://www.greatwar.nl/books/meinkampf/meinkampf.pdf

From pp 49-54: In the course of centuries the Jews who lived there [in Linz, Austria] had become Europeanized in external appearance and were so much like other human beings that I even looked upon them as Germans. The reason why I did not then perceive the absurdity of such an illusion was that the only external mark which I recognized as distinguishing them from us was the practice of their strange religion. As I thought that they were persecuted on account of their Faith, my aversion to hearing remarks against them grew almost into a feeling of abhorrence. I did not in the least suspect that there could be such a thing as a systematic anti-Semitism. …

In the Jew I still saw only a man who was of a different religion, and therefore, on grounds of human tolerance, I was against the idea that he should be attacked because he had a different faith. And so I considered that the tone adopted by the anti-Semitic Press in Vienna was unworthy of the cultural traditions of a great people. The memory of certain events which happened in the Middle Ages came into my mind, and I felt that I should not like to see them repeated. …

My ideas about anti-Semitism changed also in the course of time, but that was the change which I found most difficult. It created a great internal conflict within me, and it was only after a struggle between reason and sentiment that victory began to be decided in favor of the former. …

Once, when passing through the inner city [of Vienna], I suddenly encountered a phenomenon in a long caftan and wearing black side-locks. My first thought was: Is this a Jew? They certainly did not have this appearance in Linz. I watched the man stealthily and cautiously; but the longer I gazed at the strange countenance and examined it feature by feature, the more the question shaped itself in my brain: Is this a German?

As was always my habit with such experiences, I turned to books for help in removing my doubts. For the first time in my life I bought myself some anti- Semitic pamphlets for a few pence. But…the tone of most of these pamphlets was such that I became doubtful again, because the statements made were partly superficial and the proofs extraordinarily unscientific. For weeks, and indeed for months, I returned to my old way of thinking. The subject appeared so

enormous and the accusations were so far-reaching that I was afraid of dealing with it unjustly and so I became again anxious and uncertain.

Naturally I could no longer doubt that here there was not a question of Germans who happened to be of a different religion but rather that there was question of an entirely different people. For as soon as I began to investigate the matter and observe the Jews, then Vienna appeared to me in a different light. Wherever I now went I saw Jews, and the more I saw of them the more strikingly and clearly they stood out as a different people from the other citizens. …a people who, even in outer appearance, bore no similarity to the Germans.

But any indecision which I may still have felt about that point was finally removed by the activities of a certain section of the Jews themselves. A great movement, called Zionism, arose among them. Its aim was to assert the national character of Judaism, and the movement was strongly represented in Vienna. …

Cleanliness, whether moral or of another kind, had its own peculiar meaning for these people. That they were water-shy was obvious on looking at them and, unfortunately, very often also when not looking at them at all. The odor of those people in caftans often used to make me feel ill. Beyond that there were the unkempt clothes and the ignoble exterior.

All these details were certainly not attractive; but the revolting feature was that beneath their unclean exterior one suddenly perceived the moral mildew of the chosen race.

What soon gave me cause for very serious consideration were the activities of the Jews in certain branches of life, into the mystery of which I penetrated little by little. Was there any shady undertaking, any form of foulness, especially in cultural life, in which at least one Jew did not participate? On putting the probing knife carefully to that kind of abscess one immediately discovered, like a maggot in a putrescent body, a little Jew who was often blinded by the sudden light.

In my eyes the charge against Judaism became a grave one the moment I discovered the Jewish activities in the Press, in art, in literature and the theatre. All unctuous protests were now more or less futile. One needed only to look at the posters announcing the hideous productions of the cinema and theatre, and study the names of the authors who were highly lauded there in order to become permanently adamant on Jewish questions. Here was a pestilence, a moral pestilence, with which the public was being infected. It was worse than the Black Plague of long ago. And in what mighty doses this poison was manufactured and

distributed. Naturally, the lower the moral and intellectual level of such an author of artistic products the more inexhaustible his fecundity. Sometimes it went so far that one of these fellows, acting like a sewage pump, would shoot his filth directly in the face of other members of the human race. In this connection we must remember there is no limit to the number of such people. One ought to realize that for one, Goethe, Nature may bring into existence ten thousand such despoilers who act as the worst kind of germ-carriers in poisoning human souls. It was a terrible thought, and yet it could not be avoided, that the greater number of the Jews seemed specially destined by Nature to play this shameful part.

And is it for this reason that they can be called the chosen people?

I began then to investigate carefully the names of all the fabricators of these unclean products in public cultural life. The result of that inquiry was still more dis-favorable to the attitude which I had hitherto held in regard to the Jews. Though my feelings might rebel a thousand time, reason now had to draw its own conclusions.

The fact that nine-tenths of all the smutty literature, artistic tripe and theatrical banalities, had to be charged to the account of people who formed scarcely one per cent. of the nation–that fact could not be gainsaid.

From pg. 59 Should the Jew, with the aid of his Marxist creed, triumph over the people of this world, his Crown will be the funeral wreath of mankind, and this planet will once again follow its orbit through ether, without any human life on its surface, as it did millions of years ago. And so I believe to-day that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator. In standing guard against the Jew I am defending the handiwork of the Lord.

From pp. 268-270: [The Jewish Press] aims its attack especially against all men of character who refuse to fall into line with the Jewish efforts to obtain control over the State or who appear dangerous to the Jews merely because of their superior intelligence. …

The Jewish instinct…readily discerns the true mentality of those whom the Jew meets in everyday life; and those who are not of a kindred spirit with him may be sure of being listed among his enemies. Since the Jew is not the object of aggression but the aggressor himself, he considers as his enemies not only those

who attack him but also those who may be capable of resisting him. The means which he employs to break people of this kind, who may show themselves decent and upright, are not the open means generally used in honorable conflict, but falsehood and calumny.

He will stop at nothing. His utterly low-down conduct is so appalling that one really cannot be surprised if in the imagination of our people the Jew is pictured as the incarnation of Satan and the symbol of evil.

The ignorance of the broad masses as regards the inner character of the Jew, and the lack of instinct and insight that our upper classes display, are some of the reasons which explain how it is that so many people fall an easy prey to the systematic campaign of falsehood which the Jew carries on.

While the upper classes, with their innate cowardliness, turn away from anyone whom the Jew thus attacks with lies and calumny, the common people are credulous of everything, whether because of their ignorance or their simple- mindedness. Government authorities wrap themselves up in a robe of silence, but more frequently they persecute the victims of Jewish attacks in order to stop the campaign [against them] in the Jewish Press. To the fatuous mind of the government official such a line of conduct appears to belong to the policy of upholding the authority of the State and preserving public order. Gradually the Marxist weapon in the hands of the Jew becomes a constant bogy to decent people. …

The Jewish domination in the State seems now so fully assured that not only can he now afford to call himself a Jew once again, but he even acknowledges freely and openly what his ideas are on racial and political questions. A section of the Jews avows itself quite openly as an alien people, but even here there is another falsehood. When the Zionists try to make the rest of the world believe that the new national consciousness of the Jews will be satisfied by the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine, the Jews thereby adopt another means to dupe the simple-minded Gentile. They have not the slightest intention of building up a Jewish State in Palestine so as to live in it. What they are really aiming at is to establish a central organization for their international swindling and cheating. As a sovereign State, this cannot be controlled by any of the other States. Therefore it can serve as a refuge for swindlers who have been found out and at the same time a high-school for the training of other swindlers.

As a sign of their growing presumption and sense of security, a certain section of them openly and impudently proclaim their Jewish nationality while another section hypocritically pretend that they are German, French or English as the

case may be. Their blatant behavior in their relations with other people shows how clearly they envisage their day of triumph in the near future.

The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end, satanically glaring at and spying on the unsuspecting girl whom he plans to seduce, adulterating her blood and removing her from the bosom of her own people. The Jew uses every possible means to undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people. In his systematic efforts to ruin girls and women he strives to break down the last barriers of discrimination between him and other peoples. The Jews were responsible for bringing Negroes into the Rhineland, with the ultimate idea of bastardizing the white race which they hate and thus lowering its cultural and political level so that the Jew might dominate. For as long as a people remain racially pure and are conscious of the treasure of their blood, they can never be overcome by the Jew. Never in this world can the Jew become master of any people except a bastardized people.

That is why the Jew systematically endeavors to lower the racial quality of a people by permanently adulterating the blood of the individuals who make up that people.

In comparing the different versions of anti-Semitism in Martin Luther’s “The Jews and Their Lies” and Adolph Hitler’s “Mein Kampf (My Struggle),” match the following. Use each number as often as needed; if both numbers apply to the same point, mark them both:

1. Martin Luther 2. Adolph Hitler

__ Considered the Jews liars and deceivers who were untrustworthy and a threat to society, sources of social suffering and breakdown. __ Associated the Jews with Satan and/or the devil, those engaging in evil, low-down, immoral conduct, explicitly identified as enemies. __ Located the primary source of the Jewish problem in their false religious beliefs. __ Located the primary source of the Jewish problem in their corrupted racial identity (i.e. blood). __ Highlights the Jewish claim of their own alien nature. __ Believed the Jews could be forgiven and restored to proper social standing by conversion to Christianity through the mercy of Christ. __ Believed the Jews were unredeemable, inherently evil by nature. __ Claimed their opposition and condemnation of the Jews was the will of God, for God’s sake and honor.

Questions for Comparative Study: 1- What evidence shows that the ideas which Luther stated in his book in 1543 were not new within the history of European Christian thought at that time?

2- In what ways do Luther’s attitudes resemble and in what ways do they differ from current Western Christian attitudes towards Muslims?

3a- In connection with the importance of Martin Luther within Western European and Christian thought, how significant and far-reaching was his choice to publish his booklet On the Jews and Their Lies?

3b- Did Luther’s book influence or was it used by Nazi Germany? If so, in what ways?

3c- Did Hitler clearly quote or draw from Luther’s book in any way?

4- How are Luther’s and Hitler’s approaches to ‘The Jewish Question’ similar? In what ways do they different?

5- Compare/contrast the approaches which Luther and Hitler respectively use to try and persuade their readers of their views? What forms of evidence do they cite/appeal to?

6- Do Hitler’s ideas resemble or relate to the ideas and attitudes expressed towards the Syrian Arabs following World War I within Woodrow Wilson’s 14-points and/or the 1922 League of Nations Covenant in any way? If so, how?

7- How do these primary source documents help us understand the historical roots of:

a) The relationship of the Holocaust to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict?

b) Western European and Christian anti-Semitism?

c) Nazi German anti-Semitism in particular?

d) Contemporary (current, continuing) anti-Semitism?

8- How do these primary source documents help us understand other contemporary as well as historical forms of discrimination? (Cf. racial, ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious, national-political, gender, sexual, class, etc.)

9- In what ways, if any, does a study of these primary sources change or provide new perspective on our understanding of history, particularly Luther and the Protestant movement, Hitler and Nazi Germany, and the relation between the two? What is the importance of studying these materials?