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HOLY HATRED: CHRISTIANITY, ANTISEMITISM, AND THE HOLOCAUST

by Robert Michael

Professor Emeritus of History,

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Graduate Faculty, Florida Gulf Coast University

Visiting Professor, Ringling School of Art & Design

Visiting Professor, University of South Florida, Sarasota

(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) [Nominated for a National

Jewish Book Award]

©2006 by Robert Michael

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Acknowledgements
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1. CHRISTIANITY, ANTISEMITISM, AND THE HOLOCAUST: Jacques

Maudaule: "In the last analysis, antisemitism is a religious problem."

2. CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES AND CHURCH FATHERS: St. Gregory: "A

sanhedrin of satans, criminals, enemies of God and of all that is decent and

beautiful."

3. MEDIEVAL VIOLENCE: St. Louis: "As soon as a layman hears a Jew malign

the Christian faith, the Christian should defend it by striking the slandering evil-

doer with a good sword thrust into the belly as far as the sword will go."

4. THE GERMANIES FROM LUTHER TO HITLER: Dr. Martin Luther: "We

are at fault in not slaying the Jews."

5. CHRISTIAN ANTISEMITISM, THE GERMAN PEOPLE, ADOLF HITLER:

Adolf Hitler: “In boundless love, as a Christian and a human being, I read through

the passage that tells us how the Lord rose at last in His might and seized the

scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific

was His fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with

deepest emotion I realize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for

this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross.”

POSTSCRIPT

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX
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EPIGRAPH:

"The unexamined life is not worth living."

Plato, The Apology 38a.

"Help others, be compassionate, and, at the least, do no

harm."

The Buddha

"Do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God."

Micah 6:8

"If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? If I am

only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?"

Rabbi Hillel, the Elder

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all

your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and

greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love

your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets

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hang on these two commandments."

Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 22

"Without memory there can be no redemption."

Ba'al Shem Tov

"Courage is a person who keeps on coming on. Slow him

down, maybe, but you can't never defeat him."

Leander McNelly, Captain, Texas Rangers

"Be a human being first, a Christian second."

Nikolai Grundtvig, Danish theologian

"The Christians say they love him, but I think they hate him without knowing it. So they

take the cross by the other end and make a sword out of it and strike us with it! . . . They

take the cross and they turn it around, they turn it around, my God."

André Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just

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DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to those people who have blessed my life: my wife Susan; my

children Stephanie, Andrew, and Carolyn.