T

H E

J

E W I S H

Q

U A R T E R LY

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E V I E W

, Vol. 103, No. 4 (Fall 2013) 503—522

Der Welt-Dienst: International

Anti-Semitic Propaganda

H A N N O P L A S S

I . I N T R O D U C T I O N

N

A Z I

-

E R A AC A D E M I C A N T I

- S

E M I T I S M

—self-designated as Judenfor-

schung—entailed the reevaluation of extant academic studies using scien-
tific method imbued with an anti-Semitic orientation, intention, and
result.

1

One key focus of this self-styled ‘‘discipline’’ was an attempt to

appropriate internal Jewish historiography and the cultural-anthropological
tradition known by the designation ‘‘science of Judaism’’ (Wissenschaft des
Judentums).

2

To date, historical inquiry on National Socialist Judenfor-

schung has remained relatively scant.

3

Along with pathbreaking older pub-

lications by Max Weinreich and Robert Edwin Herzstein,

4

Alan

Steinweis’s book calls new attention to ‘‘scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi
Germany.’’

5

Between 1933 and 1945, the news agency Welt-Dienst (World-

Service, Service Mondiale) was the prime interface between anti-Semitic
journalism and activism. Its bulletin was full of articles by well-known

I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their many helpful comments on

the earlier versions of this essay.

1. Dirk Rupnow, ‘‘Antiju¨dische Wissenschaft im ‘Dritten Reich’—Wege, Pro-

bleme und Perspektiven der Forschung,’’ Yearbook of the Simon Dubnow Institute 5
(2006): 539–98; Rupnow, Judenforschung im Dritten Reich: Wissenschaft zwischen Pol-
itik, Propaganda und Ideologie (Baden-Baden, 2011).

2. Immanuel Berg, ‘‘Wissenschaft vom Judentum,’’ Zeitschrift fu¨r die Wissen-

schaft des Judentums 1 (1823): 1–24.

3. See, for example, W. Schulze and O. G. Oexle, eds., Deutsche Historiker im

Nationalsozialismus (Frankfurt a.M., 1998).

4. Max Weinreich, Hitler’s Professors: The Part of German Scholarship in Germa-

ny’s Crimes against the Jewish People (New York, 1946); Robert Edwin Herzstein,
The War That Hitler Won: The Most Infamous Propaganda Campaign in History (Lon-
don, 1979).

5. Alan E. Steinweis, Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism in Nazi Germany

(Cambridge, 2006).

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anti-Semitic activists, and it served as a new global resource for these
activists. During World War II, because of its close bond with Alfred
Rosenberg’s ‘‘Office’’

6

and its working nexus with the Institute for

Research on the Jewish Question (Institut zur Erforschung der Juden-
frage, IEJ), Welt-Dienst became a key node for the dissemination of anti-
Semitic propaganda. Welt-Dienst was able to acquire this position because
of its access to exclusive sources, including private archives and the stolen
materials of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the official
state agency for plunder. As such it served as a significant sphere of anti-
Semitic activity in the Third Reich—‘‘research on Jews’’ (Judenforschung).

The field of Judenforschung involved more than mere cooperation

between Nazi and anti-Semitic scholars: it designated what researchers
regarded as a new field of investigation developed with and through
National Socialism. This forcible appropriation of Jewish history for anti-
Semitic ends was anchored in a number of newly created research insti-
tutes. Prominent among these was the Reich Institute for the History of
the New Germany in Munich (Reichsinstitut fu¨r die Geschichte des
neuen Deutschlands),

7

the Institute for the Study and Eradication of the

Jewish Influence on German Church Life in Eisenach (Institut zur Er-
forschung und Beseitigung des ju¨dischen Einflusses auf das deutsche
kirchliche Leben),

8

and the Institute for the Study of the Jewish Ques-

tion (Institut zum Studium der Judenfrage), founded in Berlin in 1934
by Eberhard Taubert within Goebbels’s Propaganda Ministry, which
sought to put the ‘‘investigation of the Jewish Question’’ on a scientific
footing. Various universities sought to establish or rededicate academic
chairs to this endeavor.

9

The IEJ was also active in the field of scientific-

scholarly anti-Semitism. This was part of Alfred Rosenberg’s project of a
Nazi Party University, the so-called Hohe Schule.

10

From 1939 the news

6. Reinhard Bollmus, Das Amt Rosenberg und seine Gegner: Studien zum Macht-

kampf im nationalsozialistischen Herrschaftssystem (2nd ed.; Stuttgart, 2006).

7. Helmut Heiber, Walter Frank und sein Reichsinstitut fu¨r die Geschichte des neuen

Deutschlands (Stuttgart, 1966).

8. See Susannah Heschel, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in

Nazi Germany (Princeton, N.J., 2008).

9. Rupnow, Judenforschung, 124–30.
10. See Patricia von Papen-Bodek, ‘‘ ‘Scholarly Antisemitism’ during the Third

Reich: The Reichsinstitut’s Research on the ‘Jewish Question,’ 1933–1935’’ (Ph.D.
diss.; Columbia University, 1999) (I wish to thank Ms. von Papen-Bodek for
providing me a copy of her dissertation); Dieter Schiefelbein, Das ‘‘Institut zur
Erforschung der Judenfrage Frankfurt am Main’’ (Frankfurt a.M., 1993); Schiefel-
bein, ‘‘Das ‘Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage Frankfurt am Main’: Anti-
semitismus als Karrieresprungbrett,’’ in ‘‘Beseitigung des ju¨dischen Einflusses . . . ’’:
Antisemitische Forschung, Eliten und Karrieren im Nationalsozialismus, Yearbook of

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agency Welt-Dienst was closely associated with that project. Its influence
extended to the ‘‘functionaries of the ‘Final Solution,’ ’’

11

and the strategic

mobilization of the new agency and its publication was even discussed
directly with Hitler.

12

The Welt-Dienst legitimized anti-Semitic action, pro-

viding it with a range of rationalizations.

Previous research on anti-Semitic propaganda during the era of

National Socialism has concentrated principally on the central state insti-
tutions such as the Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda,
the Nazi press, and the broader spectrum of the controlled media in the
Third Reich.

13

The ideological indoctrination of the Wehrmacht, the

police, and Nazi party formation has also received sustained scholarly
focus.

14

It is difficult to overestimate the impact and significance of the ways

National Socialist propaganda stimulated anti-Semitic resentment and its
crystallization into a systematic worldview, insofar as it imbued actual
violence against Jews.

15

There is, however, an additional catalyzing factor

that supplements overt anti-Semitic propaganda:

16

the discourse dissem-

inated by anti-Semitic editors, writers, pamphleteers, and propagandists
repeatedly invoked a philosophical element. The totalizing effect of this
ideology distinguishes the genocide of European Jewry from that of other
genocides in the modern era.

17

the Fritz Bauer Institute 1998/99 (Frankfurt a.M., 1999): 43–71 (cited below as
‘‘Institut/Karrieresprungbrett’’).

11. Sebastian Weitkamp, Braune Diplomaten. Horst Wagner und Eberhard von

Thadden als Funktiona¨re der ‘‘Endlo¨sung’’ (Bonn, 2008), 250–86 (I am grateful to
Ms. von Papen-Bodek for calling my attention to Weitkamp’s study).

12. Stellrecht to Albrecht, December 10, 1943, Wiener Library (London),

Ref. No. 540, Papers of the Weltdienst and the Berne Trial Re: The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion.

13. David Welch, The Third Reich: Politics and Propaganda (London, 1993); Aris-

totle Kallis, Nazi Propaganda and the Second World War (Basingstoke, 2005); Bernd
So¨semann and Marius Lange, Propaganda: Medien und O¨ffentlichkeit in der NS-
Diktatur (Stuttgart, 2011); Jeffrey Herf, The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during
World War II and the Holocaust (Cambridge, 2006). See also the contributions in
D. Welch, ed., Nazi Propaganda: The Power and the Limitations (London, 1993).

14. Jeffrey Herf, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World (New Haven, Conn.,

2009); Peter Longerich, Propagandisten im Krieg: Die Presseabteilung des Auswa¨rtigen
Amtes unter Ribbentrop (Munich, 1987).

15. Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (New York, 1951), 333–76.
16. Yehuda Bauer, Die Dunkle Seite der Geschichte: Die Shoah aus historischer Sicht

(Frankfurt a.M., 2001), 71–72.

17. Yehuda Bauer, The Holocaust in Historical Perspective (Seattle, Wash., 1978),

30–49; Ulrich Herbert, Best: Biographische Studien u¨ber Radikalismus, Weltanschau-
ung und Vernunft, 1903–1989 (Bonn, 1996); Lutz Hachmeister, Der Gegnerforscher:

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The Welt-Dienst news agency and its journal rationalized National

Socialist policies against the Jews, providing the agents of mass murder
with an armature of legitimation. The periodical was published from 1933
to 1945 as a fortnightly bulletin by three different publishers. From 1939
on, the Welt-Dienst worked hand in hand with the IEJ. Until recently, the
genesis and history of the Welt-Dienst has been neglected by research.

18

This essay seeks to shed light on several areas little treated in previous
studies, centering on Judenforschung, international propaganda, and access
to looted Judaica.

The first six years of the Welt-Dienst under the editorship of the anti-

Semitic publicist Ulrich Fleischhauer

19

have been well studied.

20

The

present study concentrates on the period from 1939 to 1945, when the
Welt-Dienst was headed by August Schirmer and Kurt Richter, and oper-
ated under the aegis of Alfred Rosenberg.

I I . H AT E S P E E C H

To illustrate the output of the Welt-Dienst, I will introduce two representa-
tive articles. The first is from the early phase of the Welt-Dienst, when as
a result of his involvement in the Berne trial against the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, editor Ulrich Fleischhauer became known to a larger pub-
lic. The second is from 1941, after the Welt-Dienst had been fully inte-
grated into the Rosenberg office.

The three pillars of the worldview of the Welt-Dienst were summarized

in the phrase ‘‘Jewish-Bolshevik-Free Mason world conspiracy.’’

21

A

Die Karriere des SS-Fu¨hrers Franz Alfred Six (Munich, 1998); Michael Wildt, Volks-
gemeinschaft als Selbsterma¨chtigung: Gewalt gegen Juden in der deutschen Provinz, 1919
bis 1939 (Hamburg, 2007).

18. Eckart Scho¨rle, ‘‘Internationale der Antisemiten,’’ WerkstattGeschichte

17.51 (2009): 57–72; Martin Finkenberger, ‘‘Johann von Leers und die ‘faschis-
tische Internationale’ der fu¨nfziger und sechziger Jahre in Argentinien und A

¨ gyp-

ten,’’ Zeitschrift fu¨r Geschichtswissenschaft 59.6 (2011): 522–43; Rupnow,
Judenforschung, 88–89.

19. For personal details, see Martin Finkenberger, ‘‘Fleischhauer, Ulrich,’’ in

Handbuch des Antisemitismus: Judenfeindschaft in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2 vols., ed.
W. Benz, vol. 2.1 and 2.2: Personen (Berlin, 2009), 235–36 (I am grateful to
Michael Hagemeister for sending me all relevant articles from the Handbuch).

20. Scho¨rle, ‘‘Internationale der Antisemiten’’; Heiber, Walter Frank; Bollmus,

Das Amt Rosenberg; Armin Pfahl-Traughber, Der antisemitisch-antifreimaurerische
Verschwo¨rungsmythos in der Weimarer Republik und im NS-Staat (Vienna, 1993);
Magnus Brechtken, ‘‘Madagaskar fu¨r die Juden’’: Antisemitische Idee und politische
Praxis, 1885–1945 (Munich, 1997); Herzstein, ‘‘The War Hitler Won,’’ 161–62.

21. See, for example, ‘‘Weltrevolution?,’’ Welt-Dienst 1.1 (1933): 1–2; ‘‘Vergil-

bte Bla¨tter, die trotzdem leserlich bleiben sollen,’’ Welt-Dienst 3.4 (1936): 1–6;
‘‘Das internationale Judentum mobilisiert die Vereinigten Staaten fu¨r einen

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monotonous pattern of such propaganda drove all sections of the jour-
nal.

22

Its sections on information and news offered its readers mainly ‘‘dis-

closures’’ or ‘‘facts’’ geared to reinforcing the core anti-Semitic world
view, which were supplemented by thematic articles ranging in length
from one to several pages. These articles disregarded obvious facts and
reinterpreted others in keeping with the dominant ideological line—all
variously replicating the circularity of anti-Semitic argumentation, which
presupposes the final conclusions.

23

The article ‘‘The Jewish World Power at Work’’

24

reports on vague

‘‘negotiations’’ by European heads of states to preserve world peace. After
a few short words of praise for the state envoys, the piece mentions repre-
sentatives of a ‘‘Jewish state organization,’’ Walther Rathenau, Nahum
Sokolow, and Vladimir Jabotinsky. Their involvement, as well as the
event itself, remains completely unclear. Of sole importance for the Welt-
Dienst is that their quite different ostensible statements—torn from their
respective contexts—‘‘confirmed’’ statements in the Protocols. Against the
backdrop of the unnamed negotiations, the article concentrates mainly on
statements by Jabotinsky, who was quoted as saying: ‘‘There is only one
power that really counts. The power of political pressure. We Jews are the
most powerful people on earth, because we have this power, and we know
how to apply it.’’ The Welt-Dienst then asks rhetorically whether this does
not sound as if taken from the pages of the Protocols. It also notes that
Jabotinsky, using Polish travel documents, traveled to the United States
to engage in activities there, but as a ‘‘representative of the invisible Jew-
ish world power.’’ According to the Welt-Dienst, this could only mean that

neuen Weltkrieg: Die drei großen Demokratien Frankreich, England und Amer-
ika sollen sich fu¨r das Weltjudentum schlagen,’’ Welt-Dienst 5.13 and 14 (1938):
1–7; ‘‘Hinter den Kulissen der ju¨dischen Kriegspolitik,’’ Welt-Dienst 7.8 and 9
(1940): 7–8; ‘‘Das Judentum ha¨lt an seinen Weltherrschaftspla¨nen fest,’’ Welt-
Dienst 7.13 (1940): 6; ‘‘Das Judentum will das Britische Empire mit den Vereinig-
ten Staaten verschmelzen, um die Weltherrschaft antreten zu ko¨nnen,’’ Welt-
Dienst 8.18–19 (1941): 2–5; ’’Das Gangstersystem des Weltjudentums,’’ Welt-
Dienst 10.9 (1943): 1–2; ‘‘Wer ha¨lt die Alliierten zusammen?,’’ Welt-Dienst
11.15–16 (1944): 4–5.

22. Theodor W. Adorno, ‘‘Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propa-

ganda,’’ in Adorno, Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (London,
2001): 132–57.

23. Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, and R.

Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality, Studies in Prejudice 1 (New York,
1950): 92–101, 744–83.

24. ‘‘Die ju¨dische Weltmacht bei der Arbeit,’’ Welt-Dienst 2.7 (1935): 2–3. If

not indicated otherwise, the following quotations are from this article, with
emphasis in the original.

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Jews identified more with their ‘‘racial brothers’’ than their own fellow
citizens. And second, that in the United States, Jabotinsky focused his
energy on ‘‘important highly political questions for the Jews’’ that only
superficially had anything to do with him in his capacity as head of the
Revisionist Zionist movement. In the article’s final section, the Welt-Dienst
claims to substantiate that the British Labour politician Josiah Wedgwood
had ‘‘treasonable views,’’ since he had called on Polish Jews (probably
Zionists) to put political pressure on the British government. It is sufficient
for the Welt-Dienst to point, as evidence for the ‘‘influence on political affairs
of various nations’’ by this ‘‘mightiest nation in the world,’’ to telegrams of
congratulation sent by the Revisionist Congress to the envoys of the United
States, France, and China. The article concludes with some questions that
superficially call for enlightenment about the real ‘‘intentions’’ and ‘‘plans’’
of the ‘‘statesmen’’ of the invisible Jewish world empire,’’ whose implemen-
tation will bring ‘‘new calamity . . . for humankind.’’

The second article from the summer of 1941 comes to demonstrate just

how the United States and Great Britain were being used by ‘‘world
Jewry.’’ It is titled ‘‘Great Britain and the United States Fight for
Jewry.’’

25

The point of departure is the creation of the American Palestine

Committee (actually founded in 1932, but reactivated in 1941 as a lobby-
ing group), which included the former U.S. secretary of the interior, Har-
old L. Ickes; Wendell Willkie, Republican party candidate for president
in the 1940 U.S. elections; and William Green of the American Federa-
tion of Labor. The Welt-Dienst distorts the basic declaration of the APC.
It claims to unmask all the concepts associated with humanity and democ-
racy—the APC had expressed the hope that after the war, the Jewish
people would find peace and security in their own state, which would be
part of a just world order founded on freedom and social justice—as mere
camouflage for the ‘‘close links of the plutocratic democracies with inter-
national Jewry.’’ In the view of the Welt-Dienst, the proposed ‘‘Jewish
state Palestine’’ would be nothing but a ‘‘new ‘ally’ in the final enslave-
ment of all other peoples’’ and would in the process become a ‘‘gigantic
center from which world Jewry, undisturbed, [can] complete its project
of political disintegration and economic exploitation.’’ However, these
plans for the future would be foiled by the ‘‘victorious end of the war’’ by
the axis powers. Rather, then, the ‘‘real new order’’ would ‘‘liberate the
peoples of Europe once and for all from the Jewish pestilence.’’ The Welt-
Dienst described this ‘‘solution to the two thousand years of parasitism’’

25. ‘‘Großbritannien und die Vereinigten Staaten ka¨mpfen fu¨r das Juden-

tum,’’ Welt-Dienst 8.12 (1941): 3–4. If not indicated otherwise, the following quo-
tations are from this article, with emphasis in the original.

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as follows: ‘‘From this ‘outpost of freedom’ in Palestine, nothing will come
for the better of the indigenous Arab population or in the interest of all
other peoples. Rather, the ‘chosen people’ will have an opportunity, in a
reservation area still to be determined, to carry out the useful work that
up to now it has preferred to leave to the other peoples, in this way being
enabled to contribute to the ‘social justice’ ostensibly so dear to the hearts
of the Palestine Committee in Washington.’’

I I I . I N S T I T U T I O N A L I Z AT I O N A N D J U D E N F O R S C H U N G

Alfred Rosenberg is considered the ‘‘chief ideologue’’ of the NSDAP.

26

The Welt-Dienst was for him the foundation upon which he was able to
build an institutional structure as well as to establish his position in
National Socialist Germany. Attractive features of the Welt-Dienst were
its worldwide distribution and the extensive archive which Fleischhauer
had built up over the years.

27

At the same time that Rosenberg took over

the Welt-Dienst, he established the Office for the Jewish and Masonic
Question, headed by August Schirmer. Schirmer directed both institu-
tions. With the Welt-Dienst, Rosenberg succeeded in laying the ground-
work for a propaganda institution of his own.

28

Already as an associate of Fleischhauer, Schirmer drafted a detailed

plan for reorganizing the Welt-Dienst to present to Rosenberg.

29

One

aspect was the further collection and organization of the extensive archi-
val materials and materials necessary for Judenforschung; another was
Schirmer’s aim to acquire new staff workers competent in the area of the
‘‘Jewish Question.’’ Schirmer stated that immediately after Fleischhauer
gave Rosenberg his archival materials, restructuring was initiated, despite
the lack of personnel.

30

Schirmer had his eye on the anti-Semitic journal-

ist Hans Jonak von Freyenwald,

31

likewise because this would ensure

access to his extensive ‘‘special library.’’

32

Schirmer also hoped that by

taking over the archival holdings of the anti-Jewish encyclopedia Sigilla

26. Ernst Piper, Alfred Rosenberg: Hitlers Chefideologe (Munich, 2005).
27. Dirk Rupnow, ‘‘Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage in Frankfurt am

Main,’ in Handbuch der vo¨lkischen Wissenschaften. Personen—Institutionen—
Forschungsprogramme—Stiftungen, ed. I. Haar and M. Fahlbusch (Munich, 2008),
288–95; see also Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 120–21.

28. Rupnow, ‘‘Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage,’’ 289.
29. Schirmer to Rosenberg, September 24, 1938, Centre de Documentation

Juive Contemporaine, Paris (CDJC), CXXXIX-22.

30. Schirmer to Rosenberg, September 24, 1938, CDJC, CXXXIX-22.
31. For personal details, see Michael Hagemeister, ‘‘Hans Jonak von Freyen-

wald,’’ Handbuch des Antisemitismus, 411–12.

32. Schirmer to Rosenberg, September 24, 1938, CDJC, CXXXIX-22.

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Veri, which had been published in four volumes by Fleischhauer’s pub-
lishing house during the Weimar Republic, he would acquire an addi-
tional major addition to the archive.

33

A payment of 250,000 RM was to

eliminate financial restrictions

34

and help pave the way for the revision of

the Sigilla Veri and a planned ‘‘Handbook on the Jewish Question’’ com-
piled from that encyclopedia. Schirmer was especially interested in this
latter project, since a ‘‘really usable encyclopedia on the Jewish Ques-
tion’’ was still lacking.

35

The Sigilla Veri was never to be finished.

36

In

August 1940, Rosenberg asked Schirmer to ‘‘take up . . . the Handbook
on the Jewish Question.’’

37

The NSDAP commissioned the former head

of the Welt-Dienst with the new edition of the Sigilla Veri and provided
Fleischhauer in this way with needed financing.

38

After Fleischhauer was replaced as head of the Welt-Dienst, Schirmer

moved the main office of the journal from Erfurt to Frankfurt am Main
in the summer of 1939.

39

That relocation guaranteed that the journal

would be situated close to the IEJ and also ensured the mutual access of
both institutions in the Rosenberg office to each other’s materials.

40

In

addition, the books and archives which the ERR had looted since the
outbreak of the war in September 1939 were also stored in Frankfurt.
Along with his work at the Welt Dienst, Schirmer was also active in the
EER and in the plunder of foreign libraries and archives.

Allied bombing raids eventually made the situation in Frankfurt too

dangerous for the archives and libraries, the IEJ, and the possibilities for

33. Schirmer to Rosenberg, September 24, 1938, CDJC, CXXXIX-22. On

the history of the Sigilla Veri, see Gregor Hufenreuter, ‘‘ ‘. . . ein großes Verzeich-
nis mit eingestreuten Verbrechern’: Zur Entstehung und Geschichte der antise-
mitischen Lexika Semi-Ku¨rschner (1913) und Sigilla Veri (1929–1931),’’
Jahrbuch fu¨r Antisemitismusforschung 15 (2006): 43–63. It states there (62) that
Kraeger was provided with a gratuity from the NSDAP plus a ‘‘research stipend’’
from the Rosenberg Office of RM 350 in order to prepare the final volumes.

34. Schirmer to Rosenberg, November 7, 1938, Bundesarchiv Berlin/Federal

Archives Berlin (BArch), NS 8/237, fols. 4–5.

35. Schirmer to Rosenberg, September 24, 1938, CDJC, CXXXIX-22.
36. Hufenreuter, ‘‘Verzeichnis,’’ 62; Ben Barkow, ‘‘Introduction,’’ From the

Testaments to the Holocaust Collection at the Wiener Library, http://gale.cengage.co.uk/
images/Testaments_Introduction.pdf (accessed July 16, 2011).

37. Rosenberg to Schirmer, August 28, 1940, BArch, NS 8/237, fol. 48.
38. Heiber, Walter Frank, 1009. Apparently Kraeger and Fleischhauer were

then entrusted with the task of preparing the edition.

39. ‘‘Achtung! Wichtig fu¨r alle Anha¨nger des Welt-Dienst! Bekanntma-

chung,’’ Welt-Dienst 6.14 ( July 15, 1939): 2.

40. The IEJ was formally established in 1939 but due to personnel matters its

official opening was delayed until 1941.

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publishing Welt-Dienst. In 1944 it was relocated to the nearby town of
Bad Schwalbach.

41

On orders from Rosenberg, the holdings of the ERR

were relocated to Tanzenberg in Carinthia,

42

while the holdings of the

IEJ were brought to relative safety in Hungen, near Frankfurt.

43

But

what the Welt-Dienst required for its daily work remained directly accessi-
ble.

44

From the autumn of 1944, the IEJ ceased most of its own publish-

ing, but it is probable that the institute participated in the articles of the
Welt-Dienst, since both institutions were, since April 1942, subordinate to
the Main Office for Supra-State Powers under the Representative of the
Fu¨hrer for Supervision of All Intellectual and Ideological Indoctrination
and Education in the NSDAP (Hauptamt U

¨ berstaatliche Ma¨chte beim

Beauftragten des Fu¨hrers fu¨r die U

¨ berwachung der gesamten geistigen

und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP) within the
Rosenberg office and directed by Hans Hagemeyer.

45

However, the fact

that the Welt-Dienst belonged to the party apparatus of the NSDAP was
kept confidential, and it continued to appear in the guise of a purportedly
independent journal.

Once World War II began Welt Dienst’s sphere of impact shifted. It was

now utilized for indoctrinating ‘‘foreign workers’’ and POWs. In Ger-
many the list of subscribers also expanded to include public libraries,
Hitler Youth, and the Wehrmacht, which used brochures issued by the

41. Richter to Koeppen, July 4, 1944, BArch, NS 8/239, fol. 110. The new

address and telephone number in Bad Schwalbach was stamped on the Welt-
Dienst official stationery.

42. On the library at Tanzenberg, see Evelyn Adunka, Der Raub der Bu¨cher:

Plu¨nderung in der NS-Zeit und Restitution nach 1945 (Vienna, 2002).

43. Ernst Piper, ‘‘Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg,’’ in Raub und Restitution:

Kulturgut aus ju¨dischem Besitz von 1933 bis heute, ed. I. Bertz and M. Dormann
(Go¨ttingen, 2008): 113–19. On Hungen, see also Stichwort-Protokoll des Ter-
mins von Prof. Ba¨umler, Dr. Schickert und Dr. Wagner beim Reichsleiter am 8
Mai, 1944, BArch, NS 8/132, fol. 48; Termine, Freitag den 18. August 1944,
BArch, NS 8/135, fol. 73 (Rosenberg spoke there with Schickert about the
‘‘structure in Hungen’’).

44. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Pg. Richter, Pg. Schwartzburg [!],

Stabsleiter Dr. Stellrecht, Pg. Utikal beim Reichsleiter am 15. Januar 1945,
BArch, NS 8/132, fol. 152. Maria Ku¨hn-Ludewig believes that parts of the Welt-
Dienst’s holdings were stored in the Thuringian town of Po¨ßneck; see Johannes
Pohl (1904–1960): Judaist und Bibliothekar im Dienste Rosenbergs: Eine biographische
Dokumentation (Hannover, 2000), 273.

45. The ‘‘supra-state powers’’ was a term for the international ‘‘conspiracy’’

activities of the Jesuits, Jews, and Freemasons. The main aim of this unit was,
in Rosenberg’s instructions, to ‘‘galvanize the struggle against the Jews’’; see
Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 121–22.

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Welt-Dienst publishing house for the ‘‘ideological indoctrination’’ of its
troops. For that reason, the figure given in 1944 by Welt-Dienst of a total
print run of 300,925 copies in twenty languages is not surprising. Ambi-
tious expansion was planned: an additional 25,000 copies were projected
for five editions in Czech, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Slovakian, and Finn-
ish.

46

The Welt-Dienst also enjoyed support from Gau administrations in

Du¨sseldorf and Thuringia, which ‘‘very actively spurred distribution of
the Welt-Dienst.’’ The plan was to bring publication to a total of 50,000
additional copies. At the same time, there were new individual subscrip-
tions and series subscriptions from the NSDAP, diverse agencies, and the
Wehrmacht. Kurt Richter, the last director of the Welt-Dienst, assumed in
mid-1944 that total printing would reach 400,000 copies and that he
would require twelve tons of newsprint per month.

47

I V. I N T E R N AT I O N A L P R O PAG A N D A

Since its founding, the Welt-Dienst had repeated the mantra that it was
independent of the National Socialist state so as to stress its transnational
orientation. As a strategy of concealment, it emphasized that the ‘‘oppo-
nents of the Jews’’ who ran the paper had been active for a far greater
time than the NSDAP itself. Foreign language editions contributed to its
transnational image and formed the journalistic centerpiece of the period-
ical. The IEJ and the Welt-Dienst also organized anti-Semites in the occu-
pied countries in Europe. Thus, several institutes for Judenforschung were
established under German supervision in occupied France and in Italy.

48

The most successful was probably the creation of the Hungarian Institute
for Research on the Jewish Question.

49

There was close cooperation

46. Only a Czech edition was actually realized; see Welt-Dienst 12.1–2 (1945):

1 (the masthead lists the current editions).

47. Richter to Koeppen, June 15, 1944, appendix: Papierbedarf des ‘‘Welt-

Dienst’’, CDJC, CXLIV-408. The total amount was broken down as follows:
German: 61,500; Dutch and Russian: 43,700 each; French: 33,200; Polish:
32,700; Danish: 12,000; Hungarian: 8,300; Romanian: 6,000; Arabic and Latvian:
5,000 each; Italian: 4,700; Spanish: 4,200; Croatian: 4,100; Swedish: 2,700; Bul-
garian: 2,225; Serbian: 2,000; Greek: 1,500; Norwegian: 1,100; English: 1,000
copies. The different editions were identical except for some gaps in the issuing
of the non-German editions.

48. Rupnow, Judenforschung, 139–41.
49. Patricia von Papen-Bodek, ‘‘The Hungarian Institute for Research into

the Jewish Question and Its Participation on the Expropriation and Expulsion
of Hungarian Jewry,’’ in Constructing Nationalities in East Central Europe, ed. P. M.
Judson and M. L. Rozenblit (New York, 2005), 22–42.

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513

between its staff and the Welt-Dienst and IEJ,

50

and they were invited to

attend the much-anticipated formal opening of the IEJ in March 1941.

51

The Hungarians were also guests in June 1944 at Hotel Bergfrieden in
Eppenhain, which was used as a training venue.

52

Prominent visits by guests of Nazi Germany from Europe and overseas

helped to underscore the Welt-Dienst as a showcase project of anti-Semitic
propaganda. Among visitors were the former Iraqi prime minister Rashid
Al-Gailani and the mufti of Jerusalem, Hadj Amin Al-Husseini.

53

Al-

Husseini wanted to begin practical cooperation immediately and provide
a liaison officer for the Near East.

54

The Gauleiter of Hesse-Nassau,

Jakob Sprenger, had arranged for the visit by al-Gailani. He envisioned
further international contacts for the Welt-Dienst and considered arrang-
ing an invitation for the Japanese ambassador to Berlin in Frankfurt.
Sprenger also actively promoted the concerns of ‘‘his’’ propaganda work-
ers in Berlin. He hoped to arrange ‘‘through Ribbentrop . . . the establish-
ment of a small office of the Foreign Ministry in Frankfurt for the
questions of the Supra-State Powers.’’ But Rosenberg noted that this
should ‘‘come about only in closest cooperation with the NSDAP.’’

55

Of special interest is the preparation of an anti-Semitic working group

at Schloss Philippsthal in Hesse in 1943. The aim was to intensify anti-
Jewish propaganda and thereby enhance the war effort,

56

but it was

50. [August Schirmer,] Bericht u¨ber meinen Aufenthalt in Ungarn vom 26.

Oktober bis 6. November 1941, no date, CDJC, CXXXIX-13.

51. Von Papen, ‘Scholarly’ Antisemitism, 241; GA

¨ STE des ,,WELT-DIENST‘‘.

Tagung von 27–29. Ma¨rz 1941. FRANKFURT AM MAIN, n.d., Wiener Library
(London), Ref. No. 540: Papers of the Weltdienst and the Berne Trial Re the
Protocols of the Elders of Zion 1930–1972.

52. Protokoll u¨ber die Arbeitsbesprechung im Ga¨stehaus Eppenhain am 23.

Juni 1944 betreffs Behandlung der Judenfrage in Ungarn und Zusammenarbeit
zwischen dem ‘‘Welt-Dienst’’ und den ungarischen Ga¨sten, June 3, 1944, CDJC,
CXLIV-407.

53. Welt-Dienst 10.11 (June 1, 1943) (date of issue June 5, 1943): 2; ‘‘Der

Großmufti von Jerusalem, ein Ka¨mpfer gegen die ju¨disch-britische Versklavung
des Orients,’’ Welt-Dienst 10.10 (May 15, 1943): 4–5; on Amin al-Husseini, see
Klaus Gensicke, Der Mufti von Jerusalem und die Nationalsozialisten: Eine politische
Biographie Amin el-Husseinis (Darmstadt, 2007); Klaus-Michael Mallmann and
Martin Cu¨ppers, Halbmond und Hakenkreuz: Das Dritte Reich, die Araber und Pala¨s-
tina (2nd ed.; Darmstadt, 2007).

54. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Pg. Hagemeyer beim Reichsleiter

am 3. Mai 1943, BArch, NS 8/131, fols. 112–13. See also Termine Montag, den
3. Mai 1943, BArch, NS 8/134, fol. 59.

55. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Pg. Hagemeyer beim Reichsleiter

am 3. Mai 1943, BArch, NS 8/131, fols. 112–13, quote: 112.

56. Herf, The Jewish Enemy, 184–92, 199–230.

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becoming difficult for propagandists and researchers in Judenforschung to
obtain Jewish and foreign publications.

57

For that reason, it became nec-

essary for the propaganda offices, which otherwise competed for state
funding and ministerial protection, to work closely together. Included in
planning discussions along with the Welt-Dienst and IEJ were the Reich
Security Main Office (Reichssicherheit-shauptamt), the Propaganda Min-
istry, the Institute for the History of the New Germany, and Goebbels’s
‘‘Antisemitische Aktion,’’ the former Institute for the Study of the Jewish
Question.

58

According to the initiators from the Main Office Supra-

National Powers, this working group was to be financed mainly by the
Propaganda Ministry, the NSDAP, and to a lesser degree by the Rosen-
berg office, with the express approval of the Finance Ministry.

59

Reasons

cited for the projected cooperation were the danger posed by Allied bomb-
ing raids to book holdings still in storage in Frankfurt, as well as the fact
that the ‘‘preparatory spadework for a final solution to the Jewish Question
. . . have been seized upon by foreign countries . . . and have been utilized
for a very extraordinary agitation against us.’’ The Propaganda Ministry
declared that a propagandistic ‘‘counter-offensive’’ was an ‘‘important war
aim’’ on which ‘‘all available forces’’ would have to concentrate. For that
reason, there was already cooperation under way with the Welt-Dienst. The
book holdings plundered by the ERR constituted a decisive reason to plead
energetically for creating the working group.

60

Despite mutual goodwill

and exchange of friendly gestures,

61

the project foundered on the rocks of

the realities of the war: Schloss Philippsthal was turned into emergency
quarters for persons who had been bombed out of their homes.

62

57. With the beginning of the war, neutral Portugal had become the distribu-

tion hub for procurement of foreign newspapers (Longerich, Propagandisten im
Krieg, 170–73).

58. Schmid-Burgk, Besprechung mit Hagemeier [!], 6. Januar 1943, BArch,

R 55/518, fol. 78. See also Piper, ‘‘Alfred Rosenberg,’’ 485.

59. Anlage zur Staatssekreta¨r-Vorlage vom 6. Dezember 1943, BArch, R 55/

518, fol. 79; Hagemeyer[?], Aufzeichnung [o. D.], BArch, R 55/518, fol. 85; Stel-
lungnahme der Haushaltsabteilung, BArch, R 55/158, fols. 88–89.

60. Aktennotiz Schmid-Burgk an Dr. Hopf, betrf. Philippsthal, Januar 13,

1943, BArch, R 55/518, fol. 80. Concerning the phrase ‘‘preparatory spadework
for a final solution to the Jewish Question,’’ it should be noted that in contrast
with the actual reality at this point, in early 1943, most Polish and Baltic Jews
had already been murdered: Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews
(Chicago, 1961), 190–219.

61. Bericht von der Besichtigung und Pru¨fung der Ra¨ume des Schlosses Phil-

ippsthal an der Werra auf ihre Brauchbarkeit zur Aufnahme der Bu¨cherei des
‘Welt-Dienst’ in Frankfurt a. M., BArch, R 55/158, fols. 86–87.

62. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Pg. Hagemeyer und Pg. Gerdte

beim Reichsleiter am 24. Ma¨rz 1943, Barch, NS 8/131, fols. 51–52.

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515

Despite this setback, the Welt-Dienst continued to expand its leading

position in the sphere of anti-Semitic propaganda. Along with the Ger-
man News Bureau (Deutsches Nachrichtenbu¨ro), the official central
press agency of the German Reich, the Nationalsozialistische Parteikor-
respondenz (NSK), the press service of the NSDAP, was the only office
through which the press could obtain news.

63

From May 1943 on, the

Welt-Dienst provided weekly material to the NSK on the ‘‘Jewish Ques-
tion.’’

64

From October 1943, in addition to the regular Welt-Dienst, a new

publication was issued, the Informationen zur Judenfrage. It appeared down
to April 1, 1945, longer than the main bulletin of the Welt-Dienst.

65

The

Informationen zur Judenfrage were declared to be ‘‘confidential’’

66

and con-

tained no reference to editors or persons responsible other than the Welt-
Dienst.

67

In the main, the Informationen zur Judenfrage consisted of transla-

tions of articles from the New York Yiddish daily Forverts.

Johannes Pohl, who joined the Welt-Dienst in 1943, was a former priest

and an expert on Jewish studies. He was active as a librarian at the IEJ
and was probably the main translator involved.

68

In 1941, Pohl headed a

unit of the ERR sent to Saloniki in occupied Greece.

69

In 1944, he pub-

lished books in the Welt-Dienst-Verlag including Ju¨dische Selbstzeugnisse

70

and Pala¨stina. Sein Land und seine Bevo¨lkerung,

71

as well as a collection,

63. Joseph Wulf, Kultur im Dritten Reich: Presse und Funk (Munich, 1989), 83.
64. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Pg. Hagemeyer beim Reichsleiter

am 3. Mai 1943, BArch, NS 8/131, fols. 112–3. On the NSK, see Willi Dressen,
‘‘Nationalsozialistische Parteikorrespondenz,’’ in W. Benz, H. Graml and H.
Weiß, eds., Enzyklopa¨die des Nationalsozialismus (Stuttgart, 1997), 607.

65. See Informationen zur Judenfrage (Selected news from the Yiddish and

Hebrew press: In irregular intervals published by ‘‘World Service’’ Frankfurt am
Main, Folge 35 from April 1, 1945).

66. Informationen [ . . . ], Folge 1–4 from October 1–December 15, 1943.
67. In the ‘‘List of literature to be Removed’’ of the Soviet occupation authori-

ties, the editor for the Informationen zur Judenfrage is given as the Welt-Dienst, and
place of publication is Frankfurt a.M. (Liste der auszusondernden Literatur, ed. Deut-
sche Verwaltung fu¨r Volksbildung in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone [Berlin,
1946] [reprint: Toppenstedter Reihe 1, Toppenstedt, 1983], 487). It is important
to note that Uwe Berg Publishers, which edits among other publications the
‘‘Toppenstedter Reihe,’’ belongs to a group of far-right publishing houses in Ger-
many: Anton Maegerle, ‘‘ ‘Junge Freiheit’-Autoren und ihr Umfeld,’’ Perspektive
21 6.18 (2003): 57–81.

68. On the relations between Pohl and the Welt-Dienst, see Ku¨hn-Ludewig,

‘‘Johannes Pohl,’’ 216–69; Pohl shortened his first name sometimes to ‘‘Johann.’’

69. Donald E. Collins and Herbert Philips Rothfeder, ‘‘The Einsatzstab

Reichsleiter Rosenberg and the Looting of Jewish and Masonic Libraries during
World War II,’’ Journal of Library History 18.1 (1983): 21–36.

70. J[ohannes] Pohl, Ju¨dische Selbstzeugnisse (Frankfurt a.M., 1944).
71. Pohl, Pala¨stina: Ein Land und seine Bevo¨lkerung (Frankfurt a.M., 1944).

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Streiflichter aus dem jiddischen, ‘Forwerts’.

72

Other translations document his

continual work on this topic.

73

One of Pohl’s works much admired by

Rosenberg was his Talmud-Lexikon, an encyclopedia that appeared in mid-
1944.

74

The Welt-Dienst-Verlag had been established as a publishing house for

the Welt-Dienst staff and associates in 1942.

75

Erich Schwarzburg, Niko-

laus Markoff, and Pohl all published there. The relevant publications
enjoyed considerable popularity. Kurt Richter reported to Rosenberg on
books no longer available in print and ‘‘up to 250% extra orders in some
cases.’’

76

Due to the great demand,

77

Richter could only send a few copies

of Markoff’s Der Jude ist der Parasit des Bauerntums, and Emil Reiffer’s and
Erich Schwarzburg’s Der Jude als Weltparasit to Rosenberg.

78

The number

desired by Rosenberg was later sent on to him in July 1944 along with
two copies of Pohl’s 1000 Talmudzitate.

79

It is estimated that the Welt-

Dienst-Verlag issued about a dozen publications. Rosenberg had chan-
neled a substantial portion of his start-up funding from his Ministry for
the Occupied Eastern Territories to the Welt-Dienst.

80

72. Pohl, Streiflichter aus dem jiddischen ‘Forwerts’ (Frankfurt a.M., 1944).
73. See translations by ‘‘Dr. P.’’ in BArch, R 58/6339, fols. 1–3.
74. As early as 1940, a ‘‘Talmud-Lexikon’’ by Pohl was inspected by Rosen-

berg (Koeppen [?] to Pohl/Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage, July 12,
1940, BArch, NS 8/237, fols. 43–45; Koeppen [?] to Schirmer, 28. August 1940,
BArch, NS 8/237, fol. 48). Several brochures by Pohl on the Talmud were pub-
lished, such as the smear pamphlets ‘‘Gibt es eine ju¨dische Religion? Der Talmud
als Lehre des Asozialismus in der Geschichte der Menschheit’’ (Frankfurt a.M.,
1944), ‘‘Die Religion des Talmud’’ (Berlin, 1942), and ‘‘Talmudgeist’’ (Berlin,
1941).

75. Tagestermine Rosenberg, January 15, 1942, BArch, NS 8/133, fol. 6.
76. Richter to Rosenberg, April 25, 1944, BArch, NS 8/239, fols. 40–41,

quote: 40.

77. Richter to Koeppen, May 30, 1944, BArch, NS 8/239, fol. 69.
78. This brochure was issued a year before by Rosenberg in his capacity as

‘‘Beauftragter des Fu¨hrers fu¨r die U

¨ berwachung der gesamten geistigen und wel-

tanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP’’ (Representative of the
Fu¨hrer for Supervision of All Intellectual and Ideological Indoctrination and
Education in the NSDAP) as ‘‘1. Reichsschulungsthema 1943/44’’: Der Jude als
Weltparasit, ed. Der Beauftragte des Fu¨hrers fu¨r die U

¨ berwachung der gesamten

geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP.—Amt
Parteiamtliche Lehrmittel (Munich, 1943). It was also utilized within the Wehr-
macht: Der Jude als Weltparasit, ed. NS-Fu¨hrungsstab der Wehrmacht, Richthefte
des Oberkommandos des Heeres 7 (Berlin, 1944).

79. Richter to Koeppen, July 4, 1944, BArch, NS 8/239, fol. 110. See also

Johann Pohl, 1000 Talmudzitate (2nd ed., Frankfurt a.M., 1944).

80. Termine Montag, den 14. September 1942, BArch, NS 8/133, fol. 114.

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V. R E I C H S L E I T E R R O S E N B E R G S P E C I A L TA S K F O R C E /

E I N S AT Z S TA B R E I C H S L E I T E R R O S E N B E R G ( E R R )

With the beginning of WWII, the books and documentary materials sys-
tematically plundered from libraries and archives in the occupied Euro-
pean countries were added to the libraries in Frankfurt and to the
holdings of the Welt-Dienst. This systematic looting was largely organized
by the ERR.

81

Frankfurt became a central collection point for this plun-

der. Both IEJ staff members and Welt-Dienst personnel worked together
with the ERR.

There was probably some truth to the claim, already voiced in March

1941 during the official opening of the IEJ, that this was the ‘‘largest
library’’ of its kind.

82

This had been built up by Wilhelm Grau, a sacked

member of staff at the Institute for the History of the New Germany and
the designated head of the IEJ,

83

and also through the activity of August

Schirmer. Grau headed the working group of the ERR in Paris,

84

while

Schirmer was head of the ERR in the Netherlands. There he plundered
the holdings of various libraries and archives. He seized the holdings of
institutions such as the International Institute for Social History and the
Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana

85

and planned to acquire the property of Jew-

ish deportees stored in containers already under his administrative con-
trol.

86

This, he stated, would provide Rosenberg with ‘‘extremely valuable

81. On the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg, see Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg,

145–52; Piper, ‘‘Alfred Rosenberg,’’ 486–508; Bollmus, ‘‘Der Einsatzstab Reich-
sleiter Rosenberg’’; Willem F. de Vries, Sonderstab Musik: Organisierte Plu¨nderungen
in Westeuropa, 1940–45 (Cologne, 1998); Peter M. Manasse, Verschleppte Archive und
Bibliotheken: Die Ta¨tigkeiten des Einsatzstabes Rosenberg wa¨hrend des Zweiten Weltkrieges
(St. Ingbert, 1997); Collins/Rothfeder, ‘‘The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosen-
berg’’; Patricia Kenneth Grimsted, ‘‘Roads to Ratibor: Library and Archival
Plunder by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg,’’ Holocaust and Genocide Studies
19.3 (2005): 390–458; Grimsted, ‘‘The Postwar Fate of Einsatzstab Reichsleiter
Rosenberg Archival and Library Plunder, and the Dispersal of ERR Records,’’
Holocaust and Genocide Studies 20.2 (2006): 278–308.

82. ‘‘Die gro¨ßte Bibliothek zur Judenfrage durch Reichsleiter Rosenberg in

Frankfurt/Main errichtet,’’ Welt-Dienst 8.5 (March 1, 1941): 2.

83. On Grau, see Patricia von Papen, ‘‘Vom engagierten Katholiken zum Ras-

senantisemiten: Die Karriere des Historikers der ‘Judenfrage’ Wilhem Grau,
1933–1945,’’ in Theologische Wissenschaft im ‘‘Dritten Reich’’: Ein o¨kumenisches Projekt,
ed. G. Denzler and L. Siegele-Wenschkewitz with V. von Bu¨low (Frankfurt a.M.,
2000): 68–113.

84. Schiefelbein, ‘‘Institut/Karrieresprungbrett,’’ 49.
85. Herman de la Fontaine Verwey, ‘‘The Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana during

the German Occupation,’’ Studia Rosenthaliana 38/39 (2006): 61–72.

86. August Schirmer, ‘‘Bericht u¨ber die Ta¨tigkeit des Einsatzstabes der Dienst-

stelle des Reichsleiters Rosenberg in den westlich besetzten Gebieten und den

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treasure with little expenditure of effort,’’ creating for him ‘‘a unique posi-
tion in the field of research on the Jews and Freemasons.’’

87

Since they

were already ‘‘operating on a wartime footing,’’ it would be necessary to
double the size of his staff in order to deal in timely fashion with the tasks
at hand.

88

The journal Weltkampf, founded by Rosenberg in 1924 and then taken

over by the IEJ,

89

published the speeches given at the three-day opening

event of the IEJ in March 1941. In his address, the IEJ director Grau
praised the plundering raids of the ERR euphemistically as ‘‘measures
important for cultural policy.’’

90

He emphasized the importance of the

IEJ: ‘‘We have not only created the largest library; likewise the most
important archive on the Jewish Question in existence anywhere is now
in Frankfurt.’’

91

The foundation for the library was the Frankfurt Judaica

collection, the foundation for the archive was the archive of the Welt-
Dienst, which Fleischhauer had passed on to Rosenberg.

92

The further

enormous holdings stemmed from the plundering raids by the ERR.

93

Niederlanden, Arbeitsgruppe Niederlande,’’ n.d. Printed under the English title
‘‘Undated Report of the Working Group Netherlands of Einsatzstab Rosenberg
Concerning the Seizure of Libraries in Holland (Exhibit US-707), Document
176–PS,’’ Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal
Nuremberg, 14 November 1945–1 October 1946, International Military Tribunal
(IMT), vol. 25 (Nuremberg, 1947): 247–55.

87. Schirmer, ‘‘Bericht,’’ 254.
88. Schirmer, ‘‘Bericht,’’ 255. Schirmer noted a number of Masonic libraries

(Bibliotheca Klossania and others), and the libraries of the publishing houses
Querido, Allert de Lange, and Beerman-Fischer. He estimated the total value of
the books at RM 40–50 million. See also Gerard Aalders, Nazi Looting: The Plunder
of Dutch Jewry during the Second World War (Oxford, 2004), 56–62.

89. See Piper, ‘‘Alfred Rosenberg,’’ 116–21, 483–85. The editor was Klaus

Schickert, who took this position after the dismissal of Wilhelm Grau from the
IEJ’s direction.

90. Wilhelm Grau, ‘‘Das Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage,’’ Weltkampf

17.1–2 (April–September 1941): 17.

91. Grau, ‘‘Institut,’’ 18. Grau mentioned the archives of the Rothschild family

and of the Alliance Israe´lite Universelle.

92. Herbert Phillips Rothfeder, ‘‘A Study of Alfred Rosenberg’s Organization

for National Socialist Propaganda’’ (Ph.D. diss.; University of Michigan, 1963),
372.

93. Johannes Pohl, ‘‘Report of the Frankfurt-Am-Main Branch Office of the

‘High School,’ 29 April 1941’’ (Exhibit US-383), Document 171–PS, in: IMT,
‘‘Trial of the Major War Criminals,’’ 242–46. Pohl states the Library of the Alli-
ance Israe´lite Universelle, the E´cole Rabbinique, several libraries of the Parisian
branch of the Rothschild familiy, the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana (Amsterdam),

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Given the insufficient personnel in view of the staggering number of
books, the Rosenberg office was not opposed to taking on Jews as staff
personnel under strict supervision. A corresponding draft proposal was
submitted to Rosenberg by Gerhard Utikal in January 1942. Under strict
surveillance by the Security Service (SD), twenty-eight Jews from
Frankfurt a.M. were to be deployed for translating from Hebrew,
English, and French. During this period, they were to be interned in a
concentration camp, and once their activity was finished, they were to be
‘‘deported to the East,’’ to extermination camps.

94

V I . T H E W E L T - D I E N S T AT WA R ’ S E N D

The Welt-Dienst maintained continuous publication despite the relocation
of valuable holdings into safe storage in the countryside. Since the mili-
tary situation for Germany was rapidly worsening, dissemination of the
periodical abroad was not only difficult to organize; now the production
of large quantities in foreign editions became useless. The Rosenberg
office closed its eyes to the looming defeat in the war, harboring hopes of
keeping the Welt-Dienst in operation even after the war’s end. The corpo-
rate body envisioned for this was a Welt-Dienst-GmbH,

95

a limited com-

pany into which the Welt-Dienst e.V., a ‘‘registered association’’ founded
in 1943, was to be restructured.

96

It is uncertain whether this plan was

realized in any way. But we do know that the Nazi propagandist Johann
von Leers, who fled to Nasser’s Egypt in the 1950s, considered reactivat-
ing the Welt-Dienst.

97

the holdings of Amsterdam’s Sephardic community, the books of Greece’s Jewish
community, several Jewish libraries in Riga, Kovno, Vilna, Minsk, and Kiev.
Paradoxically, the more Jewish property the Nazis looted and hoarded, the more
Jews in Europe were murdered in the death camps: ‘‘Behind the possessions and
properties lay unsaid all those who were murdered,’’ as Dan Diner noticed. See
Dan Diner, ‘‘Eigentum resitutieren,’’ in Diner, Zeitenschwelle: Gegenwartsfragen an
die Geschichte (Munich, 2010): 207–22, quote: 209.

94. Utikal an Rosenberg, Politische Auswertung des in Frankfurt/M. gelager-

ten und durch den Einsatzstab sichergestellten Materials, January 19, 1942,
BArch NS 30/121, fols. 3–8, quote: 6. I thank Michael Hagemeister for drawing
my attention to this document.

95. Stichwort-Protokoll des Termins von Stableiter Baur, Stabsleiter Dr. Stel-

lrecht, Pg. Lichtnau, Pg. Richter, Pg. Utikal beim Reichsleiter am 15. Januar
1945, BArch, NS 8/132, fol. 154.

96. Der Leiter der Parteikanzlei an den Reichschatzmeister der NSDAP, Feb-

ruary 29, 1944, BArch, NS 8/190, fols. 142–44.

97. Finkenberger, ‘‘Johann von Leers,’’ 539–41; Herf, ‘‘Nazi Propaganda,’’

260.

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V I I . C O N C L U S I O N

Despite the notions underlying previous research, the Welt-Dienst was not
insignificant and it was not an ephemeral undertaking.

98

Nor can its key

personnel be dismissed as ‘‘amateurs.’’

99

The close connection with key

decision makers and leading functionaries in the Nazi state, and its role
in the efforts of the anti-Semitic working group at Schloss Philippsthal
and its engagement in supplying the Foreign Ministry, the institution for
propaganda abroad with a sole claim to representation,

100

with the Infor-

mationen zur Judenfrage and other material, document the solid position of
the Welt-Dienst within the reticulation of diverse and competing propa-
ganda institutions. Also of great importance are the source materials used
for propaganda and Judenforschung to which the Welt-Dienst had direct
access. These encompassed Fleischhauer’s private archive, which was
further enlarged after Rosenberg took over, as well as the holdings of the
Judaica library, which were greatly expanded through the mountains of
material plundered by the ERR.

The supposedly ‘‘private’’ character of the Welt-Dienst constitutes a

bridge from the foundation of the journal to its climax as the leading
periodical of the Rosenberg office.

101

Ernst Piper conjectures that the

training center in Eppenhain used by the Welt-Dienst, could, if the Third
Reich survived, have perhaps become a ‘‘significant educational center
for the training of diplomats’’ and thus could have helped to nurture a
‘‘correspondingly significant influence by Rosenberg on the foreign policy
of the National Socialist state.’’

102

The nature of Welt-Dienst’s international ties with worldwide fascist

and anti-Semitic groups remains open and requires further research. In
any event, overlaps between Nazi collaborators and supporters of the
Welt-Dienst are evident. In France, that involved the ‘‘Commissar for Jew-
ish Affairs’’

103

and his environment;

104

in the United States the circle

98. Bollmus, Amt Rosenberg, 122.
99. This is the tendency in Heiber, Walter Frank, 476–77; Bollmus, Amt Rosen-

berg, 121.

100. Longerich, Propagandisten, 134–37.
101. See U. Bodung Verlag, Erfurt, ‘‘Einige Gedanken u¨ber die Notwendig-

keit der Schaffung einer Auslands-Propagandastelle,’’ BArch, R 58/988, fols.
8–10.

102. Piper, ‘‘Alfred Rosenberg,’’ 644.
103. Carmen Callil, Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family and Fatherland (Lon-

don, 2006), 141.

104. Termine Mittwoch, den 3. Juni 1942, BArch, NS 8/133, fol. 77, where

Rosenberg jotted down: ‘‘W[elt-Dienst]-Freunde im Judenkommissariat in
F[rankreich].’’

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DER WELT-DIENST—PLASS

521

around the isolationists and Hitler’s supporters.

105

There are traces of the

journal evident in Spain,

106

and they can also perhaps be found in Italy.

107

The influence of the Welt-Dienst and IEJ in Hungary is proven;

108

in the

case of other countries in eastern and southeastern Europe research find-
ings are lacking, although Germany’s influence on shaping pro-Nazi
propaganda was clear.

109

Along with this activity outside the borders

of the Third Reich, foreigners deemed sympathetic toward the Reich
were repeatedly invited to attend ‘‘training courses’’ held at Eppenhain,
where they received ideological instruction.

110

Some of these persons

were invited to conferences of the Welt-Dienst.

111

A letter sent to Schirmer

signaled even a readiness to play an active role in the extermination of
the Jews in Europe.

112

There is need for a more extensive analysis of the depth of impact that

Nazi propaganda had abroad and its strength of saturation. Likewise is
further investigation to embed the history of the Welt-Dienst within

105. See Louis W. Bondy, Racketeers of Hatred: Julius Streicher and the Jew-

Baiters’ International (London, 1946), 220–38; O. John Rogge, The Official German
Report: Nazi Penetration, 1924–1942—Pan-Arabism 1939–Today (New York, 1961).
See also the list of defendants in the Great Treason Trial of 1944 that names,
among others, George E. Deatherage, William Dudley Pelley, Gerald B. Winrod,
Robert Edward Edmondson, Elizabeth Dilling (‘‘The Sedition Trial: A Case
Study in Delay and Obstruction,’’ University of Chicago Law Review 15.3 [1948]:
691–702).

106. See Isabelle Rohr, The Spanish Right and the Jews, 1989–1945: Antisemitism

and Opportunism (Portland, Or., 2007), 87.

107. See Michael Wedekind, Nationalsozialistische Besatzungs- und Annexionspol-

itik in Norditalien, 1943–1945 (Munich, 2003), 351–71.

108. See von Papen, ‘‘ ‘Scholarly’ Antisemitism’’; von Papen, ‘‘The Hungarian

Institute.’’

109. See, for example, Jan Grabowski, ‘‘German Anti-Jewish Propaganda in

the Generalgouvernement, 1939–1945: Inciting Hate through Posters, Films, and
Exhibitions,’’ Holocaust and Genocide Studies 23.3 (2009): 381–412; a good exem-
plary study is Babette Quinkert, Propaganda und Terror in Weißrussland: Die deutsche
‘‘geistige’’ Kriegsfu¨hrung gegen Zivilbevo¨lkerung und Partisanen (Paderborn, 2009).

110. See Termine, Mittwoch, den 31. Mai 1944, BArch, NS 8/135, fol. 46;

Termine, Freitag, den 7. Juli 1944, BArch, NS 8/135, fol. 61.

111. GA

¨ STE des ,,WELT-DIENST‘‘. Tagung von 27–29. Ma¨rz 1941.

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, n.d., Wiener Library (London), Ref. No. 540:
Papers of the Weltdienst and the Berne Trial Re the Protocols of the Elders of
Zion 1930–1972.

112. The Polish anti-Semite and ‘‘Welt-Dienst friend’’ Szelechow wrote in this

respect about his wish and that of Sergej N. Nilus to participate in the ‘‘liquida-
tion of the Jewish poison’’ (Szechelow to Schirmer, March [1940], CDJC CXX-
XIX-21).

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National Socialist press and propaganda policy. A further desideratum is
a detailed reconstruction of the institutional history of the Welt-Dienst,
which through an ‘‘integrated historiographical approach’’

113

can pry

open the structural preformation engendered by the National Socialist
source materials and thus could help establish the real horizon of influ-
ence exerted by anti-Semitic ideology. One of its tasks would be to seri-
ously consider the many warnings from contemporary critics of anti-
Semitism, now pushed to the periphery of historical inquiry,

114

rather

than deride after the fact the meager rationalizations of anti-Semitic
resentments.

115

Translated from the German by Bill Templer

113. Saul Friedla¨nder, ‘‘An Integrated History of the Holocaust: A Reasses-

ment,’’ in Konstellationen: U

¨ ber Geschichte, Erfahrung und Erkenntnis, ed. N. Berg, O.

Kamil, M. Kirchhoff, and S. Zepp (Go¨ttingen, 2011), 157–65; Friedla¨nder, ‘‘An
Integrated History of the Holocaust: Possibilities and Challenges,’’ in Years of
Persecution, Years of Extermination: Saul Friedla¨nder and the Future of Holocaust Studies,
ed. C. Wiese and P. Betts (London, 2010), 21–29.

114. Gustav Warburg, Six Years of Hitler: The Jews under the Nazi Regime (Lon-

don, 1939); Bondy, ‘‘Racketeers Of Hatred’’; Rogge, ‘‘The Official German
Report’’; Boris Nikolajewsky, ‘‘Der neuzeitliche Antisemitismus und die ‘Proto-
kolle der Weisen von Zion’,’’ Zeitschrift fu¨r Sozialismus 2.22–23 (1935): 725–33;
Alexander Stein, Adolf Hitler: Schu¨ler der ‘‘Weisen von Zion’’ (Karlsbad 1936). Both
the article by Nikolajewsky and the brochure by Stein have been recently repub-
lished in Alexander Stein, Adolf Hitler, Schu¨ler der ‘‘Weisen von Zion’’ (Freiburg,
2011).

115. For example, see Heiber, Walter Frank.

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