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Authors: Bruce F. Pauley

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From Prejudice to Persecution: A History of Austrian Anti-Semitism (35 page)

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Page 133
10
The Marxists
The antiSemitism that manifested itself in Austria's universities and in the violent street demonstrations that accompanied the Zionist Congress in 1925 was merely a reflection, albeit in a more violent form, of the antiSemitism of Austria's political parties. In the First Austrian Republic
all
of the major political parties, and most of the minor ones as well, were anti-Semitic to one degree or another; and for all of them antiSemitism was a weapon to be used to embarrass their enemies. To be sure, there were differences on the issue of race and how the "Jewish problem" was to be solved. But there were also many common denominators, especially in terminology and in the use of political caricatures.
Of all the major political parties of Austria, the Marxists in the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) and the tiny Communist Party were the least anti-Semitic. Neither party included antiSemitism in their official programs. Likewise, neither party can be accused of racial antiSemitism. When they did give in to anti-Semitic demagoguery, they at least "limited" their attacks to Jewish capitalists and did not specifically include Jews in general. Socialist antiSemitism was less severe than that of other major political parties of Austria, probably in part because the industrial workers, who made up the rank-and-file membership of the party, could identify with Jews as another oppressed minority. There was also next to no economic competition for industrial jobs between Jews and non-Jews because few Jews sought employment in this sector. What antiSemitism there was within the party tended to be defensive, being a response to anti-Semitic attacks directed against the SDAP from other parties.
Marx, Engels, and the "Jewish Question"
To a large extent the philosophy the Austrian Socialists and Communists adopted toward Jews was inherited from the founding fathers of Marxism: Karl

 

Page 134

Marx and Friedrich Engels. By the same token, some of the Marxist philosophy may have been a subtle inheritance from Judaism. It is, of course, a well-known fact that Marx had a Jewish background, his father having converted to Protestantism from Judaism. Although Marx never practiced Judaism, his idea of a Communist millennium in which the state disappears along with the class struggle resembled Jewish apocalyptic thought and messianism; it might be called a kind of messianic heresy. His methodology also may have been partly rabbinical: his own research was based solely on books and not on personal observation (although he did benefit from the firsthand experiences of Engels).

1

Despite the possible influence of his Jewish background on his economic theories, some historians have suggested that Marx was an antiSemite.
2
Superficially there is ample justification for this charge. Marx did, in fact, make far more negative comments than positive ones about Jews, comments that a half century after his death Nazis were fond of quoting. Most of these statements can be traced to an essay he wrote in 1844 called "On the Jewish Question." Among the more provocative things he said were:
Let us look for the secret of the Jew not in his religion, but let us look for the secret of religion in the actual Jew.
What is the secular cult of the Jew? Haggling. What is the secular god? Money. . . .
Thus we recognize in Judaism a general contemporary antisocial element which has been brought to its present height by a historical development which the Jews zealously abetted in its harmful aspects which now must necessarily disintegrate.
In the last analysis the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of humanity from Judaism . . . . The Jews have emancipated themselves in so far as the Christians have become Jews.
What was the implicit and explicit basis of the Jewish religion? Practical need, egoism. . . . . Money is the jealous god of Israel before whom no other god may stand. . . . . The god of the Jews has been secularized and has become the god of the world.
3
The Jews also determined the whole fate of the Austrian empire through their money. Their religion showed a contempt for theory, art, and history. They had made economic man an end in himself.
4
Taken out of context, Marx's comments on Jews would indeed tend to confirm the view that he was an antiSemite. However, "On the Jewish Question" was written early in his career and represents just the first of four distinct phases
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