‘A Propagandist of Extermination:’ Johann von Leers and the Anti‐Semitic Formation of Children in Nazi Germany

Abstract

As one of the most prolific writers of anti‐Semitic propaganda in the Third Reich, Johann von Leers published numerous books, journal essays and daily press articles from 1930–1944. Leers wrote for a variety of German audiences including the general public, academics, party officials, children and school teachers. What constitutes the major focus for this study is the perspective of Johann von Leers on anti‐Semitism in the formation of young children. Although never a classroom teacher himself, Leers took a particular interest in reaching children through a variety of media including school newspapers and story‐telling, as well as more indirect means like curriculum development for educators. The characteristic which bound together much of Leers’ anti‐Semitic propaganda, regardless of audience, was a crude reductionism associated with criminalizing the Jews. A position as lecturer and later professor in the history seminar at the University of Jena from 1936–1945 provided Leers with an academic foundation from which he could further legitimize his racial and anti‐Semitic teachings. Leers made his most original contribution to Nazi anti‐Semitism by insisting, as early as 1938 in writings to teachers, that Jews posed not only a racial threat, but also constituted a grave danger to the Third Reich and the Arab community in the Middle West through their lust for land. Some two decades later, the message found a new audience via Leers’ anti‐Israeli radio broadcasts from Cairo. What sets Leers apart from several other colleagues in German academe like Gunther Franz and Alfred Baeumler, both of whom rejected Nazism after 1945, was that he remained totally and unapologetically united to Nazi racial and anti‐Semitic ideals until the time of his death. The Juan Peron regime in Argentina and the Nasser dictatorship from Egypt provided Leers with new post‐war channels for his anti‐Semitic invective. Overlooked by historians and mentioned only briefly in several works, the anti‐Semitic activity of this enigmatic and obscure figure in the history of anti‐Semitic propaganda deserves closer attention by scholars.