JOURNALfor the STUDYof ANTISEMITISM

228 JOURNAL FOR THE STUDY OF ANTISEMITISM [ VOL. 3:225
Contemporary dance comes from primitive “coloured people.” With an
unmistakable reference to Josephine Baker, who had just opened at the Théâtre
des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Hartner-Hnizdo claimed that France was
particularly taken by this degenerate Negro culture. Germany was already
following along this path to decline.
A further threat to German culture came from bobbed hair, with its
variants the Dutch Boy, the Eton Crop, and the Shingle, all said to have
originated in homosexual circles in New York and enthusiastically taken up
by Jewish women in Europe. Short hair and the slightly androgynous style
of dress pioneered by Coco Chanel was, Hartner-Hnizdo argued, part of an
absurd and unnatural attempt to make women more like men, which was
bound to lead to a perverse amorphousness. It was also an expression of an
individualism that was encouraged by Jews in order to destroy non-Jewish
ethnicity, while Jews knew full well that their strength lay in their sticking
together. Hartner-Hnizdo found himself in something of a bind in that he
realized that antisemitism, for which he was a strident advocate, served to
strengthen Jewish determination to defend their identity, thereby steeling
their “racially conscious” religion.
Jews were gradually but relentlessly taking over the arts and sciences,
which are in turn the “source of all life.” 7 Using Martin Luther’s misquotation
of Genesis 26:3 to the effect that the Lord exhorted the Jews to be “a
stranger in this country,” Hartner-Hnizdo claimed biblical support for his
conviction that Jews are not only an alien body within Christian society, but
also one that is positively harmful. 8 In former times, Christians were well
aware of the danger posed by the Jews; canon 78 of the Lateran Council of
1215, for example, called for Jews to wear distinctive clothing and exhorted
Christian princes to take strict measures against blasphemies against Jesus
Christ. This measure was necessary, we are confidently told, because Jews
made a habit of dressing as Christians to seduce Christian girls and also
because Jewish moneylenders reduced interest rates when permission was
granted to sleep with their clients’ wives. 9 Pope Gregory IX was particularly
concerned that Jews were seducing Christian wet nurses and maids,
while Honorius IV was appalled at the debauchery that occurred when
Christians and Jews lived in close proximity. Hartner-Hnizdo managed to
convince himself that Jews were an innate danger to Christian society and
that it was simply not possible for them to change their malicious ways.
7. Erotik und Rasse, 25.
8. Luther wrote: “Sei ein Fremdling in diesem Land,” which is translated by
The New Jerusalem Bible as: “Remain for the present in that country.” The King
James Bible’s version is: “Sojourn in this land.”
9. Erotik und Rasse, 30ff.