German Propaganda Archive Calvin University
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Background: This page provides two May 1933 articles about how to solve the “Jewish Question,†taken from the Nazi Party’s theoretical journal. Both propose a “Zionist†solution to the “Jewish Question,†though von Leers explicitly rejects a Jewish state in Palestine.
Achim Gercke had been a Nazi official before 1933. As a student, he had attempted to develop a card index listing all Jews in Germany. In April 1933, he was appointed to the Ministry of the Interior, where he served as an expert on racial matters. His article outlined Nazi public thinking on what to do about the Jews at the beginning of the Third Reich, which includes expelling them all from Germany. It notes that the just-issued Nazi laws restricting Jewish laws were provisional measures that indicated the direction future measures would take.
Johann von Leers was one of the most prolific Nazi anti-Semites. After the war, he fled to Italy and Argentina, eventually ending up in Egypt, where he converted to Islam and remained an active anti-Semitic propagandist until his death in 1965. His article proposes the removal of all Jews from Europe. His article specifically rejects “extermination†as the solution, which, I think, is indicative of the early stages of Nazi rule when they were still trying to decide what to do about the Jews.
The source: Dr. Achim Gercke, “Die Lösung der Judenfrage,†Nationalsozialistische Monatshefte, Heft 38 (May 1933), pp. 195-197, and, in the same issue, Dr. Johann von Leers, “Das Ende der jüdischen Wanderung,†pp. 229-231.
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/gercke.htm
