«Восточные евреи» в письмах немецких солдат (по материалам еженедельника «Штюрмер»)

Abstract

The article examines the letters of Wehrmacht soldiers sent to the anti-Semitic weekly newspaper Stürmer during the Second World War. It highlights the features of Stürmer as a periodical that does not provide fresh news, except for information from readers' letters. The article also examines the characteristics of field mail letters to Stürmer as a historical source. The article identifies medieval stereotypes typical of the perception of «Eastern Jews» by German Wehrmacht soldiers: cowardice, stinginess, greed, unwillingness and inability to work, deceitfulness, bad smell, flat feet, moral depravity, and excessive sexual activity. The article also examines the elements of racial and biological anti-Semitism in the worldview of soldiers and officers, as well as the spread of myths about the "global Jewish conspiracy», «Jewish Bolshevism», and the racial superiority of Germans in the Wehrmacht. It has been established that German military personnel were not only consumers, but also creators and distributors of anti-Semitic propaganda.