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Behind the Aegis

(54,845 posts)
Fri Aug 16, 2024, 02:38 PM Aug 16

How 'antisemitic morons' tried to create a Jew-free world in Paraguay

A country without Jews is like blintzes without sour cream. That’s the conclusion one draws from People and Identities in Nueva Germania, a new book by anthropologist Jonatan Kurzwelly about a 19th Century model for a Jew-free world.

Nueva Germania, a district in Paraguay, was formed as a German settlement in 1887 by teacher and antisemitic activist Bernhard Förster and his wife, Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche, sister of the philosopher. Their goal was to create an area of Germanic development far from the influence of European Jews.

Still extant in different form, the colony was so ultra-German that it was even rumored to have sheltered the notorious Nazi war criminal Dr. Josef Mengele after the Second World War, although historians maintain that this is improbable.

The whole idea derived from that source of Jew-hatred, the composer Richard Wagner, with whom the Försters socialized at Bayreuth. Wagner advocated launching a vegetarian community in South America, where the German spirit could flourish untrammeled by Jews, who were decried by Förster as a “parasite on the German body.”

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How 'antisemitic morons' tried to create a Jew-free world in Paraguay (Original Post) Behind the Aegis Aug 16 OP
Blintzes are delicious! JoseBalow Aug 16 #1
This post seems irrelevant to the topic of "anti-Semitic morons in Paraguay". lapucelle Aug 16 #3
Yes JoseBalow Aug 16 #4
Yes, but the article says nothing about blintzes in general being delicious lapucelle Aug 16 #5
Oy JoseBalow Aug 16 #6
Many people need someone to blame, someone to feel superior to. keithbvadu2 Aug 16 #2
They are gone... Richard D Aug 16 #7
So, let's eat! Behind the Aegis Aug 16 #8

lapucelle

(19,530 posts)
3. This post seems irrelevant to the topic of "anti-Semitic morons in Paraguay".
Fri Aug 16, 2024, 05:40 PM
Aug 16

Is there a connection I'm missing?

JoseBalow

(5,031 posts)
4. Yes
Fri Aug 16, 2024, 06:04 PM
Aug 16

The first line says:

A country without Jews is like blintzes without sour cream.

And besides the fact that blintzes are, indeed, quite delicious, so too is the flavor that Jewish culture brings to communities. I am agreeing with both the literal and metaphorical assertion by the author.

Thanks for asking!

lapucelle

(19,530 posts)
5. Yes, but the article says nothing about blintzes in general being delicious
Fri Aug 16, 2024, 06:32 PM
Aug 16

and your statement makes no reference to sour cream. But if "Blintzes are delicious!" is the summation of your takeaway from an article about anti-Semitic morons in Uruguay (one of whom bore the name Nietzsche ) than that is the summation of your takeaway.





keithbvadu2

(39,980 posts)
2. Many people need someone to blame, someone to feel superior to.
Fri Aug 16, 2024, 04:09 PM
Aug 16

It would have been interesting to read some of Macintyre's observations about “interbreeding to the point of genetic deterioration.”

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