Did Martin Luther (of Germany), the Great leader of Peace and Protestant thought, inspire the HOLOCAUST ?

Question

Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?---Martin Luther

“What then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews?
First, their synagogues should be set on fire, and whatever does not burn up should be covered or spread over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. And this ought to be done for the honour of God and of Christianity, in order that God may see that we are true Christians.
Secondly, their homes should be likewise broken down and destroyed.
Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayerbooks and talmuds in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are taught.
Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threats of death to teach anymore.” – Martin Luther

“If I find a Jew to baptize, I shall lead him to the Elbe bridge, hang a stone around his neck, and push him into the water, baptizing him with the name of Avraham!.. I cannot convert the Jews. Our lord Christ did not succeed in doing so; but I can close their mouths so that there will be nothing for them to do but to lie upon the ground.” – Martin Luther

“I hope I shall never be so stupid as to be circumcised; I would rather cut off the left breast of my Catherine and of all women.” --- Martin Luther

“If we are to remain unsullied by the blasphemy of the Jews and not wish to take part in it, we must be separated from them and they must be driven out of the country.” – Martin Luther

Jesus did not call them Abraham's children, but a "brood of vipers" [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble blood and race of Israel, and they declared, "He has a demon' [Matt 11:18]. Our Lord also calls them a "brood of vipers"; furthermore in John 8 [:39,44] he states: "If you were Abraham's children ye would do what Abraham did.... You are of your father the devil. It was intolerable to them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the devil's children, nor can they bear to hear this today.------Martin Luther

Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will truly apply, "When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the pit" [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to misunderstand the divine commandments...------Martin Luther

St. John Chrysostom: “I know that many people hold a high regard for the Jews and consider their way of life worthy of respect at the present time... This is why I am hurrying to pull up this fatal notion by the roots ... A place where a whore stands on display is a whorehouse. What is more, the synagogue is not only a whorehouse and a theater; it is also a den of thieves and a haunt of wild animals ... not the cave of a wild animal merely, but of an unclean wild animal ... When animals are unfit for work, they are marked for slaughter, and this is the very thing which the Jews have experienced. By making themselves unfit for work, they have become ready for slaughter. This is why Christ said: “as for my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them and slay them before me’ (Luke 19.27).”



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Answer 1

The first European country to deport all the Jews from their borders was England under King Edward I. This all was done for financial reasons to win the favor of the people:
1. By throwing out their creditors (Jewish lenders who had no problem with usury with non Jews) and absolving the people's debt. It is also suspected that the King probably owed creditors money and benefited from the expulsion.
2. Throwing out prominent merchants and disrupting an influence the Jews had on trade.

This all happened a good 200 years before Martin Luther! It wasn’t because a Pope told him to do so, it wasn’t because Martin Luther wrote a book about it, it was because early Europe and Europe of the Middle Ages was anti Semitic and suspicious of the Jews. I guess the Roman Emperors like Vespasian and Titus brought back their anti Semitism to Rome, Europe and transplanted it. Again, it wasn’t the Pope (Rome at this point was staunchly anti Christian) and it wasn’t Martin Luther’s writing that prompted the Roman Emperors to destroy Jerusalem, and exile the Jews.

I would content that the majority of Anti Semitism in Europe was perpetrated more out of Political, Social and Cultural reason than religious. But hey, Europe has never had a problem with separating these factors with religion.

You (wonder if you guys are Arians) all need to think before you spam Yahoo! Answers and try to Character Assassinate Martin Luther and the Early Church Fathers.

Answer 2

Although I understand your point, I think you are a bit confused on things... 1. Luther's issue with the Jews was theologic, not racial. He thought that with his "rediscovery" of the doctrine of Justification by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone, that this would bring the Jews to the Gospel as alluded to by Paul in Romans. 2. Luther, although brilliant, was never known for his tact and diplomacy. He was very angry when this did not happen, and therefore launched into his typical "let them all burn" tracts. He did this against many groups, not just the Jews. 3. Sadly, this was easily used by the Nazi's on a racial basis. 4. Interestingly enough, the "Liberal" German Lutheran Church (the ones who would have been sceptical about the divinity of Christ and the inerrency of Scripture) are the ones who joined the movement without a lot of questions (the famous "Brown Synod" where the majority of the Lutheran church were Nazi Brown). 5. It was the confessing Lutherans (those who confessed Christ as Lord) Like Bonhoeffer and Niebur who resisted Hitler and the Nazi's, and ended up in concentration camps, and many paid the full measure for their resistance... 6. Luther's greatest weakness was his greatest strength, the spoken and written word. When he was humbly working on God's work, he was outstanding. When he was prideful and arrogant, he was an unmitigated disaster. 7. Remember, under Christian theology, the church is a collection of redeemed sinners, not perfect people. There was only one who was perfect, and we killed him... Soli Deo Gloria

Answer 3

Oh sure it just took the jerries 500 years to get their act together. Didn't know Hitler was a Lutheran. Say,are you jewish? Sounds like you're trying to blame ALL GERMANS FOREVER and ALL CHRISTIAN EVERYWHERE. So you're one to squall about bigotry,eh? You're a racial bigot and a religious bigot. Anyway,your boy in the Ukraine Lazar Kaganovich killed 7 million people because they weren't jewish how's that for genocide? try looking up the Holodomar. Love & kisses.

Answer 4

Martin Luther was crazy he took out books from the Bible "old and new' and he added words into the Bible.

His legacy is a divided Church of 14,000 denoms.

What a leader and inspiraton to Christ.

Answer 5

Nope he didn't like Jews. And history lists many more prejudices against the Jewish people.
The Lutheran Church though has denounced his negative views on those of the Jewish faith. Check out their views per synod. (LCMS, WELS, ELCA)

Edit, Martin C. states it quite well.

Answer 6

Okay, enough! Cut the crap already. Jesus is Jewish and he loves the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews! Martin Luther and Hitler are sick fich's.

Answer 7

Martin Luther was f'n nuts

Answer 8

And believers wonder why the thinking man turns away from religion?

Answer 9

Yup.

Answer 10

sounds good to me. lets start before it's to late................