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"Antisemitism [in Germany] was not a direct reaction to
actual circumstances. In fact, men do not react directly to events. Through
a process of conceptualisation and verbalisation men construct an interpretation
of their experience, and it is only to their man-made conception of reality
that they are then capable of responding. Any interpretation of reality
is an independent, creative product of the human mind, and it is often
all the more powerful for being partially or entirely false."
(Shulamit Volkov, "Antisemitism as Cultural Code. Reflections
on the History and Historiography of Antisemitism in Imperial Germany"
in Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook XXII (1978), pp. 36f.) |
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