Von den Jüden und Iren Lügen [“Of the Jews and Their Lies”]

LUTHER, MARTIN

Hans Lufft

Wittemberg

1543

FIRST EDITION. Text in German. Title within historiated woodcut architectural border, hand-colored in ochre. Initial letters within decorative woodcut vignettes. Broad margins. Scattered German and Latin marginalia. Pasted to back endpaper: Ecclesiastic authorization dated "5 Aug. 1910" (German)

Adams L-2034; Rosenberger Catalogue, Judaica (HUC, 1971), p. 388, fig. III (facs. of title)

German religious reformer Martin Luther grew increasingly hostile towards the Jews following their refusal to accept his new theology. In the present vitupertive work, the most virulent of Luther’s anti-Semitic attacks, he subjects the Jews to a torrent of vile abuse. His practical suggestions range from forced labor to outright banishment: “First, their synagogues should be set on fire and whatever does not burn should be covered over with dirt so that no one may ever be able to see a cinder or stone of it. Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and destroyed. And this ought be done for the honor of God and of Christianity in order that God may see that we are Christians and that we have not wittingly tolerated or approved of such public lying, cursing and blaspheming.” “Throughout the subsequent centuries, Luther’s ferocious castigation of the Jews provided fuel for anti-Semites and the vicious force of that legacy was still evident in Nazi propaganda” (EJ, Vol. XI, col. 586). See also J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism (1983)