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regions. In Hitl er's childhood , it was the neighbo rin g Czechs who were per–
ceived as th e bi gges t thrcat to the pan-Cerman aspirati o ns of hi s nati ve area .
Hi s earl y biography doesn' t ind icate an y anti- Semiti sm . In fac t, " Some o f hi s
bes t fri ends . . ." emerges as a so rt o f
leiflllOI!I
in Hamman's book, rangin g
fi'om th e Hitl ers' Jewi sh f unil y doc to r Eduard L3l och to some o f hi s closer
associates at th e Mann erh cim and th e pi cture fi'ame dealer Jako b Altenberg
who sold Hitl er's paintin gs primaril y to Jewish customers. Yo ung H.
remain ed a supporter o f Mahl er and defended the integri ty o f Wagner' s
sco res aga inst th e cuts enfo rced by anti-Semi ti c gro ups.
So when and how did Hitl er become th e demo ni c anti - Semite) Were
there stages in between, when he "simpl y" expl oited anti - Semiti sm as an
effective po liti ca l strategy, emulating the striking success o f Vi enna's mayor
Lueger) Th ere is no need fo r Hallllllan to becoill e fixa ted o n these ques–
ti o ns, as if a psycho logica l insi ght mi ght somehow make an ethi cal difference
in the end resul t. A prominent member o f Vi enna's Jewi sh comillun ity told
Lu eger, " I do n' t hold it aga inst yo u th at you are an anti - Semite, but rather
th at you are no t." As Hamman's book chillin gly illustrates, the shrill hi stri–
oni cs o f Vi enna's populi st thea tre o f demo ni zed poli ti cs provided a fer til e
trainin g gro und fo r th e anti - Seilli ti c platfo rm Hi tl er developed later.
Wh ether it " came from th e heart" o r was co ld- bloodedly, if " b rilliantl y"
constructed, as it werc, is certainl y a di stin cti o n eclipsed by Hitler's " final
soluti o n."
GITTA HONEGGER
Friend or Foe?
GERMANY UNIFiED AND EUROPE TRANSFORMED.
By Philip Zelikow
and Condoleezza Rice.
Harvard U ni versity Press. $3:) .()().
In
Cernl' lI l)' Ulliticd ,'lI d Ell rope Tr<l llst;,rlll ed,
Philip Zel ikow and
Condo leezza
I~ ice
present
~l symp~lth cti c
vIew of Ameri can and Western
diplomacy in the last days of the Cold War. T hc authors do not write in a
tr iulll phali st or W hi gg ish sp irit, bu t they ,Ire attuned to the colltinge ncy and
opcnness of events; they were part of the L3 ush admini stra ti o n's fo reign pol–
icy tea lll . T hey helped nu ke po licy ,lillled at bringing abou t a unified
Germany in tegrated in to the NATO alli ance as well as a peaceful d issolu–
tion of Soviet powt'r in Cell tra l and Easte rn Europe. Perhaps the mos t
