The German philosopher Martin Heidegger was undoubtedly one of the most influential of the 20th century. He was also a Nazi. For many years after World War II, his defenders insisted that his support for Hitler was limited, and not reflective of his ideas. But in 2014, the appearance in print of Heidegger’s Black Notebooks—journals he kept from 1931 until the 1970s—revealed the extent of his anti-Semitism and sympathy for the Third Reich. Moreover, explains Richard Wolin, those responsible for the posthumous editing and publication of Heidegger’s works, led by his son Hermann and other family members, have systematically distorted their content:
In light of Hermann Heidegger’s pivotal role as the administrator of his father’s literary estate, it is worth pointing out that he has consistently maintained ties to politically dubious, far-right political circles. For example, in 2014, when, following publication of the Black Notebooks, a heated controversy erupted over the philosopher’s anti-Semitism, Hermann, seeking to calm the waters, gave an interview to Sezession, a Neue Rechte (New Right) publication. . . .
Ultimately, Hermann Heidegger’s attempt to clear his father’s name fell considerably short of the mark. As he remarked at one point during the interview with Sezession, “My father was critical of ‘world Jewry’ without being an anti-Semite. After Auschwitz, it has become impossible to make this distinction, although anyone who was alive during the 1930s readily understands its meaning.” What seems to have escaped Hermann’s attention is that the expression “world Jewry” (Weltjudentum)—which conjures the image of a “Jewish world conspiracy”—was itself a lexical mainstay of Nazi race thinking. Hitler himself frequently had recourse to it in Mein Kampf and other writings. Truly a shame that Auschwitz, among its various pernicious aftereffects, fundamentally ruined things for well-meaning critics of “world Jewry” like the Heideggers!
The controversies that have haunted the publication of Heidegger’s work are significant, insofar as they concern not merely occasional and understandable editorial lapses but instead suggest a premeditated policy of substantive editorial cleansing: a strategy whose goal was systematically and deliberately to excise Heidegger’s pro-Nazi sentiments and convictions.
Thus, in one of the few cases where Heidegger deigned to discuss the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish Question,” he cynically characterized the Holocaust as an act of “Jewish self-annihilation.”
Read more on Los Angeles Review of Books: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-heidegger-hoax/