Germany Must Perish! - Reactions

Reactions

An advertisement in the New York Times, stated that the book was released to the public on March 1, 1941. Kaufman also promoted the book by mailing a miniature black cardboard coffin with a hinged lid to reviewers. Inside the coffin was a card proclaiming, "Read GERMANY MUST PERISH! Tomorrow you will receive your copy."

Perhaps as a result, despite being written and self-published by a non-notable author, the book received some attention, including from Time magazine, which published a review. The unnamed Time reviewer compared the book to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, noting that, unlike Swift, Kaufman's work was not satirical. According to philosophy professor Berel Lang, American reviews "reflected an odd combination of straight reporting and skepticism."

Kaufman's second and more moderate pamphlet, "No More German Wars" published in 1942, was ignored both in the U.S. and in Germany.

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