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Marxism and Anti-Semitism: Kautsky's Perspective*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Jack Jacobs
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Karl Kautsky's views on the Jewish question are of great import precisely because they are Kautsky's. In the years following Engels' death, Kautsky was the leading orthodox Marxist theoretician, executor of Marx's literary estate, editor of Die Neue Zeit, and a prolific author of popular Marxist tracts. It was Kautsky who drafted the theoretical part of the Erfurt Program of 1891, and Kautsky who wrote the classic rebuttal to Bernstein. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that an entire generation of socialists around the world were taught Marx through Kautsky. There is a sense in which Kautsky's views on the Jewish question were even more influential than were his views on other matters. For Kautsky was perceived as an authority on the Jewish question even by many Marxists who were, or eventually became, sharply critical of his views on other questions.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , December 1985 , pp. 400 - 430
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1985

Footnotes

*

The research for this article was facilitated by a Dean Harry J. Carman Fellowship, a Lawrence H. Chamberlain Fellowship, and by a grant from the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

References

1 Silberner, Edmund, “German Social Democracy and the Jewish Problem Prior to World War I”, in: Historia Judaica, XV (1953), p. 41Google Scholar. Cf. id., “Was Marx an Anti-Semite?”, ibid., XI (1949), p. 51, in which Silberner contends that ”basically the same contempt for the Jews” as that exhibited by Marx, “though couched in a different language, is to be found in the writings of Karl Kautsky, Victor Adler, Franz Mehring, Otto Bauer, and others.” Emphasis in the original.

2 Mosse, George L., “German Socialists and the Jewish Question in the Weimar Republic”, in: Leo Baeck Institute Yearbook, XVI (1971), p. 124Google Scholar.

3 Wistrich, Robert, “Karl Marx, German Socialists and the Jewish Question, 1880–1914”, in: Soviet Jewish Affairs, III (1973), pp. 92–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Leuschen-Seppel, Rosemarie, Sozialdemokratie und Antisemitismus im Kaiserreich (Bonn, 1978), pp. 81–86Google Scholar.

4 See my doctoral dissertation, “Kautsky on the Jewish Question” (Columbia University, 1983), pp. 8–89.

5 “Oesterreich-Ungarn”, in: Der Sozialdemokrat, October 5,1882; cf. Blumenberg, Werner, Karl Kautskys literarisches Werk (The Hague, 1960), No 237Google Scholar.

6 “Oesterreich-Ungarn”.

7 “Aus Oesterreich”, in: Züricher Post, September 11, 1883; cf. Blumenberg, Kautskys literarisches Werk, op. cit., No 304.

8 Quoted in Brügel, Ludwig, Geschichte der österreichischen Sozialdemokratie, III (Vienna, 1922), p. 320Google Scholar.

9 To Engels, , June 23, 1884, in Friedrich Engels' Briefwechsel mit Karl Kautsky, ed. by Kautsky, Benedikt (Vienna, 1955), p. 125Google Scholar.

10 To Engels, December 22, ibid., p. 159; cf. to Engels, November 26,1888, ibid., p. 225.

11 Kautsky, C. “Der Antisemitismus”, in: Oesterreichischer Arbeiter-Kalender für das Jahr 1885 (Brünn), p. 100Google Scholar.

12 Ibid., p. 101.

13 Ibid., pp. 102–03.

14 Ibid., p. 104.

15 S., , “Das Judenthum”, in: Die Neue Zeit (henceforth NZ), VIII (1890). pp. 23–24Google Scholar.

16 Ibid., p. 25.

17 Ibid., p. 27.

18 K.K., , review of Die Ungarischen Rumänen und die Ungarische Nation and of Die Rumänische Frage in Siebenbürgen und Ungarn in NZ, XI (1892–1893), 1, p. 831Google Scholar.

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20 To Emma Adler, April 22,1895, in Adler, Victor, Briefwechsel mit August Bebel und Karl Kautsky, ed. by Adler, Friedrich (Vienna, 1954), p. 175Google Scholar.

21 Goldberg, Harvey, “Jean Jaurès and the Jewish Question: The Evolution of a Position”, in: Jewish Social Studies, XX (1958), p. 68Google Scholar.

22 Rappoport, Charles, “Dos lebn fun a revolutsionern emigrant”, in: Di yidishe sotsialistishe bavegung biz der grindungfun “bund”, ed. by Tscherikower, E., Menes, A., Kursky, F. and Rosin, A. (Ben-Adir) (Vilna, Paris, 1939), p. 307Google Scholar.

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25 [Kautsky, Karl,] “Jaurès' Taktik und die deutsche Sozialdemokratie”, in: Vorwärts, 07 26,1899, p. 3, c. 1Google Scholar; “Un Mot de Kautsky”, in: La Petite République, July 24, p. 1, c. 5.

26 On Warszawski see Nettl, J. P., Rosa Luxemburg (London, 1966), I, p. 79Google Scholar.

27 The Kishinev massacre – one of the worst pogroms in the history of Russian Jewry was sparked by the false accusation that Jews had killed a Russian (non-Jewish) boy. Acting with the consent and encouragement of Russian officials, unruly gangs murdered forty-five Jews and seriously wounded eighty-six others. Cf. Dubnov, Simon, History of the Jews, transl. by Moishe Spiegel, (5 vols; South Brunswick, 1967–1973), V, pp. 716–19Google Scholar.

28 To Kautsky, May 20,1903, Kautsky Papers (henceforth K) D XXIII63, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis.

29 Kautsky, Karl, “Das Massaker von Kischeneff und die Judenfrage”, in: NZ, XXI (1902–1903), 2, p. 303Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., p. 308. For an additional comment by Kautsky on the Kishinev pogrom see id., “Die Fortsetzung einer unmoglichen Diskussion”, ibid., XXIII (1904–05), 2, p. 719.

31 Blumenberg, Kautskys literarisches Werk, No 814. During this period Kautsky also endorsed several resolutions of the International Socialist Bureau condemning anti-Semitism: International Socialist Review, II (1901–02), p. 600; “The Kischiniff Massacres”, ibid., IV (1903–04), p. 46; K G 3, No 145.

32 On July 13, 1914, Kautsky wrote to Adler that he had not yet proofread his work on Jewry. Adler, Briefwechsel mit August Bebel und Karl Kautsky, op. cit., p. 594.

33 Kautsky, Karl, Rasse und Judentum (Stuttgart, 1914), p. 28Google Scholar, as translated in id., Are the Jews a Race? (New York, 1926), p. 62.

34 Are the Jews a Race?, p. 156.

35 Kautsky, Karl, Die Befreiung der Nationen (Stuttgart, 1917), p. 45Google Scholar.

36 Ibid. My thanks to Professor John Kautsky for pointing out this passage to me.

37 On the history of Zionism see Laqueur's, Walter A History of Zionism (New York, 1972)Google Scholar.

38 “Das Ergebnis der Reichstagswahl”, in: Rundschau, Jüdische, 07 3, 1903, pp. 26ff.Google Scholar, cited in Jehuda Eloni, “Die zionistische Bewegung in Deutschland und die SPD 1897–1918”, in: Juden und jüdischeAspekte in der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung 1848–1918, ed. by Grab, Walter (Tel Aviv, 1977), pp. 90–91Google Scholar.

39 I do not mean to suggest that Kautsky's position on Zionism was a reaction to attacks by Zionists on Socialists, but merely to indicate that the mainstream Zionist movement was hostile to socialism. Long before he spoke out against Zionism, Kautsky had allowed anti-Zionist articles to be published in Die Neue Zeit. See, for example, Häcker, S[amuel], “Über den Zionismus”, in: NZ XIII (1894–1895), 2, pp. 759–61Google Scholar; J[akob] St[ern], review of Der Judenstaat ibid., XV (1896–97), 1, p. 186; Johann Pollak, “Der politische Zionismus”, ibid., XVI(1897–98), 1, pp. 596–600.

40 “Das Massaker von Kischeneff und die Judenfrage”, loc. cit., p. 308.

41 The article which provoked Chasanowitsch (1880(?)-1925) to seek out Kautsky was almost certainly Rosin, B., “Die zionistisch-sozialistische Utopie”, in: NZ, XXVII (1908–1909), 1, pp. 29–34Google Scholar. B. Rosin was a pseudonym of Boris Frumkin, see Kursky, Franz, Gezamlte shriftn (New York, 1952), p. 252Google Scholar.

42 Kasriel, [Leon Chasanowitsch], “Karl kautsky un wurm iber der yudenfrage”, in: Der yudisher arbayter, 12 25, 1908, pp. 1–2Google Scholar.

43 Chasanowitsch, Leon, “Vos kautsky veys vegn di yidn frage”, in: Varhayt. 01 13, 1909, p. 4, cc. 4–5Google Scholar.

44 Are the Jews a Race?, p. 207.

45 Kautsky, Karl, Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung (Berlin, 1927), I, p. 690Google Scholar; II, p. 169.

46 Id., “Die Aussichten des Zionismus”, in: Arbeiter-Zeitung, September 22, 1929, p. 4.

47 Ibid.

48 Vandervelde, Emile, “Karl Kautsky et le Sionisme”, in: La Dépêche, 11 2, 1929Google Scholar; Comité Socialiste pour la Palestine Ouvrière, Bullettin, November 1929, pp. 10–11; La Vie Socialiste, December 14, pp. 8–9; Camille Huysmans, “Sur le Sionisme”, in: Bullettin, ibid., pp. 9–10; “A propos de sionisme”, in: La Vie Socialiste, ibid., p. 7; Eduard Bernstein, “Die Aussichten des Zionismus. Eine Antwort an Karl Kautsky”, in: Vorwärts, December 8, 2. Beilage, cf. Zwei sozialistische Antworten auf Karl Kautsky's Artikel “Die Aussichten des Zionismus”, Bernstein Papers B 10, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis.

49 To E. Vandervelde, November 21, 1929, Institut E. Vandervelde, Brussels, EV/1077/

50 Ibid.

51 Kautsky, Karl, “Nochmals der Zionismus. Eine Antwort an Eduard Bernstein”, in: Vorwarts, 12 15, 1929Google Scholar, 2. Beilage.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.

54 ibid.

55 Mosse, “German Socialists and the Jewish Question in the Weimar Republic”, loc. cit., p. 127.

56 Locker to Kautsky, K D XVI 29; Jarblum to Kautsky, K D XIII 375; Ben-Gurion to Kautsky, K D IV 128.

57 Abramowitch, R[aphael], “Doyres sotsialistn hobn gelernt fun zayne verk”, in: Jewish Daily Forward, 01 30, 1949, second ed., p. 4, cc. 1–8Google Scholar.

58 Ibid.

59 Tobias, Henry J., The Jewish Bund in Russia. From its Origins to 1905 (Stanford, 1972), pp. 88, 93–94Google Scholar.

60 Ibid., p. 93.

61 Kautsky, Karl, “Der paria unter di proletarier”, in: Di arbetershtime. 10 1901. p. 5Google Scholar.

62 Ibid.

63 Vestnik Bunda, November 1904, pp. 27–28, quoted in Hertz, J. S., “Di ershte ruslander revolutsie”, in: Di geshikhte fun bund, ed. by Aronson, G., Dubnow-Erlich, S., Hertz, J. S., Novogrudsky, E., Kazhdan, Kh. Sh. and Sherer, E. (5 vols; New York, 1960–1981), II, p. 128Google Scholar. His sympathies for the Bund notwithstanding, Kautsky felt obliged to vote against the Bund at this time. The statutes of the Socialist International accorded each delegation two votes at Congresses of the International. However, the Russian delegation was split three ways. There were representatives of the Russian Social Democratic Workers' Party, of the Socialist Revolutionaries and of the Bund. The RSDWP and the SR representatives each claimed one of the two Russian votes. The Bund therefore decided to ask for a third Russian vote, and, later, when this proved to be an impossible request given the statutes of the International, it claimed the seat which had also been claimed by the SR. It was this dispute which was adjudicated by the ISB. Kautsky voted with the majority of the ISB in favor of the SR representatives, and explained his position by noting that though he was politically closer to the Bund than to the SR, “I do not have the right to vote according to sympathies or antipathies. I must vote in accord with” the rules of the International. Hertz, loc. cit., pp. 126–28; Medem, Vladimir, The Life and Soul of a Legendary Jewish Socialist, ed. by Portnoy, Samuel A. (New York, 1979), pp. 324–27Google Scholar.

In a letter dated October 26, Vladimir Kosovsky, writing on behalf of the Foreign Committee of the Buńd, requested more information from Kautsky about his position vis-a-vis the Bund's voting rights. The underground Russian press claimed that the ISB voted against the Bund, because the ISB did not want to support the purportedly nationalistic tendencies of the Bund. Kosovsky therefore asked Kautsky whether this was in fact the case, how Kautsky had voted, and also asked him to inform the Bund as to the basis of his vote. To Kautsky, October 26, 1904, K D XIV 274. The statements by Kautsky published in Vestnik Bunda in November were almost certainly made in response to Kosovsky's letter. My attempts to gain access to items 1138 and 1148 listed in Sotsial-demokraticheskielistovki 1894–1917gg., ed. by B. P. Birman, G. J. Kramolnikov and I. Sennikowsky (n.p., 1931), pp. 222, 224, which contain additional information on Kautsky's position vis-a-vis the request of the Bund for a vote at the Amsterdam Congress, have been unsuccessful.

64 “Brif tsum 7tn tsuzamenfor fun ‘bund’”, in: Folkstsaytung, September 13–26, 1906. Kautsky was invited to attend this congress by Kursky, writing on behalf of the Central Committee of the Bund, to Kautsky, August 29, K D XIV 354.

65 “Brif fun k. kautsky”, in: Tsayt, May 1914, p. 2. This message from Kautsky was solicited by the Foreign Committee of the Bund, K D II 140.

66 Rosin, “Die zionistisch-sozialistische Utopie”, loc. cit.

67 [Nachimson], M., review of Die Judenpogrome in Russland, in NZ, XXVIII (1909–1910), 2, pp. 90–91Google Scholar, and of Die Nationalitätenprobleme der Gegenwart, ibid., pp. 646–47.

68 W[ladimir] Medem, “Ein nationalistischer Vorschlag”, ibid., pp. 748–51; id., “Der moderne Antisemitismus in Russland”, ibid., XXIX (1910–11), 1, pp. 259–63.

69 Rosenmann, Lfippe], “Ostjudenfrage, ZionismusundGrenzschluss”, in: NZ, XXXIV (1915–1916), 2, pp. 305–09Google Scholar; cf. id. to Kautsky, February 11, 1916, K D XIX 560.

70 Jak. Pistiner, “Die Juden im Weltkriege”, in: NZ, XXXIV/2, pp. 449–54.

71 Kossowski, W., “Die Aussichten der russischen Revolution”, in: NZ, XXVI (1907–1908), 1, pp. 916–22Google Scholar. According to Kursky, Gezamlteshriftn, op. cit. p. 305, a young woman active in the Bund named Shenberg also wrote for Die Neue Zeit. I have been unable to locate this article. Among the articles dealing with the Bund or written from a Bundist perspective published in Die Neue Zeit were “Der Allgemeine Jüdische Arbeiterbund in Litauen, Polen und Russland”, ibid., XXII (1903–04), 2, pp. 536–40, and the series of articles signed A.L., : “Der Poalei-Zionismus. Eine neue Strömung im russischen Judentum”, XXIV (1905–1906), 1, pp. 804–13Google Scholar; “Die prinzipielle Stellungdes ‘Jüdischen Arbeiterbundes’”, XXIV/2, pp. 702–05; “Der Jüdische Arbeiterbund”, XXVI/1, p. 144; “Der siebente Parteitag des Jüdischen Arbeiterbundes”, transl. by A.L., , XXV (1906–1907), 1, pp. 100–05Google Scholar.

72 When confronted by a leader of the Poalei Tsion who wanted to publish a piece in Die Neue Zeit, Kautsky argued that its readers had little interest in the Jewish question, and that articles by labor Zionists were better suited for the socialist press of Poland and Russia than they were for the Western press. Though he grudgingly agreed to consider an article written from a labor-Zionist perspective, no such article ever appeared in Kautsky's journal. Kasriel, “Karl kautsky un wurm iber der yudenfrage”, loc. cit., p. 1.

73 “Die Dumawahlen”, in: NZ, XXXI (1912–13), 1, pp. 843–44; cf. W. Kossowsky to Kautsky, January 21, 1913, K D XIV 275.

74 Kautsky to Zetterbaum, (October 30, 1893,) Kautsky Family Archive, Portfolio 8, Folder 5, Intemationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis.

75 Kautsky, K., “Di oyfgabn fun dem yidishn proletariat in england. a bagrisung artikl tsu di ‘naye tsayt’”, in: Di naye tsayt, 04 1, 1904, p. 5, cc. 1–3Google Scholar. This article was reprinted under the title “Kautsky on the Problems of the Jewish Proletariat in England” in Justice (London), April 23, 1904, p. 4, and under the title “Karl Kautsky über Judentum und jüdisches Proletariat” in Die Welt, December 15, 1905, pp. 4–5. It also appeared in a Russian-language organ of the Bund, , Vestnik Bunda, 06 1904, pp. 20–21CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Kautsky wrote this article for Di naye tsayt at the request of Theodore Rothstein, who was already known to Kautsky as a contributor to Die Neue Zeit, Rothstein to Kautsky, March 10, 1904, K D XIX 585. It was Rothstein who gave the Bund permission to reprint Kautsky's article, to Kautsky, April 7, K D XIX 586.

76 Kautsky, Karl, “Amerikanische und europäische Arbeiter”, in: Arbeiter-Zeitung, 09 23, 1928, p. 3Google Scholar. Cf. K A 149; B. C. Vladeck to Luise Kautsky, November 28, D XXII 435; M. Feinstone to Karl Kautsky, May 21, X 332.

77 Kautsky, Karl, “Di oyfgabn fun di yidishe sotsialistn in amerika”, in: Jewish Daily Forward, 04 23, 1922, Section 2, p. 6Google Scholar, cc. 1–8, cf. A. Cahan to Kautsky, January 10 and March 16, K D VII 1–2; Karl Kautsky, “Bagrisungn tsum ‘forverts’”, ibid., April 24, 1927, Section 4, p. 1, cc. 6–8, cf. Luise Kautsky to Baruch Charney Vladeck, February 10, Vladeck Papers, Tamiment Library, New York: “My husband had a letter of [sic] Comrade Cahan asking him to write a short article for the jubilee number of ‘Forward’. Though Karl is deeply immersed in his big theoretical work on historic materialism, yet he will send something to the ‘Forward’ one of the next days. He feels that for ‘his Jews’ he must make an exception.”; “Teyere verter tsu unzer yontef fun unzer libn lerer karl kautsky”, ibid., April 25, 1937, Section 2, p. 1, cc. 1–8. The original German-language manuscript version of Kautsky's greeting to the Forward on the occasion of the paper's fortieth anniversary has been preserved: “Zum 40jährigen Bestehen des ‘Jewish Daily Forward’”, K A 219, cf. A. Cahan to Kautsky, March 29, D VII 15.

78 “A bagrisung tsum ‘veker’ fun karl kautsky”, in: Der veker, October 30, 1926. p. 14.

79 “Di oyfgabn fun dem yidishn proletariat in england”, loc. cit.

80 “Amerikanische und europaische Arbeiter”, loc. cit.

81 Kautsky did not believe that the Jewish workers of the Soviet Union also had a unique role. These workers, he wrote in 1923, certainly had a particular interest, both as proletarians and as Jews, in equal rights and in protection for national minorities. However, “the Jewish proletariat does not have a class interest separate from that of other proletarians”, and thus does not have a distinct role to play in the Soviet Union. K. Kautsky, “Di oyfgabn funm yidishn proletariat in sovet-rusland”, in: Dos fraye vort, June 20, 1923, p. 1. This article is unusual in that Kautsky wrote it for a Jewish periodical which (unlike Di arbetershtime, Di naye tsayt, Tsayt, Forverts, Der veker and Tsukunft) was not explicitly social-democratic. Dos fraye vort was close to the Social Revolutionary tradition and was, in general, unable to attract Bundist and Menshevik contributors. Its editor, Ben-Adir (Avrom Rozin), who had been prominently associated with Vozrozhdeniye, SERP and the United Jewish Socialist Workers' Party, visited Kautsky and convinced himself that Kautsky's socialism had the same ethical foundation as did his own, Aronson, Gregory, Rusish-yidishe inteligents (Buenos-Aires, 1962), p. 222Google Scholar; my thanks to the late Hillel Kempinski for pointing out this passage to me. Kautsky may also have had contact with another Jewish periodical which was not explicitly social-democratic. An undated note from Kautsky to the left SR and territorialist I. N. Shteinberg indicates that Kautsky had agreed to write an article for a periodical with which Shteinberg was associated: Shteinberg Collection, file 279, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, New York. The periodical is unnamed. However, Shteinberg was editor of Fraye shriftn – farn yidishn sotsialistishn gedank from 1926 to 1937.

82 Mill, John, Pionern un boyer, II (New York, 1949), pp. 135–36Google Scholar.

83 Luise Kautsky expressed Karl's thanks to A. Cahan of the Jewish Daily Forward in the following terms: “It is of the greatest value to him that the Forward is one of the rare mouth-pieces from where he is able to influence the brains and minds of so many thousands of readers. You can easily imagine how sad it is for such an old writer and fighter to see himself bereft at the end of his days of nearly every tribune wherefrom to speak to his public.” To A. Cahan, November 26, 1934, A. Cahan Collection, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

84 To Kautsky, , 01 28, 1920, Nicolaevsky Collection, 17, Box 1, Hoover Institution, Stanford UniversityGoogle Scholar.

85 Ibid.

86 Ibid.

87 To Kautsky, December 12, 1931, K D VII 7.

88 Ibid.

89 Ibid.

90 Kautsky, Karl, “Fun a rumfuler fargangenhayt tsu a herlekher tsukunft”, in: Naye folkstsaytung, 11 10, 1937, p. 10Google Scholar. Cf. the letters from the Central Committee of the Bund to Kautsky dated October 12 and 22, December 29, K D VI 740–42.

91 “Der Antisemitismus”, loc. cit., p. 100. Emphasis added.

92 “Das Judenthum”, loc. cit., pp. 25, 27.

93 “Brif tsum 7tn tsuzamenfor fun ‘bund’”, loc. cit.

94 Ibid.

95 Kautsky, Karl, “Die Nationalitatenfrage in Russland”, in: Leipziger Volkszeitung, 04 29, 1905, 4. BeilageGoogle Scholar.

96 Ibid.

97 I have been unable to determine whether or not Kautsky also supported the program of the Bund's sister party in Austria-Hungary, the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party in Galicia, which was founded in 1905. He certainly knew of the existence of such a party (Hilferding, to Kautsky, , 05 27, 1905, K D XII 590)Google Scholar, but never wrote about it.

98 Are the Jews a Race?, p. 243.

99 Avineri, Shlomo, “Marx and Jewish Emancipation”, in: Journal of the History of Ideas, XXV (1964), pp. 445–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

100 Recently, for example, Eloni, Yehuda, “The Zionist Movement and the German Social Democratic Party, 1897–1918”, in: Studies in Zionism, V (1984), p. 194Google Scholar, described the argument which Kautsky made in his article “Das Massaker von Kischeneff und die Judenfrage” as ”close to an ideological legitimization of pogroms”.

101 There is virtually no published biographical information available on Kautsky's first wife, Louise Strasser. Kautsky's second wife, Luise Ronsperger, though certainly not religiously observant, considered herself to be a Jew. She did not maintain particularly close ties with the Ronsperger family after she married Kautsky, but all of her closest friends were of Jewish origin. In the late 1930's, Luise was very involved with other Jewish refugees living, as she did, in the Netherlands, Use Kautsky Calabi to Jack Jacobs, August 31, 1981. She was deported to Auschwitz, and died there in December 1944, “Tod einer Emigrantin - wie die Witwe Karl Kautskys starb”, in: Sie flohen vor dem Hakenkreuz, ed. by Zadek, Walter (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1981), pp. 117–18Google Scholar.

102 John Kautsky to Jack Jacobs, December 1,1981. In another letter. Professor Kautsky discusses the extent to which Karl's sons identified themselves as Jewish, and notes that “obviously they detested anti-Semitism and hated and feared the Nazis and they ‘identified’ with German Jewry, in the sense of complete sympathy, in the Nazi period. But I'm not 100% sure that they would have ‘identified’ themselves as Jewish - or as non-Jewish, for that matter. They were totally divorced from Jewish religion and largely from Jewish culture (e.g. they had no knowledge of Jewish customs or holidays). […] Jewishness was simply not an issue in the Kautsky family.” To Jack Jacobs, March 2, 1982.

103 Das Kriegstagebuch des Reichstagsabgeordneten Eduard David 1914 bis 1918, ed. by Matthias, Erich and Miller, Susanne (Düsseldorf, 1966), p. 136Google Scholar.

104 Deutsches Judentum in Krieg und Revolution 1916–1923, ed. by Mosse, Werner (Tübingen, 1971), pp. 30, 217Google Scholar; Karl Paumgartten. Judentum und Sozialdemokratie (Graz, n.d.), p. 30; Niewyk, Donald L., Socialist, Anti-Semite, and Jew (Baton Rouge, 1971), p. 84Google Scholar.

105 Kautsky, Karl, Erinnerungen und Erorterungen, ed. by Kautsky, Benedikt (The Hague, 1960), pp. 36–37Google Scholar.

106 Ibid., p. 36.

107 Karl Kautsky, The Dictatorship of the Proletariat (Manchester, n.d), p. 90.