On the evening of February 5, 1930, the art and theater critic Paul Fechter took the podium before the League of Nationalist German Jews, in Berlin, to discuss purported Jewish control of the press and the arts in the country. “When Dr. Max Naumann invited me to give a lecture in your circle, I rather impulsively said yes,” Fechter began. “When he then told me the topic he wanted me to address, my immediate reaction was: Good grief ! One could not have found a better topic for making oneself thoroughly unpopular and for antagonizing everyone in the room.” Explore the Special Preview: October 2026 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More For too long, Fechter said, people had been too “shy, fearful, cautious” to speak openly about the Jews. Fechter, an editor at the conservative newspaper Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, was pulling no punches. The popular Jewish humorist Kurt Tucholsky, Fechter said, had insulted the German people with his recent book, Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, an acid …