Thread by @DawnofMercy

After I posted my talk confronting G.K. Chesterton's anti-Semitism, a commenter asked if there were other comments from Chesterton on Jews that were worse than the ones I cited.

I'm sorry to say that the answer's yes. 1/9

In my talk, I used only examples of GKC's anti-Semitism for which I had pics of original sources. I'd read worse examples in @mayerssd's book Chesterton's Jews but didn't have photos. I feared if I cited them without photos, folks wouldn't believe me. 2/9

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1425671153901789188

Today, with the help of @CUAlibraries, I acquired a scan of an essay by Chesterton containing some of his more offensive comments. The essay in question has never been anthologized. I had seen it quoted in Simon Mayers's book and in this blog entry: simonmayers.com/2013/09/25/g-k…. 3/9

Chesterton published "Why Did He Do It?", in GK's Weekly on March 26, 1936. The title refers to Hitler's occupation of the Rhineland. GKC has a terrifically hard time understanding why Hitler would "breach . . . a frontier and a treaty." He just can't wrap his head around it. 4/9

Thus Chesterton writes, "I have always said that there were healthy elements in Hitlerism, and even in Hitler; indeed I rather suspect that Hitler is one of the healthy elements in Hitlerism."

See the next tweet for a photo of his words as they were printed. 5/9

Chesterton concludes that since Hitler himself seems good, it's unlikely he's responsible for the decision to occupy the Rhineland. Rather, someone must be pulling his strings.

"I fancy he [Hitler] is a better man than the men around him or behind him," Chesterton writes. 6/9

Here's the entire article for context. GKC wrote it 6 months after Nuremberg laws (see ushmm.org/learn/timeline…) and 3 years after the interview where he criticized Hitler.
As a fan of his books, I'm pained that he went to his death (June 1936) making EXCUSES for Hitler. 7/9

Mayers found that GKC wrote similarly in 1934: "in certain aspects, and under certain limitations, I do not believe that Hitler is altogether a bad fellow; and that he is almost certainly a much better fellow than the men who are going to use him." See simonmayers.com/2013/09/25/g-k… 8/9

Mayers doesn't specify who GKC thought was pulling Hitler's strings. But he presents suggestive quotes such as the one where GKC complains that Hitler's men beat poor Jews & not rich ones.

And THAT is why a reckoning is needed in the Chesterton community.

https://twitter.com/DawnofMercy/status/1425671410840707073