Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth Annual Meeting of THE HEIDEGGER CIRCLE

"Heidegger's Black Notebooks and The Question of Anti-Semitism"

Jesus Adrián Escudero

Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Abstract: The recent publication of the first four volumes of the so-called Black Notebooks has re-kindled the political controversy regarding Heidegger's involvement with National Socialism. It is indisputable that the Black Notebooks contain some controversial and ambivalent statements about the Jews and Judaism--a fact that has re-awakened the controversial subject of anti-Semitism and triggered a re-opening of the Heidegger Case. Proceeding from this basic idea, the present work addresses the following two issues. First, it is explained what the Black Notebooks are. Secondly, the prickly subject of Heidegger's anti-Semitism is settled.

Heidegger remained silent after the discovery of the horrors of Nazism. The reasons that lead him to sympathize with the National Socialist movement are still ambiguous. He admits that he supported the Nazi Party, and that he did not foresee what was going to happen after leaving his position as rector of the University of Freiburg in the year 1934. At the same time, one hastens to add excuses and downplay the level of his involvement. Fortunately, the recent publication of his philosophical journal in the spring of 2014--known within the framework of Heideggerian studies as the Black Notebooks (Schwarze Hefte)--now allows new light to be shed on his level of personal commitment towards National Socialism and a reevaluation of the political dimension of his thought. The publication of the first three volumes of the so-called Black Notebooks has undoubtedly re-kindled the controversy. The controversy started up even before the publication of these notebooks. The circulation of some of the book's extracts generated a bitter discussion in different German, French, and Italian journals among defenders and critics of Heidegger's thought and image.⁵ It is indisputable that the Black Notebooks

⁵ See, for example, Eric Aeschimann's opinion in Le Nouvel Observateur regarding the polemic between François Fédier, Hadrien France-Lanorad and Peter Trawny (December 7, 2013). It is also worth mentioning the words of Donatella di Cesare, Vice-President of the Heidegger Gesellschaft and member of the Jewish Community in Rome, published in the Italian journal La Reppublica (Decemebr 18, 2013), the comments of Jürg Altweg on the collapse of French philosophy published in Frankfurter Allgermeine Zeitschrift (December 13, 2013), and the reply of the German editor of the Black Notebooks Peter Trawny published in the German journalDie Zeit-Online (December 27, 2013). For a rejoinder of the co-editor of Heidegger's Collected Works Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann see the cultural supplement of the Italian journal Avvenire (July 17, 2014). Other German scholars like Rüdiger Safranski, Günther Figal and Klaus Held have discussed this issue on different radio and TV shows. Likewise, the International press has rekindled the controversy by publishing phrases and quotes where Heidegger openly expresses his attitude toward National Socialism and Judaism.

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contain some controversial and ambivalent statements about the topic of Jews and Judaism--a fact that has re-awakened the prickly subject of anti-Semitism and triggered a re-opening of the so-called Heidegger Case.

Nevertheless, faced with the abundance of documentary material and evidence available today, one must be sensible and cautious when reconsidering the problem of Heidegger, his politics, and anti-Semitism. Besides asking "Was Heidegger a Nazi?" and "Was Heidegger an anti-Semite?" it seems more suitable to inquire about the type of National Socialism that he was aiming to establish during his time as rector of the University of Freiburg. Furthermore, his political discourse of the thirties cannot be read on the fringes of German socio-historical context, characterized by the fall of the Weimar Republic and the National Socialist Party's rise to power. For Heidegger, German identity is founded upon groundedness in one's homeland. Proceeding from this basic idea, the present work addresses the following two issues.

First, it is explained what the Black Notebooks are. Secondly, a brief description of the so-called Heidegger Case is provided as well as a review of the current state of the investigation regarding Heidegger's connection to National Socialism and anti-Semitism. Second, the prickly subject of Heidegger's anti-Semitism is settled.

1. What are the Black Notebooks?

Around the year 1930, a time in which the well-known turning (Kehre) started, Heidegger undertook the drafting of texts that aimed to clarify central elements of his most esoteric thought, especially the philosophical and conceptual experiments regarding the appropriation of being, the enowning-event (Ereignisdenken) which begins to flourish in Contributions to Philosophy (1936-38). His brother Fritz Heidegger was already alluding to these notebooks in a 1950 letter to Hugo Friedrich: "Heidegger is completely himself in the actual manuscripts (not in the lectures and conferences); these manuscripts themselves

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are here almost intact, only a few have been transcribed. That fundamental attitude that should be the beginning and end of all philosophizing appears here; for a while I have been calling it humility. Here, in these manuscripts are hidden away the gems and delights of Heideggerian thought. I hope that they remain hidden for a long time."⁶

Heidegger himself made a decree--incidentally very Nietzschean--that these manuscripts should be kept closed for at least one hundred years, just as is deduced from the testimony of his son Hermann Heidegger: "When I die, what you must do is seal everything that I leave behind, tie it up and file it away for one hundred years. The times are still not ready to understand me."⁷ The hesitation that Heidegger showed concerning the publication of his Collected Works is already known. Even still in 1972 he wrote to his publisher Vittorio Klostermann: "Regrettably, I cannot grant your wish to print a complete edition of my works."⁸ Nevertheless, the editor succeeded in convincing Hermann Heidegger to establish a common objective, and finally, in 1973, Heidegger agreed to the proposal of an edition of his works.

The Black Notebooks, through Heidegger's own wish, should have been published once the 102 volumes that compose the Collected Works (Gesamtausgabe) had been printed. However, said wish was not carried out to the letter. Given the great interest generated by these notebooks, three of the new volumes were published this past spring of 2014 by the German publishing house Vittorio Klostermann.

All the same, what do the Black Notebooks consist of? For decades, these texts have composed one of the myths surrounding the image of Heidegger, one of the best-kept secrets stored in the Heidegger Archives in Marbach. In the opinion of the few who have had access to them, they are the essence of his philosophy. The co-editor of the Gesamtausgabe and last assistant to Martin Heidegger, Friedrich-Wilhelm von Herrmann, expresses the importance of these Black Notebooks in the following terms: "A separate

⁶ This letter can be found in the archives of the Freiburg University. We quote it from Xolocotzi, 2009: 66.
⁷ Interview to Hermann Heidegger, quoted in Xolocotzi, 2009: 66.
⁸ Quoted in Xolocotzi, 2009: 66.

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issue are volumes 94-102 of the fourth section. These volumes contain the so-called Black Notebooks and Workbooks, as Heidegger called them. They begin in the year 1931, that is to say, just at the beginning of his thought on the history of being, and they end the year of his death. The Black Notebooks accompany his entire journey from 1931 to 1976. In this sense, they form a lengthy and, temporarily, contextual manuscript, despite being notes that started anew each week, each month, each year. (...) What is here is a dense collection of thought. (...) It is not only a different stylistic form; he mentions many things which, as he wrote them here, he would not write in any of the other essays, not even in the large ones. Because of this, these nine volumes are of great importance."⁹

In short, the Black Notebooks comprise thirty-four black-covered booklets, in which Heidegger composed a series of notes between 1931 and 1976. The first fourteen booklets--which have now been published--are titled Reflections (Überlegungen) and span the years between 1931 and 1941.¹⁰ The other twenty booklets are currently being edited and are classified as follows: nine of them correspond to Observations (Anmerkungen), two of them to Four Notebooks (Vier Hefte), another two to Vigils (Vigilae), one to Nocturne (Notturno), two more to Winks (Winke), and four to Provisionals (Vorläufiges). In the last few years two other notebooks have appeared--Megiston (Megiston) and Fundamental Words (Grundworte). As of now, it is not foreseen that the last two notebooks will be published within the framework of the Gesamtausgabe.

Why is it that so many expectations have arisen with regard to these texts? Until recently, it was thought that the Black Notebooks comprised a kind of philosophical journal, a log of thoughts that would provide the key to reading Heidegger's works. However, Heidegger has a surprise in store once again. As he himself asserts, it is not about aphorisms or any kind of wisdom-giving literature, but rather "simple little advance parties that generally try to conquer the road of a still indescribable reflection toward an initial questioning, which, unlike metaphysical thought, is called onto-historical."¹¹ The different representations that are found in the history of metaphysics are irrelevant. What

⁹ Xolocotzi, 2003: 41f.
¹⁰ See Heidegger, 2014a, Heidegger, 2014b, and Heidegger, 2014c.
¹¹ Heidegger, 2014b: 274.

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remains crucial here is how one asks about being, not what is said about it. In his treatise Meditation (1936-38), Heidegger refers to his notebooks, especially to Reflections II, IV, and V, with a reminder that in them are preserved "the basic mental states of questioning and the paths to the most extreme horizons of all attempts at thinking."¹² The act of emphasizing "the basic mental states of questioning" reinforces the idea that these reflections concern "attempts at thinking." In this sense, the publisher of the notebooks decided to make an observation which likely dates to the beginning of the seventies, in which it is stated that the Black Notebooks "are not notes for a planned system, but instead, are really attempts at a simple naming scheme."¹³ It does not cease to surprise that in all these cases the Black Notebooks are considered mere attempts, approaches towards an earlier thinking, tries at saying the unspeakable, efforts towards thinking the unthinkable. If what remains "crucial" is "how one asks," that is, how the meaning of being is put into words, then a new style of writing is found in the Black Notebooks. Along with his lectures, books, conferences, treatises, and discourses, there is a peculiar style that approaches what could be called a "thought journal" or "thinking diary" (Denktagebuch).

In general, there are philosophical reflections mixed with annotations about events of the time. Thus, in the more than 1,200 pages there are indicators of the course that his philosophy took after Being and Time and clarifications regarding his second fundamental work, Contributions to Philosophy. There are also opinions about his time as rector in Freiburg and multiple reflections about the dangerous signs of the growing mechanization of everyday life and the fulfillment of technology as an expression of will to power, whose "ultimate act" will be carried out when "the earth itself explodes in the air" and "contemporary humans disappear."¹⁴ However, along with these interesting observations

¹² Heidegger, 1997a: 426.
¹³ Heidegger, 2014a: 1.
¹⁴ Heidegger, 2014c: 238. From Heidegger's point of view, this is not a misfortune but rather the occasion, the kairos, for "purifying being" (Reinung des Seins) of its greatest distortions caused by the hegemony of the entities (Seiende)" (Heidegger, 2014c: 238). However, he clearly rejects the principles of racial purification applied by National Socialism. At the same time, he interprets world Judaism (Weltjudentum) as the highest onto-historical manifestation of the spirit of calcubality and machination (Heidegger, 2014c: 46). Therefore, one should not read Heidegger's words in a political or racial sense. Rather, he is developing his particular philosophical interpretation of the history of being. To put it differently, Judaism together with Bolchevism, Americanism and National Socialism is an onto-historic phenomenon.

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about the trajectory of his thought and his assessment of the progression of the history of metaphysics, there are some intriguing strong opinions of National Socialism and, starting from 1938, his severe commentary about Judaism.

As Peter Trawny, the German editor of his notebooks, well observes, there is no evidence that Heidegger had read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which spread the theory of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy.¹⁵ Nevertheless, part of Hitler's discourse spread the stereotypes that were proposed therein, which Heidegger assimilated and associated with his philosophical questioning in various sections of his work. That is to say, it is the association between calculability and the way of thinking of the contemporary time period and the Jewish world view which, according to Heidegger, identifies with the spirit of calculation. In this way, the criticism of modernity is united with and extended to that of Judaism, thus, in Reflections VIII, 5 he writes: "One of the stealthiest forms of Gigantism and perhaps the most ancient is the historicity of calculation, pushiness, and intermixing whereby Jewry's worldlessness is established."¹⁶ Also, in Reflections XII, 24, he maintains that: "Contemporary Jewry's increase in power finds its basis in the fact that Western metaphysics--above all, in its modern incarnation--offers fertile ground for the dissemination of an empty rationality and calculability, which otherwise would pass by unnoticed."¹⁷ Assertions such as this have reawakened the topic of anti-Semitism and revived the famous Heidegger Case. These first four recently-published volumes offer enough evidence to discard the image of Heidegger as an apolitical rural recluse shut up in his cabin, who ignored the socio-political reality of his time.

2. Anti-Semitism or anti-Judaism?

Every time that Heidegger's connection with National Socialism is spoken of there is a tendency to pose the question of whether Heidegger was anti-Semitic or whether there are detectable anti-Semitic elements in his philosophical works. The answer to this kind of question is not at all easy given the political implications and moral ramifications

¹⁵ See Trawny, 2014: 23ss.
¹⁶ Heidegger, 2014b: 97.
¹⁷ Heidegger, 2014c: 46.

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that it entails. Of course, it cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or "no." Before answering the question of whether Heidegger and his work are anti-Semitic it must be clear what is understood as anti-Semitism and, therefore, what is understood as anti-Judaism.¹⁸ The differences between both phenomena must be clear in order to not fall prisoner to hasty judgments.

Thus, for example, one speaks of anti-Judaism having a religious and cultural basis and anti-Semitism having a biological and racial basis. There must be a distinction between, on the one hand, the tradition of hostility against Jews as members of a religious community which dates to the 1st century and, on the other hand, a political social movement of rejection and discrimination of the "Jewish race." Clearly, it is not a matter of downplaying Heidegger's culpability. In discussing National Socialist anti-Semitism, it is difficult to find the right words to describe the events that occurred, particularly when attempting to explain the Holocaust. Neither is it easy to clearly determine the boundary between "anti-Semitism" and "anti-Judaism." One cannot be understood without the other. The boundary between the two phenomena fluctuates.

Could perhaps two types of enmity against Jews be clearly distinguished? Would that not mean excusing anti-Judaism in comparison with anti-Semitism and its search for a "final solution" to the Jewish question? With all the difficulties involved in differentiating between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism and in being aware of the care that must be shown in using such differentiation, one cannot lose sight of the fact that there were and are important differences between: a) an ideological prejudice against Jews conditioned by cultural and religious motives and b) the pseudo-scientifically justified goal of exterminating the whole "Jewish race." As Zaborowski observes, even if one foregoes distinguishing between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism and chooses to use the general concept of "anti-Semitism," it would be necessary to distinguish between different types of anti-Semitism--at least with regard to Jews' social position and the use of violence

¹⁸ For a history of anti-Semitism see the study of Benz, 2004: 9-26. See further Benz and Bergmann, 1997; Schoeps and Schlör, (1995); Claussen, 1987. It is also interesting to consult the history of the concept of "anti Semitism" offered in Schmitz-Berning, 2000: 34-39.

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against them. ¹⁹ When discussing Heidegger's relationship with Jews, one must keep in mind a set of distinctions and nuances about what "anti-Semitism" means. One cannot limit oneself to only a few sources.²⁰ Heidegger's thought process and life must also be considered from their specific historical context.

In practice, a clear difference must be established between anti-Semitism, understood as racial and biological animosity against Jews, and anti-Judaism, understood as reflecting a long-held European tradition against the Jewish people and religion. According to the documentary evidence available, it is difficult to speak of a systematic anti-Semitism in Heidegger's philosophy.²¹ What can be detected in Heidegger are strong traces of a spiritual and cultural anti-Judaism, particularly present in the university and academic spheres. There is no doubt that Heidegger's relationship with Judaism is highly problematic and ambiguous, but his stance cannot be described as unilaterally anti-Semitic, if anti-Semitism is understood as the racist persecution and systematic annihilation of the Jews.

Therefore, how can the question of whether or not Heidegger was anti-Semitic be answered? Towards the end of the twenties the rumor was already circulating that Heidegger was anti-Semitic. Toni Cassirer, the wife of Ernst Cassirer, acknowledges in her autobiography that "[Heidegger's] tendency toward anti-Semitism was not unknown to

¹⁹ See Zaborowski, 2010: 603-604. More recently, Donatella di Cesare has meticulously analyzed the cultural and religious context as well as the theological and philosophical origins of Heidegger's anti-Senitism (see further, Cesare, 2014: 12-96). On my hand, I have tackled this issue in Adrian Escudero, 2014: 39-72.
²⁰ In his work, particularly in the multiple volumes that compose the Gesamtausgabe, there is no perception of a systematic anti-Semitism that allows for the discussion of a philosophical anti-Semitism or, as Faye states, an introduction of Nazism into philosophy. It is another matter to evaluate Heidegger's statements about Judaism from the perspective of his philosophical program. This work, of course, can be carried out at the same time that one continues to examine Heidegger's personal and political attitude and his sympathies toward certain aspects of National Socialist ideology. In this context, see the work of Roubach dealing with Heidegger's reception in Israel (see Roubach, 2009: 419-432).
²¹ In this sense, one leans more toward the more moderate stances of Grosser, Martin, Safranski, Sluga, Thöma, Xolocotzi and Zaborowski than toward the accusations of Faye and Farías. In this regard, one might cite the letter that Herbert Marcuse writes to Heidegger in August of 1947, in which Marcuse accuses him more of a total lack of sensitivity than of an evil and perverse anti-Semitism (see Marcuse, 1989: 156).

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us."²² Also, at the beginning of the thirties--as Bultmann points out--the rumor was spread that Heidegger had joined the National Socialist Party.²³ Even his old friend and former colleague, Karl Jaspers, in his report written for the University of Freiburg in 1945, showed restraint concerning Heidegger's attitude toward Jews.²⁴ Additionally, in his letters from 1916 to his wife, Elfride Preti, published in 2005, Heidegger already spoke of the "Judaization (Verjudung) of our culture and the universities."²⁵ Heidegger again speaks similarly of "Judaization" in a 1929 letter addressed to Victor Schwoedrer, the Vice-president of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft.²⁶ These letters to his wife and Schwoedrer are two instances that seem to clearly show a certain racist anti-Semitism.

Once again, there arises the same question that was posed at the beginning: what type of anti-Semitism does Heidegger support? In light of the available documentation, it seems difficult to speak of a racist or biological anti-Semitism in Heidegger. Also, in the Black Notebooks and in other writings there are passages in which Heidegger appears extremely critical of this type of anti-Semitism. It is true that Heidegger establishes a difference between Jews and non-Jews, but this difference is not based on biological criteria. His commentary about Jews is made from the perspective of spirit and not race. Thus, for example, in his book about Nietzsche he leaves it clear that "biology as such never decides what life is."²⁷ The true debatable question concerning Heidegger's relationship with Jews cannot be settled in this way. Instead, one must consider how his philosophical approach to Hebrew tradition comprises a deciding moment in the way he interprets the whole history of philosophy. Heidegger is not interested in legitimizing the

²² Cassirer, 2003: 187.
²³ See Heidegger and Bultmann, 2009; 187f y 191f. Heidegger himself confirms the existence of such rumors in a letter written to Hannah Arendt in the winter of 1932/33 (see Heidegger and Arendt, 1999: 68).
²⁴ See Heideggger and Jaspers, 1990: 270.
²⁵ Heidegger and Petri, 2005: 51. However, twelve years later he writes to his wife that "without a doubt, ‘Jews’ are ‘the best’." (Heidegger and Petri, 2005: 156). It remains difficult to support the theory that Heidegger was a spiritual anti-Semite in the twenties. This situation changes at the beginning of the thirties with the growing importance shown to the issues of the German people and nation.
²⁶ See Sieg, 1989.
²⁷ Heidegger, 1989: 520.

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extermination of the Jews, but rather in reaching a critical understanding of their condition. His assessment of the present is strongly influenced by his interpretation of Nietzschean nihilism: the present is a time that is control ed by the metaphysical principle of will to power. The introduction of a "racial selection and breeding" which Heidegger speaks of in his lectures about Nietzsche in the thirties,²⁸ has--as Faye asserts--nothing to do with "a selection of race like that which was in those times bloodily set in motion with National Socialism."²⁹ It is not an ontological legitimization of National Socialist racism. The "breeding of human beings" (Züchtung des Menschen) is the culmination of the metaphysics of subjectivity; it is the maximum expression of modern technology in its attempt to exploit natural and human resources; a product of the mechanization (Machinalisierung) that governs the present. Heidegger believes that Nietzsche is the first to recognize the metaphysical character of the machine, which transforms human beings into a type (Typ); into a simple form (Gestalt) on which a shape can be imprinted; into material for experimentation (Versuchsmaterial).³⁰

In this regard, the passage from the Bremen Lecturestends to be quoted in support of the theory that Heideggerian thought is essentially anti-Semitic. This is the argument of Wolin and Faye, among others. In the 1949 conference titled The Enframing (Das Gestel), it says: "Agriculture is now a mechanized food industry, essentially the same as the production of corpses in the gas chambers and the extermination camps, the same as the blockading and starving of countries, the same as the manufacture of hydrogen bombs."³¹ How can the "production of corpses" be placed together with the "mechanized food industry"? Besides Heideggerian insensitivity and the moral discussion about the Holocaust, Heidegger wanted to philosophically consider the deeper motives of the "production of corpses in the gas chambers." From the perspective of Heidegger's criticism of planetary technology that spreads quickly, the production of corpses is the expression and the consequence of the spiritual desertification that is inherent to the will to power. This will reduces anything, even any person or group, to a mere object of use

²⁸ See Heidegger, 1997b: 309.
²⁹ Faye, 2008: 53.
³⁰ Heidegger, 2007: 55f.
³¹ Heidegger, 2005: 27. For a critical interpretation of this passage, see Thöma, 1990: 626ff.

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and exploitation beyond any human, social, political, religious, or moral considerations. One might tremble before Heidegger's insensitivity and "supposed" ignorance, but such does not do his thought justice. On the one hand, Faye's and Farías' interpretations and, to a lesser extent, Taureck's, take passages out of context and, on the other hand, they do not seem to establish the necessary differentiation between anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism.

In Heidegger's case, it is a type of anti-Semitism that could be qualified as "religious," "cultural," or "spiritual." In a letter to Hannah Arendt, in which he comments on the rumors about his anti-Semitism, it reads "As to the rest, in matters related to the university I am as much an anti-Semite as I was ten years ago in Marburg. This anti-Semitism even found the support of Jacobstahl and Friedländer. This has nothing to do with personal relationships (for example, Husserl, Misch, Cassirer and others).³² When Heidegger speaks of "Judaization" (Verjudung), he does so from a given cultural context. Once again, one must tread carefully and avoid excusing Heidegger as a product of the spirit of his time. However, on the other hand, neither can one fall into making generalized accusations. It seems that for every piece of evidence for anti-Semitism there is another piece of evidence against it.³³ Also, there is the argument that the existing documents can be interpreted in different ways. Without a doubt, this cultural or spiritual anti-Semitism was reinforced by National Socialism's pseudo-scientific anti-Semitism. Once again: it is not a question of downplaying Heidegger's anti-Semitism, but neither is it proper to deduce a direct relationship with the Shoah as exhibited by the radicalized racist ideology of Nazism.

³² Heidegger and Arendt, 1999: 69.
³³ For example, one finds proof of Heidegger's ambivalent relationship with the Jews in a letter to his wife from the year 1932. In it he expresses his disappointment with Baeumler's philosophical abilities, though he highly praises his worth as a historian (see Heidegger and Petri, 2005: 176). This ambivalence is also accounted for in a 1945 letter from Jaspers addressed to the Denazification Committee: "In the twenties Heidegger was not an anti-Semite. His words about the Jew Fraenckel prove that, at least in 1933, he showed certain anti-Semitic connections. This does not exclude, I believe, that in other cases anti-Semitism was contrary to his conscience and his liking." (Heideggger and Jaspers, 1990: 271)

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The issue of Heidegger's culpability and relationship with Judaism is certainly problematic and, according to the latest statements contained in the Black Notebooks, very prickly. It is a relationship that has nothing to do with political matters, but rather seems to be classified within his interpretation of the metaphysical destiny of a Western world dominated by science and technology.³⁴ Heidegger's estrangement from the urban spirit of the Jews is not the result of a biological racism, but rather the consequence of his analysis of the metaphysics of subjectivity and nihilism. From this perspective, Jews represent empty rationality and the calculating spirit that is characteristic of the modern era. As he points out in the Black Notebooks: "The question about the role of Judaism is not racist, but rather a metaphysical question about type of humanity."³⁵ One might not agree with Heidegger's criticism of modern technology, one might even wonder if Heidegger's understanding of modernity is not overly one-sided and simplified. However, if one analyzes Heidegger's confrontation with modernity starting with the available texts, then the assertion that Heidegger justifies and condones the extermination of the Jews ends up being highly questionable. Does Heidegger exhibit anti-Judaism? Without a doubt. Anti-Semitism? Yes, as long as it is not directly associated with the racist interpretation of the Jewish people and National Socialism's policy of extermination. Should a great thinker like Heidegger be shown leniency? Probably not, but neither can his philosophical legacy be ignored. In any case, the Black Notebooks invite one to reflect upon philosophy's responsibility toward politics.

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Adrián Escudero, Jesús. 2014. Heidegger e i Quaderni neri. La rinascita della controversia nacionalsocialista. In Metafisica e antisemitismo. I Quaderni neri di Heidegger tra filosofia e política, ed. Adriano Fabris, 39-72. Pisa: Edizioni ETS.

³⁴ As Donatella di Cesare maintains, criticism of Heidegger at many times adopts a messianic tone (cf. interview published 18 December in La Reppubblica,p. 40). This messianic, spiritual, and religious tone is clearly evident in the idea of the last god found in Contributions to Philosophy.In this work it is stated that only those of the future are the true voice of the people and that the rebirth of the people will most likely occur by means of a religious awakening. The people must find their god, and the future ones should initiate the search (see Heidegger, 1979: 65, 319, and 398).
³⁵ Heidegger, 2014c: 243.

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Benz, Wolfgang. 2004. Was ist Antisemitismus? München: Beck.

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