Early Hitler writing on "Jewish threat" unveiled

NEW YORK - The founder of a Jewish human rights organization said Tuesday the group has acquired a document by Adolf Hitler believed to contain his first written comments calling Jews a threat that should be removed.

Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center the center paid $150,000 to a private dealer last month to obtain the 1919 writing, known as the Gemlich letter.

Hier said the letter was typed by Hitler on a German army typewriter and that it "set the gold standard about for man's inhumanity to man." At the time it was written, Hitler was serving in the Army, and had taken to riling up the troops with his anti-Semitic rants. A superior officer urged Hitler to put his ideas on paper.

The letter has long been known to scholars. It is considered significant because it demonstrates how early Hitler was forming his anti-Semitic views.

Hier said the center has obtained the original, which was found by an American soldier in the final months of World War II.

He said the letter was certified as authentic in 1988 by handwriting expert Charles Hamilton, who revealed the infamous "Hitler Diaries" to be forgeries.

In one section of the letter, Hitler said that a powerful government could curtail the so-called "Jewish threat" by denying their rights, but, "Its final aim, however, must be the uncompromising removal of the Jews altogether."

Hier unveiled the letter in New York but the center plans to put it on view at its Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles in July.