[Baking Typewriter] Hitler’s Hostility Toward Jews Is Fully Revealed in His Letters

Sharp Conflicts of the French Revolution
Napoleon’s State of Mind Before the Russian Campaign
Mozart’s Final Days Without Completing the Requiem
Fascinating Moments in World History
Unfolded Through Letters of Key Figures

More than a year has passed since the 12·3 Martial Law Incident, and the special prosecutor’s investigation to uncover the truth is still ongoing. The investigation team is devoting significant effort to collecting and analyzing the mobile phone messages of those involved. This is because text messages can serve as decisive evidence in court and, in the digital era, function as a kind of historical record that helps reveal the true nature of incidents.

In historical research, the most fundamental and reliable sources are written records. The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat, both recognized as national treasures, are representative examples. At times, official documents, diaries, and letters are also acknowledged as valuable historical materials. For instance, the Gwanghaegun Diaries within the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty are considered less valuable as a historical source because they were written after King Gwanghaegun was deposed by the Injo Restoration. As a result, the history of Gwanghaegun’s reign was re-examined and new truths were uncovered through Yeollyeosilgisul, a compilation by the Silhak scholar Lee Geungik, who collected a vast number of letters and diaries from that period.

World History Through 100 Letters offers an intriguing perspective on human history by focusing on letters.

The most famous figure in the history of the French Revolution is Maximilien de Robespierre, who sent Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette to the guillotine and was eventually executed by guillotine himself. Jean-Paul Marat was even more radical and extreme than Robespierre, but his untimely death prevented him from gaining further notoriety. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were executed in January 1793, and Marat, who led the radical Jacobin faction with Robespierre, was stabbed to death with a kitchen knife while taking a medicinal bath for his skin disease on July 13, about six months later. The person who killed Marat was Charlotte Corday, a 25-year-old woman from the moderate Girondin faction. The fact that a young woman single-handedly assassinated a leading figure of the radicals demonstrates how intense the conflicts surrounding the revolution were at the time. At that point, controversy over the extremism of the French Revolution had reached its peak, particularly regarding the execution of the already deposed king.

Corday was executed by guillotine just four days after killing Marat. In the meantime, she wrote two letters: one to her father and another to Charles Barbaroux, a leader of the Girondins. In her letter to Barbaroux, Corday expressed her firm resolve, stating that she was willing to sacrifice her own life if it meant she could assassinate the leader of the radicals.

"For the past two days, I have enjoyed peace of mind. The happiness of my country is my own happiness, and the act of self-sacrifice brings me greater joy than any pain. In my last letter, I told my father that I would escape the horrors of civil war by going to England, to reassure him. But at that time, my real plan was to secretly stay in Paris, kill Marat in public, and then die immediately, leaving Parisians to search for my name in vain."

Jacques-Louis David, the revolutionary French painter famous for "Napoleon Crossing the Alps," also immortalized one of the most dramatic moments of the French Revolution with another masterpiece, "The Death of Marat."

Hitler openly expressed his hostility toward Jews in a letter to Adolf Gemlich: "For thousands of years, Jews have maintained their distinct racial characteristics far more clearly than any other people living in the countries they inhabit, through centuries of inbreeding. Nevertheless, Jews possess all the political rights that we have."

Other fascinating historical facts can be found in letters such as those exchanged between Napoleon and Alexander I, Emperor of the Russian Empire, during Napoleon’s campaign against Russia, and the last letter Mozart sent to his wife Constanze before his death, having failed to complete his final work, "Requiem."

World History Through 100 Letters | Written by Colin Salter | Translated by Lee Sangmi | Hyundae Jiseong | 440 pages | 25,000 won