The author examines the respective varieties of anti-Semitism espoused by Voltaire, Richard Wagner and Adolf Hitler as (among other things) a product of traditional, theologically motivated anti-Semitism. He cites anti-Jewish writings and pronouncements of early Church Fathers, St John Chrysostom, St Thomas Aquinas and others as precursors of similar sentiments entertained by his three chosen subjects. Hitler's anti-Semitism, he argues, was supported by the majority of Germans up to, but not necessarily including, genocide.