Was the Real Thomas Mann an Antisemite?

Book excerpt: No, we certainly do not forget Thomas Mann's manifestations of friendship for Jews and Judaism, which we can find in Thomas Mann's "non-fictional writings" (in fact these were originally interviews, lectures. speeches, radio broadcasts). And yet, the Jewish characters in Thomas Mann's novels are there, in their inexorable negativity, a negativity cutting across everything: the different periods in Thomas Mann's writing career, the themes of the novels in which they appear, the changes in Thomas Mann's political convictions, the historical events of the 20th century.