1) Marcel Reich-Ranicki was a Polish-born literary critic who became famous in Germany for his role on the television program Literarisches Quartett. 2) He had an unusual background as a Jewish survivor of the Warsaw ghetto who nonetheless became deeply knowledgeable about German literature and culture. 3) In the quote, Reich-Ranicki notes that the Nazis could make no use of the German author Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, due to Lessing's association with Moses Mendelssohn and support for religious tolerance.