tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/nazi-party-20885/articlesNazi Party – The Conversation2024-03-04T13:36:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2231512024-03-04T13:36:15Z2024-03-04T13:36:15ZA far-right political group is gaining popularity in Germany – but so, too, are protests against it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578973/original/file-20240229-18-u1ukal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in Hamburg, Germany, protest against right-wing extremism and the AfD party on Feb. 25, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/at-a-demonstration-against-right-wing-extremism-on-february-news-photo/2033875417?adppopup=true">Hami Roshan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hundreds of thousands of people have been <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2024/02/19/we-are-the-firewall-thousands-protest-against-far-right-in-german-city-wolfsburg">protesting across cities in Germany</a> since early 2024, standing up against the Alternative for Germany party, a relatively new, far-right, nationalist party that is known as the AfD. </p>
<p>What has driven so many Germans to suddenly protest against a small, extremist political party?</p>
<p>The protesters in Germany are directly responding to the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/turning-back-clock-germanys-afd-economy-2024-02-01/">AfD’s radical policy</a> positions and the fact that it is currently in second place <a href="https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/germany/">in the polls</a> for the upcoming federal election, which will take place on or before Oct. 26, 2025. </p>
<p>While the AfD did not win any parliament seats in its first federal election in 2013, the group’s popularity <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/german-election-far-right-afd-loses-nationally-but-wins-in-east/">has been rising</a>. The AfD held about 13% of the seats in parliament from 2017 through 2021 and was the third-largest party in parliament. Since 2021, it has held about <a href="https://www.bundestag.de/en/parliament/plenary/distributionofseats">11% of the seats</a>. </p>
<p>After the next federal election, the AfD could become the second-largest party. While this limited power would not let it enact any extreme policies that could potentially reduce freedom and respect for civil liberties in Germany, the AfD could use its position in parliament to disrupt the policymaking process, criticize establishment parties and attract new voters for future elections.</p>
<h2>What is the AfD and why is it so controversial?</h2>
<p>Several politicians and journalists formed the AfD in direct response to the <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-eurozone-crisis-and-implications-for-the-united-states/">Eurozone crisis</a> of the 2010s. </p>
<p>That crisis was triggered by several European governments in the European Union, including Greece, Portugal and Ireland, that developed large budget deficits.</p>
<p>The European Union’s 27 member countries promise to be <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/main-elements-fiscal-reforms-agreed-by-eu-governments-2023-12-20/">fiscally responsible</a>. Otherwise, poor public management in one country could trigger an economic crisis throughout the entire European Union.</p>
<p>This is what happened during the Eurozone crisis. Poor public management in some member-states led to a European-wide crisis. </p>
<p>To mitigate the crisis, other European governments had to bail out other governments. The AfD’s founding members were <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/turning-back-clock-germanys-afd-economy-2024-02-01">outraged that Germany</a>, as a leading member of the European Union, would become in part responsible for financially rescuing them. </p>
<p>Over time, the AfD has not only become increasingly skeptical of the European Union, but it has also become very clearly <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37274201">anti-immigration</a>. Compared to other countries in Europe, Germany has a relatively large immigrant population. As of March 2023, about <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-migration-immigration-9948d6e87835242f9f7867d7ef817287">23% of the people</a> who live in Germany either are immigrants or their parents are or were. Germany is also the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/us/countries/germany">largest host country</a> for refugees in Europe.</p>
<p>The true extent of AfD’s anti-immigration policies came to light in January 2024, when a German <a href="https://correctiv.org/en/top-stories/2024/01/15/secret-plan-against-germany/">investigative news report</a> revealed that high-ranking AfD members attended a secret meeting with neo-Nazi activists to discuss a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/10/politicians-from-germany-afd-met-extremist-group-to-discuss-deportation-masterplan">master plan</a>.” </p>
<p>According to this plan, the German government would deport immigrants en masse to their countries of origin. This plan also included deporting <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/germany-afd-secret-meeting-deportation/">non-German-born citizens</a> of Germany. </p>
<p>The meeting was especially controversial because a few members of the Christian Democratic Union, one of Germany’s long-standing conservative parties, were also in attendance. </p>
<p>Once the investigative report became public, the AfD publicly <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-far-right-deportations-parliament-7a29129a6f50853791004d21ffea2a92">distanced itself</a> from the meeting and the plan. </p>
<p>Yet, it has been hard for the party leaders to convince the public that they do not support the supposed mass deportation policy, in part because high-ranking AfD members have suggested <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67948861">such policies</a> in the past. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white, bald middle aged man points his finger and stands at a podium that has the words 'AfD' and German writing on it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578974/original/file-20240229-24-3k65fj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Markus Frohmaier, a leader of the AfD political group in Germany, speaks to party members at a conference on Feb. 24, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/february-2024-baden-württemberg-rottweil-markus-frohnmaier-news-photo/2028779666?adppopup=true">Christoph Schmidt/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Germans’ response to the AfD</h2>
<p>Once news of the mass deportation meeting circulated in mid-January, hundreds of thousands of people throughout Germany <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/21/1225882007/tens-of-thousands-protest-in-germany-against-the-rise-of-the-far-right">began to protest</a> against the AfD and its anti-immigration policies. </p>
<p>Many of the protesters are also protesting to defend democracy and human rights in Germany. </p>
<p>Protesters have compared the AfD’s growing prominence to that of the Nazi party. They have been carrying signs that say the “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nazis-no-thank-you-germans-take-streets-call-afd-ban-2024-01-17/">AfD is so 1933</a>,” “<a href="https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2024-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/will-germanys-far-right-party-be-banned-after-bombshell-fascist-mass-deportation-plan/0000018d-3112-d268-addd-3b7b21960000">No Nazis</a>” and “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/support-germanys-far-right-afd-reaches-six-month-low-after-protests-2024-01-30/">Deport the AfD</a> Now.” </p>
<p>They believe the only way to prevent the rise of a far-right party again in Germany is to protest the far-right movement before it becomes too popular.</p>
<p>Symbolically, the protesters are protesting under the slogan “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-afd-far-right-protests-bundestag-berlin-90d8497434a424ded198ce3d6d5fabb9">We are the firewall</a>” to illustrate how they are protecting Germany from the rise of far-right nationalists once again.</p>
<p>Some are also pushing for the German government to ban the AfD. Yet, while Germany has <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/germanys-laws-antisemitic-hate-speech-nazi-propaganda-holocaust-denial/">laws against extremist groups</a> that were developed after World War II, it is unclear whether such laws should be used to ban the party, as some observers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/08/germany-ban-far-right-afd-panel">caution that banning</a> the AfD might backfire and make it more popular.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large crowd of people stand close together with umbrellas and hold signs. One of them says 'No tolerance for intolerance.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579046/original/file-20240229-26-b9o5ls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators in Hamburg protest right-wing extremism and the AfD on Feb. 25, 2024.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/at-a-demonstration-against-right-wing-extremism-on-february-news-photo/2033875510?adppopup=true">Hami Roshan/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>What the AfD can still accomplish</h2>
<p>While the AfD is currently posing an electoral threat to more mainstream parties in Germany, it is unlikely that it will take control over the German government any time soon. </p>
<p>Germany is a multiparty system; no single party can control German politics at any given time. Parties must share power when governing the country.</p>
<p>It is unlikely that any of the current establishment parties will work with the AfD to govern Germany, primarily because the AfD supports policies that are <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-election-what-do-the-terms-right-and-left-mean-if-both-cdu-and-spd-are-in-the-center/a-37601594">so far removed</a> from what typical German parties would find acceptable. </p>
<p>Additionally, the Christian Democratic Union is currently the most popular party, according to opinion polls. CDU members have previously emphasized that they <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/germany-cdu-leader-rules-out-cooperation-with-far-right-afd/a-66642647">will not cooperate</a> with the AfD in any circumstance. </p>
<p>And other <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/centrists-alarmed-as-poll-shows-growing-support-for-german-far-right-party">establishment parties</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/frank-walter-steinmeier/t-17345761">politicians have also</a> distanced themselves from the AfD.</p>
<p>Yet, while the AfD may not be able to make sweeping policy changes in the short run, it does pose an electoral threat to the establishment parties in Germany. As such, other German parties may start to alter their own policy platforms to appease some potential AfD voters. </p>
<p>The Christian Democratic Union is already proposing to send asylum seekers to other countries while their <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-conservatives-angela-merkel-migration/">applications are being processed</a>. However, their ability to make this policy change is unlikely, as it would require changes to European Union law.</p>
<p>In the long run, if the AfD is able to continue to grow in popularity at the local level, this may help it grow its voter base and become more successful in federal elections. </p>
<p>The AfD is more popular in states in <a href="https://theconversation.com/german-election-continuing-popularity-of-far-right-afd-has-roots-in-east-west-divide-167844">eastern Germany</a>, especially among voters who feel disenchanted with the reunification of communist East Germany and West Germany in 1990, and disenchanted with the drawbacks of Germany being a leading member of the European Union. </p>
<p>Some people fear that if the AfD continues to grow, it could undermine democracy in Germany, much like far-right populist parties have recently done in other <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/hungarys-democratic-backsliding-threatens-the-trans-atlantic-security-orde">democracies in Europe</a> and <a href="https://time.com/6245795/brazil-bolsonaro-lula-trump-insurrection/">in the rest of the world</a>.</p>
<p>And as democracy continues to decline in Europe and globally, protections for civil liberties and political rights will continue to <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/article/new-report-global-freedom-declines-17th-consecutive-year-may-be-approaching-turning-point">decline as well</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie VanDusky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hundreds of thousands of people in Germany are taking to the streets to push back against the far-right, nationalist policies of the AfD, which currently holds 11% of the seats in parliament.Julie VanDusky, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boise State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1911162022-10-24T17:03:11Z2022-10-24T17:03:11ZHow Hitler conspiracies and other Holocaust disinformation undermine democratic institutions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490176/original/file-20221017-6899-yxtviw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C475%2C4673%2C2668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Ukrainian serviceman inspects a classroom with a sign 'Z' on the door used by Russian forces in the retaken area of Kapitolivka, Ukraine, Sept. 25, 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin spread an outlandish conspiracy theory to justify military invasion of Ukraine.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/how-hitler-conspiracies-and-other-holocaust-disinformation-undermine-democratic-institutions" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Godwin’s Law posits that any online argument, if it continues long enough, will <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/memes/godwins-law/">inevitably invoke a comparison to Hitler</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps there should be an updated version: If you examine any given conspiracy theory, even seemingly innocuous ones, it won’t be long until you find coded and explicit antisemitism. </p>
<p>Some cases are obvious. Remember how far-right U.S. congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene embraced the <a href="https://www.globalnews.ca/news/7607501/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser/">“Jewish space lasers</a>” theory after the California wildfires in 2018? </p>
<p>Other conspiracy theories, such as those that claim <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/reports/antisemitic-conspiracies-about-911-endure-20-years-later">9/11 was an inside job</a>, require a little more deciphering. </p>
<p>More recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin spread an outlandish conspiracy theory to justify his military invasion of Ukraine. Nothing less than the <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/disinformation-threat-to-democracy-requires-stronger-response-by-noelle-lenoir-2022-05">de-nazification of Ukraine</a> was required, Putin bizarrely claimed, while neglecting the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish <a href="https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/in-israel-zelensky-tells-own-familys-holocaust-story.html">and lost family members in the Holocaust</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-putins-denazification-campaign-hits-babyn-yar-holocaust-memorial-to-33-000-murdered-jews-178403">Ukraine war: Putin's 'denazification' campaign hits Babyn Yar holocaust memorial to 33,000 murdered Jews</a>
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<p>All too often, such theories and disinformation are rooted in <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/09/abbie-richards-fights-tiktok-disinformation-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-conspiracy-chart-and-a-punchline">antisemitic tropes</a>. These promote false claims of Jewish control over institutions and even the outcome of specific events. </p>
<p>While it might be easy to dismiss such disinformation as harmless or too bizarre to be believable, in reality disinformation and conspiracy theorizing often spreads harmful antisemitic messages and also <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691188836/a-lot-of-people-are-saying">undermines our democratic institutions</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man seen holidng a sign that says 'We shall not forget.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=478&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491077/original/file-20221021-19-d7qc47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-Nazi demonstration, Carlton St., Toronto, May 31, 1981.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ontario Jewish Archives, item 3076-3077)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Longevity of antisemitic conspiracy theory</h2>
<p>One of the longest lasting conspiracy theories — even though it has been repeatedly proven false — is the narrative of a Jewish world conspiracy presented in <em><a href="https://www.theconversation.com/why-the-protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion-is-still-pushed-by-anti-semites-more-than-a-century-after-hoax-first-circulated-145220">The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.</a></em> </p>
<p>British historian <a href="https://www.richardjevans.com/">Richard Evans</a> will explore the longevity of the Protocols and how they are seen within the framework of Nazi ideology, in Toronto on Nov. 2, <a href="https://www.holocaustcentre.com/hew/featured-programs2022">opening Holocaust Education Week 2022</a>.</p>
<p>Evans’s book <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/314851/the-hitler-conspiracies-by-evans-richard-j/9780141991498"><em>The Hitler Conspiracies</em></a> is an important reminder of the perennial fascination with and longevity of the inherently antisemitic conspiracy theory that historian <a href="https://www.commentary.org/articles/walter-laqueur/warrant-for-genocide-by-norman-cohn/">Norman Cohn famously described as a “warrant for genocide.</a>” </p>
<p>As Yehuda Bauer, honorary chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, stated, “a half truth is worse than a full lie.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/most-popular-conspiracy-theories">Myths and disinformation about the Holocaust</a> continue to permeate social media and increasingly, political discourse, even while the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/genocide/deniers_01.shtml">Holocaust is one</a> of the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/documenting-numbers-of-victims-of-the-holocaust-and-nazi-persecution">most thoroughly documented events</a> in history.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman seen standing at the side of a wall of names." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/490193/original/file-20221017-17-bkatbe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman lays a flower on the Wall of Names during a ceremony at the memorial garden of the children of the Vel d'Hiv Roundup in Paris, July 16, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distortion, misinformation</h2>
<p>Whether intentional or not, disinformation breathes new life into old, often violence-inducing antisemitic narratives. The power of distortion and misinformation is its seemingly immutable ability to defy the historical truth. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/7-ways-to-spot-polarizing-language-how-to-choose-responsibly-what-to-amplify-online-or-in-person-177276">7 ways to spot polarizing language — how to choose responsibly what to amplify online or in-person</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Dangerous narratives found in the <em>Protocols</em> continue to inform attempts to deny and distort the Holocaust. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum calls it the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/protocols-of-the-elders-of-zion">most notorious and widely distributed antisemitic publication of modern times</a>.</p>
<p>Born out of fear and hatred, Holocaust conspiracy theories have enormous longevity and regain traction in times of uncertainty and societal unease. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/conspiracy-theories-and-the-people-who-believe-them-9780190844073?q=Conspiracy%20Theories%20and%20the%20People%20Who%20Believe%20Them&lang=en&cc=ca#">distortion and disinformation attempts to erode our belief</a> in the historical record and cast aspersions on Jews, it simultaneously nourishes conspiracy theories that encourage extreme nationalism, and not infrequently antisemitism. </p>
<p>Antisemitism is inherently conspiratorial. In the 20th century, it became <a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/academics/centers-initiatives/ctec/ctec-publications/violent-impact-anti-semitic-conspiracy">deeply enmeshed in western antidemocratic and fascist politics</a>.</p>
<p>Visions of shadowy Jewish cabals pulling the strings behind world events and orchestrating disasters, both macro and personal, continue to hold sway in our political imagination. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1547250248204095488"}"></div></p>
<h2>Pandemic misappropriations</h2>
<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, anti-lockdown protesters around the world frequently <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/holocaust-survivor-decries-abuse-of-yellow-star-at-covid-protests/">appropriated the yellow star</a> that was forced upon Jews during the Holocaust. Others invoked visuals of the <a href="https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/shameful-auschwitz-style-banner-polish-133615944.html">notorious death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau</a> in a misguided attempt to compare their supposed victimization to the genocide of European Jewry. </p>
<p>Holocaust distortion and conspiracism are equally dangerous: both open the door to entertaining fantasies and ideas that have historically led to mass murder of Jews. </p>
<p>This is the case whether it is the intentionally hateful kind espoused by infamous neo-Nazis <a href="https://www.auschwitz.org/en/history/holocaust-denial/ernst-zundel/">like Ernst Zundel</a>, or misguided appropriations by anti-lockdown protesters <a href="https://www.againstholocaustdistortion.org/news/debunking-inappropriate-holocaust-comparisons-the-covid-19-yellow-star">during the pandemic</a>.</p>
<p>One result of this phenomenon is <a href="https://www.governing.com/now/conspiracy-theories-cast-shadows-over-washington-midterms">the weakening of our democratic institutions</a>, which are the foundation of western democracy itself. </p>
<h2>Weakend public trust</h2>
<p>Just as the spread of this disinformation and false equivalencies instrumentalize history, they also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211000217">weaken public trust in</a> the bodies <a href="https://www.oecd.org/coronavirus/policy-responses/transparency-communication-and-trust-the-role-of-public-communication-in-responding-to-the-wave-of-disinformation-about-the-new-coronavirus-bef7ad6e/">that determine public health guidelines</a> and oversee public safety <a href="https://thehub.ca/2022-08-25/rudyard-griffiths-wef-conspiracies-are-antisemitic-and-a-moral-stain-on-conservative-politics">and economic policy</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Health-care workers in scrubs and masks look out a window at the top of protest signs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491079/original/file-20221021-16-35nb6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Health-care workers watch from a window as demonstrators gather outside Toronto General Hospital, in September 2021, to protest against COVID-19 vaccines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Characteristically, conspiracy theories, disinformation and misinformation don’t need to prove their claims. They need only to cause doubt and undermine the agencies and departments that function as part of the democratic process.</p>
<p>We are living in conspiratorial times. The concerning prevalence of Holocaust distortion and denial material online today poses a serious challenge to educators. Even when debunked, disinformation can remain accessible through online platforms influencing new generations unaware of how this information has been discredited. </p>
<p>A recent UNESCO study reported that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/13/holocaust-denial-telegram-history-distortion-content-moderation/">nearly half of the Holocaust content on the app Telegram</a> contained denial and disinformation. <a href="https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381958">Educational programs have been developed</a> that target the specific challenges posed by this proliferation of falsehoods and disinformation. </p>
<h2>Robust Holocaust education, digital literacy</h2>
<p>It will require however, prioritizing teaching digital literacy and robust Holocaust education — and repeatedly equipping learners with <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2022/02/09/abbie-richards-fights-tiktok-disinformation-with-a-cup-of-tea-a-conspiracy-chart-and-a-punchline">tools to critically analyze what they encounter in online forums</a>. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/6890257204004359430?lang=en-US" style="border:0;width:100%;min-height:825px;" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Holocaust distortion and conspiracism are only one form of ugly disinformation swirling our polluted media ecosystems and social networks, but they are a particularly venomous and dangerous one. </p>
<p>Addressing this problem will not be easy. It requires a collaborative response that must include international co-operation from all levels of governments, leaders and international organizations devoted to nurturing and protecting civil society. When a celebrity such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/oct/19/kanye-west-changes-name-ye">Ye, formerly known as Kanye West</a>, can espouse <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/24/us/los-angeles-demonstrators-kanye-west-antisemitic-remarks/index.html">antisemitic conspiracy theories</a> and still have a business partnership with Adidas — <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/25/adidas-terminates-partnership-with-ye-following-rappers-antisemitic-remarks.html">now ended after mounting public pressure</a> — there is indeed a lot of work to do. To their credit, <a href="https://fortune.com/2022/10/21/kanye-west-balenciaga-antisemetic-comments-twitter-instagram/?queryly=related_article">sponsor Balenciaga severed ties</a> with him after his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/24/arts/music/kanye-west-adidas-balenciaga-yeezy.html">antisemitic outbursts</a>.</p>
<p>To effect real change, education, collective responsibility and action are essential for success.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191116/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Carson Phillips is affiliated with the Holocaust Education Centre in Toronto, Canada and a Canadian delegate to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.</span></em></p>Many conspiracy theories and disinformation are rooted in antisemitic tropes which spread harm and undermine our democratic institutions.Carson Phillips, Adjunct, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Gratz CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1232972019-09-23T13:51:30Z2019-09-23T13:51:30ZRise and fall in the Third Reich: Nazi party members and social advancement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293358/original/file-20190920-50931-1t8w1by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>When people look to the past to try and make sense of the economic and political upheaval of the years since the 2008 financial crisis, they are regularly drawn to the events in the two decades running up to World War II. On the surface, the parallels are striking. The aftermath of a global economic crisis – the Great Depression – witnessed the rise of extreme political groups and a rejection of the previous liberal economic order in favour of nationalist and authoritarian policies. </p>
<p>We know the consequences of the economic and political events of the 1930s. The full consequences of current events are obviously still unknown.</p>
<p>Of course, history is not destiny and we should always be cautious about going too far in drawing comparisons with the past. The past is, as <a href="http://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/the-past-is-a-foreign-country/">L.P. Hartley put it</a>, a foreign country. But can we learn anything from the extremism of the 1930s? More specifically, can we understand how extremist groups emerged and developed and what kind of people became members?</p>
<p>Understanding what motivated millions of ordinary Germans to support the Nazi party (NSDAP) has been the goal of historians and political scientists for decades. Studies that highlight their popularity among certain social classes are probably the most venerable and persistent. And the sociologist Seymour Lipset was among the first to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/587800">describe the typical Nazi voter</a> in 1932 as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A middle-class self-employed Protestant who lived either on a farm or in a small community, and who had previously voted for a centrist or regionalist political party strongly opposed to the power and influence of big business and big labour.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Others, such as <a href="https://soca.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/adjunct-faculty/william-i-brustein">American historian William Brustein</a>, have tried to rationalise support for the Nazi party by highlighting <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Logic_of_Evil.html?id=n6I_FFX0YFsC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">economic self-interest</a>. Individuals whose material interests were aligned with the party’s platform would be more likely to become members. </p>
<p>But other studies argue that the Nazis drew support from the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1950834?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents">marginalised in society</a> or had a <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WNFFAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&ots=77kNsOra-K&dq=Nazis%20gregor%20falter&lr&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q&f=false">mass appeal across the political spectrum</a>. Perhaps the only group for which there is a near consensus regarding support for the Nazis is Catholics: consistently, Catholics appear to have been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ajps.12328">less likely to vote for the NSDAP</a> or to become members of the party. So, who exactly were the Nazis?</p>
<h2>Climbing the ladder</h2>
<p>In our research we revisited this old question with new and more detailed data. We examined a unique dataset of about 10,000 World War II <a href="https://dbk.gesis.org/dbksearch/sdesc2.asp?no=8410&db=e&doi=10.4232/1.8410">German soldiers from the 1930s and 1940s</a>, which contains detailed information on social background such as occupation and education, as well as other characteristics such as religion, criminal record and military service.</p>
<p>We looked at membership of different Nazi organisations among these individuals, not just the political party, the NSDAP, but also the paramilitary SA (<em>Sturmabteilung</em>) and SS (<em>Schutzstaffel</em>) as well as the Hitler Youth.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293586/original/file-20190923-54813-140lzjk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the SS marching in formation on Nazi Party Day, Nuremberg. Germany, September 1937.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Everett Historical via Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found that members of Nazi organisations – whether they were early joiners who signed up in the 1920s or those who joined the party in the 1940s – were more likely to come from high-status backgrounds and had higher levels of education, with people from a higher-status background almost twice as likely to join the Nazi party as someone from a lower-status background. We also confirmed that Catholics were less likely to be members of all Nazi organisations.</p>
<p>Such detailed data allowed us to dig deeper into the backgrounds of Nazi members. As we knew the social background of a person’s father from the records we were able to look at how far up the social ladder Nazi members climbed relative to those that did not join.</p>
<p>As expected, Nazi members appeared to have advanced further than non-members, for example moving up from occupations categorised as “skilled”, such as a tailor to a semi-professional job, such as teacher. What is most surprising, however, is that this advancement does not appear to have been driven by the party rewarding its members with higher-status positions. </p>
<p>By looking at the roles that these individuals were trained for early on in their careers, and not just their stated occupations, we find that social climbing was driven by early movements up the social ladder – Nazi organisations seem to have attracted upwardly mobile individuals.</p>
<p>Indeed this seems to have been the case not just for the Nazi party itself, but also the SS, SA and Hitler Youth. These were people who were already making their way in life. Although we cannot say from the data whether members benefited in other ways, such as through direct financial rewards or non-monetary benefits, the greater social advancement of Nazi members that we do observe does not appear to have been driven directly by membership.</p>
<p>What does this all mean for our understanding of the type of people that joined Nazi organisations? While it is impossible to uncover exactly what motivated people to join the Nazis, our findings suggest that many educated and ambitious people from the higher end of the social scale were attracted to the movement. </p>
<p>The study not only helps us to understand how the Nazi party emerged and came to power in the years before WWII but also gives us an insight into how extremist organisations can form and attract members more generally. It reminds us that we need to think beyond pure ideology when it comes to motivations for joining extremist groups and look at economic and social factors too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123297/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Research for this article was conducted with Matthias Blum from the German Medical Association. The paper this article is based on has recently been accepted for publication at the European Economic Review. </span></em></p>An in-depth study has shown that far from recruiting from the lower middle classes, the Nazi party attracted many people from high-status backgrounds.Alan de Bromhead, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/955422018-04-26T12:48:52Z2018-04-26T12:48:52ZLeni Riefenstahl: both feminist icon and fascist film-maker<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216482/original/file-20180426-175061-1ink0vw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Leni Riefenstahl as war correspondent in Poland 1939, wearing a Wehrmacht uniform.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-2004-0022,_Polen,_Truppenbesuch_von_Leni_Riefenstahl.jpg">German Federal Archives</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The dancer, actress, director and photographer Helene “Leni” Riefenstahl, who died in 2003, is a controversial character, largely because of the many propaganda movies she produced for the Nazis. So when it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/24/berlin-museum-offers-glimpse-of-leni-riefenstahl-estate">recently announced</a> that her estate would be handed over to a Berlin photography museum, historians of the period hoped to find some clarification about the extent of her involvement with the Nazi regime. </p>
<p>But these hopes are likely to be dashed. Riefenstahl, like many other celebrities of the Third Reich, was wise enough to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/29/biography.features">destroy incriminating evidence</a> at the end of World War II and created the image of herself as a naïve opportunist through interviews, autobiographies and – often enough – libel cases.</p>
<p>Riefenstahl’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0726166/?ref_=nv_sr_1">cinematic legacy</a>, particularly in sport journalism, is undeniable. This is why Germany’s most prolific feminist, Alice Schwarzer, has criticised historians and journalists who always bring up Riefenstahl’s past involvement with the Nazis, while supposedly being <a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/abstract/journals/gps/31/3/gps310304.xml">more lenient towards male Nazi celebrities</a>.</p>
<p>But this is demonstrably untrue. Male artists, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Furtw%C3%A4ngler">conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler</a>, have been equally criticised for being <a href="https://youtu.be/FoU-iCT21fc">co-opted</a> by the Nazi regime. Schwarzer may have a point that other artists did not experience the same scrutiny after 1945. But her movies in the 1930s are prime examples of Nazi propaganda. Male filmmakers who produced such brazen propaganda on similar levels, however, got similar treatment.</p>
<p>Riefenstahl would later claim that Goebbels hated her and only Hitler’s patronage spared her from trouble. But this has never been substantially backed up by evidence. Riefenstahl’s acquaintance with Hitler goes back to 1932 when they met for the first time – after she wrote to him requesting a meeting.</p>
<p>Riefenstahl, who made a name for herself in the 1920s as an actress and then as a director in the early 1930s, became a star in the then popular genre of “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_film">mountain movies</a>”. This was a topic dear to the Nazis and other nationalists in Weimar Germany who saw mountaineering – man’s struggle with nature – as both a symbol for Germany’s post-World War I struggle and the social-Darwinistic model of the survival of the fittest. Riefenstahl’s 1932 movie <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022694/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_4">The Blue Light</a>, which she directed and had the leading role in, reportedly became one of Hitler’s favourite movies. Its plot featured some of the main tropes of Nazi ideology: the perils of greed and materialism represented by sinister foreigners.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216470/original/file-20180426-175061-12tykjc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leni Riefenstahl and Adolf Hitler in 1938 at the premiere of her first Olympia movie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Nazi era</h2>
<p>After the Nazi Party came to power in January 1933, Riefenstahl turned her close links to Hitler into a profitable venture. Riefenstahl was commissioned to produce films on the annual Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg 1933 and 1934, Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will, respectively. The latter, in particular, is regarded as a cinematic milestone for using novel techniques in visual storytelling. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GHs2coAzLJ8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Riefenstahl would defend herself after the war by saying that these, like her two movies on the Berlin Olympics, were documentaries rather than propaganda movies – there is no narrator in the film and thus no explicitly stated political agenda. But when you see the films, there is really no need for a narrator. The opening sequence of <a href="https://youtu.be/HVCUsKkXq3Y">Triumph of the Will</a> is a plane carrying Hitler to Nuremberg, to be greeted by an enthusiastic crowd upon landing. This descent from the heavens echoes Nazi propaganda that Hitler was sent by providence to rescue Germany. As renowned art critic <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1975/02/06/fascinating-fascism/?pagination=false&printp">Susan Sontag wrote in 1975</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In Triumph of the Will, the document (the image) is no longer simply the record of reality; ‘reality’ has been constructed to serve the image.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Her two movies on the Olympic Games carry similar images. According to Riefenstahl, she only wanted to celebrate the aesthetics of athletic bodies – a claim reflected in the title of the second movie: Festival of Beauty. This, obviously, corresponds with the Nazis’ idea of purity and athleticism as signs of the virility and the superiority of the “Aryan” race.</p>
<p>As Sontag points out, Riefenstahl remained true to this ideal after the war, even when no longer focusing on white people. Her 1975 photo book on the Sudanese Nuba tribe also focused on the young, male, muscular body – promoting once more the ideal of a body image that cherishes the healthy and athletic form. In Sontag’s eyes, this focus on athleticism “can be seen as the third in Riefenstahl’s triptych of fascist visuals” – following in the footsteps of her movies on mountains and the Olympics.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216471/original/file-20180426-175047-3g2frw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Riefenstahl filming at the 1936 Olympics.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Faustian pact</h2>
<p>Schwarzer’s attempt to somewhat exculpate Riefenstahl by arguing that she had to cooperate with the Nazis in order to make a career as a woman seems a bit facile. Riefenstahl and the Nazis found each other because they had similar ideas about the body, society and their representation. Riefenstahl may not have been a card-carrying Nazi in the sense of anti-Semitism or thirst for war – although her post-war excuse that she didn’t witness atrocities during her time as war correspondent has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/apr/29/biography.features">debunked by historians</a>. But her aesthetics and her understanding of community and mysticism went hand-in-glove with Nazi ideology. </p>
<p>Worryingly enough, as Sontag pointed out, these aesthetics were rehabilitated in the 1970s with the rise of the body-building movement. Celebrating the beauty of the athletic body became in vogue again, and also led to a rehabilitation of sorts for Riefenstahl. </p>
<p>Her contributions to film history are undeniable. Many techniques that are now seen as common in sports reporting were introduced and championed by her Olympia movies – such as cameras on dollies to follow the athletes on the track or underwater cameras in the swimming and diving competitions to give a perspective to viewers that even spectators in the stadium wouldn’t get. </p>
<p>So maybe Leni Riefenstahl is such a controversial figure because she is both a feminist, and a Nazi, icon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95542/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexander von Lünen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The controversial German film-maker was celebrated for her groundbreaking work, but the fact remains she was a prominent Nazi propagandist.Alexander von Lünen, Senior Lecturer in Modern German History, University of HuddersfieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/803542017-07-04T23:01:10Z2017-07-04T23:01:10ZHow the Nazis destroyed the first gay rights movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176456/original/file-20170630-8203-170x8ih.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Damenkneipe,' or 'Ladies’ Saloon,' painted by Rudolf Schlichter in 1923. In 1937, many of his paintings were destroyed by the Nazis as 'degenerate art.'</span> </figcaption></figure><p>In 2017, Germany’s Cabinet approved <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39350105">a bill</a> that would expunge the convictions of tens of thousands of German men for “homosexual acts” under that country’s anti-gay law known as “<a href="https://www.ushmm.org/learn/students/learning-materials-and-resources/homosexuals-victims-of-the-nazi-era/paragraph-175">Paragraph 175</a>.” That law dates back to 1871, when modern Germany’s first legal code was created. </p>
<p>It was repealed in 1994. But there was a serious movement to repeal the law in 1929 as part of a wider LGBTQ rights movement. That was just before the Nazis came to power, magnified the anti-gay law, then sought to annihilate gay and transgender Europeans. </p>
<p>The story of how close Germany – and much of Europe – came to liberating its LGBTQ people before violently reversing that trend under new authoritarian regimes is an object lesson showing that the history of LGBTQ rights is not a record of constant progress.</p>
<h2>The first LGBTQ liberation movement</h2>
<p>In the 1920s, Berlin <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+men+with+the+pink+triangle&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjX0dX8uZzSAhWIRyYKHfj0DU8Q6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=nearly%20a%20hundred%20gay%20and%20lesbian%20bars%22&f=false">had</a> nearly 100 gay and lesbian bars or cafes. Vienna <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/opposing-fascism/homosexual-men-in-vienna-1938/54937C49AA3BBCC3E27C8B0E2FF5ABDE">had</a> about a dozen gay cafes, clubs and bookstores. In Paris, certain quarters were renowned for <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/12215">open displays</a> of gay and trans nightlife. Even <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PW1GjP0_6Y4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=gay+paris+1920s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-koifqprSAhXJLSYKHXFMBPoQ6AEILDAD#v=snippet&q=%22to%20florence%2C%20where%20he%20could%22&f=false">Florence</a>, Italy, had its own gay district, as did many smaller European cities.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/movies/different-from-the-others-a-1919-film-on-homosexuality.html">Films</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aO7YCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robert+beachy+gay+berlin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbluu9mN7SAhVI74MKHek_CxEQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=%22different%20from%20others%22&f=false">began</a> depicting sympathetic gay characters. Protests were organized against offensive depictions of LGBTQ people in print or on <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aO7YCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robert+beachy+gay+berlin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbluu9mN7SAhVI74MKHek_CxEQ6AEIGjAA#v=snippet&q=">stage</a>. And media <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=aO7YCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=robert+beachy+gay+berlin&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbluu9mN7SAhVI74MKHek_CxEQ6AEIGjAA#v=snippet&q=entrepreneur&f=false">entrepreneurs</a> realized there was a middle-class gay and trans readership to whom they could cater.</p>
<p>Partly driving this new era of tolerance were the doctors and scientists who started looking at homosexuality and “transvestism” (a word of that era that encompassed transgender people) as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=4ss2DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1155&dq=hirschfield+transvestism+natural&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjCk5eS_eXUAhXs5oMKHfwZDYkQ6AEIOTAE#v=onepage&q=normal%20variations%20on%20human%20experience&f=false">natural</a> characteristic with which some were born, and not a “derangement.” The story of Lili Elbe and the first modern sex change, made famous in the recent film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810819/">“The Danish Girl,”</a> reflected these trends.</p>
<p>For example, Berlin <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=mWXFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83&dq=Berlin+opened+its+Institute+for+Sexual+Research&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTvuzA_eXUAhVFw4MKHURNC0QQ6AEIRzAG#v=snippet&q=opening%20the%20institute%20was%20a%20dream&f=false">opened</a> its Institute for Sexual Research in 1919, the place where the word “transsexual” was coined, and where people could receive counseling and other services. Its lead doctor, Magnus Hirschfeld, also consulted on the Lili Elbe sex change.</p>
<p>Connected to this institute was an organization called the “Scientific-Humanitarian Committee.” With the motto “justice through science,” this group of scientists and LGBTQ people <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=m-mc76HwPdwC&pg=PA94&dq=motto,+%22justice+through+science,%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQ9bL0_eXUAhWDyoMKHWVsBn0Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=motto%2C%20%22justice%20through%20science%2C%22&f=false">promoted</a> equal rights, arguing that LGBTQ people were not aberrations of nature.</p>
<p>Most European capitals hosted a branch of the group, which sponsored talks and sought the repeal of Germany’s “Paragraph 175.” Combining with other liberal groups and politicians, it succeeded in <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xmlWr4aAt4EC&pg=PA204&dq=motto,+%22justice+through+science%22+for+a+repeal+of+Paragraph+175&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwipvaun_uXUAhXM8YMKHQwrD0IQ6AEIMTAC#v=onepage&q=motto%2C%20%22justice%20through%20science%22%20for%20a%20repeal%20of%20Paragraph%20175&f=false">influencing</a> a German parliamentary committee to recommend the repeal to the wider government in 1929.</p>
<h2>The backlash</h2>
<p>While these developments didn’t mean the end of centuries of intolerance, the 1920s and early ‘30s certainly looked like the beginning of the end. On the other hand, the greater “out-ness” of gay and trans people provoked their opponents.</p>
<p>A French reporter, bemoaning the sight of uncloseted LGBTQ people in public, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/12215">complained</a>, “the contagion … is corrupting every milieu.” The Berlin police grumbled that magazines aimed at gay men – which they called “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YquzCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=laurie+marhoefer+sex+and+the+weimar&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisxuafhJrSAhXB3SYKHV4pBUAQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=%22obscene%20press%20materials%22&f=false">obscene press materials</a>” – were proliferating. In Vienna, lectures of the “Scientific Humanitarian Committee” might be packed with supporters, but one was <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/opposing-fascism/homosexual-men-in-vienna-1938/54937C49AA3BBCC3E27C8B0E2FF5ABDE">attacked</a> by young men hurling stink bombs. A Parisian town councilor in 1933 called it “a moral crisis” that gay people, known as “inverts” at that time, could be seen in public.</p>
<p>“Far be it from me to want to turn to fascism,” <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/12215">the councilor said</a>, “but all the same, we have to agree that in some things those regimes have sometimes done good… One day Hitler and Mussolini woke up and said, ‘Honestly, the scandal has gone on long enough’ … And … the inverts … were chased out of Germany and Italy the very next day.”</p>
<h2>The ascent of Fascism</h2>
<p>It’s this willingness to make a blood sacrifice of minorities in exchange for “normalcy” or prosperity that has observers drawing uncomfortable comparisons between then and now.</p>
<p>In the 1930s, the Depression spread economic anxiety, while political fights in European parliaments tended to spill outside into actual <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=V42QBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT110&dq=germany+rise+fascism+street+fighting+violence&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik-ufk_uXUAhWBzIMKHWK8B9IQ6AEIQTAE#v=onepage&q=violence%20occupied&f=false">street fights</a> between Left and Right. Fascist parties offered Europeans a choice of stability at the price of democracy. Tolerance of minorities was destabilizing, they said. Expanding liberties gave “undesirable” people the liberty to undermine security and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=YquzCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=laurie+marhoefer+sex+and+the&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyp8Hknd7SAhUI0oMKHRxXAqAQ6AEIGjAA#v=snippet&q=complained%20of%20the%20%22rapid%20flood%22&f=false">threaten traditional</a> “moral” culture. Gay and trans people were an obvious target.</p>
<p>What happened next shows the whiplash speed with which the progress of a generation can be thrown into reverse.</p>
<h2>The nightmare</h2>
<p>One day in May 1933, pristine white-shirted students marched in front of Berlin’s Institute for Sexual Research – that safe haven for LGBTQ people – calling it “Un-German.” Later, a mob hauled out its library to be burned. Later still, its acting head <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=t7pEmb3nQ2cC&pg=PA66&dq=kurt+hiller+institute+berlin+concentration+camp&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9rfquqOXSAhUBGGMKHTEYDiUQ6AEIMTAD#v=onepage&q=kurt%20hiller%20was%20arrested&f=false">was arrested</a>.</p>
<p>When Nazi leader Adolph Hitler needed to <a href="http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-roehm.htm">justify</a> arresting and murdering former political allies in 1934, he said they were gay. This <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007885">fanned</a> anti-gay zealotry by the Gestapo, which opened a special anti-gay <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/scotts/ftp/pro-choice/himmler-order.html">branch</a>. During the following year alone, the Gestapo arrested more than <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/opposing-fascism/homosexual-men-in-vienna-1938/54937C49AA3BBCC3E27C8B0E2FF5ABDE">8,500</a> gay men, quite possibly using a list of names and addresses seized at the Institute for Sexual Research. Not only was Paragraph 175 not erased, as a parliamentary committee had recommended just a few years before, it was amended to be more expansive and punitive. </p>
<p>As the Gestapo spread throughout Europe, it expanded the hunt. In Vienna, it <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/opposing-fascism/homosexual-men-in-vienna-1938/54937C49AA3BBCC3E27C8B0E2FF5ABDE">hauled in</a> every gay man on police lists and questioned them, trying to get them to name others. The fortunate ones went to jail. The less fortunate went to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/opposing-fascism/homosexual-men-in-vienna-1938/54937C49AA3BBCC3E27C8B0E2FF5ABDE">Buchenwald and Dachau</a>. In conquered France, Alsace police <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/12215">worked with</a> the Gestapo to arrest at least 200 men and send them to concentration camps. Italy, with a fascist regime obsessed with virility, sent at least 300 gay men to brutal camps during the war period, declaring them “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=NLrCagrmdvwC&dq=book+%22the+enemy+of+the+new+man%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiE7MK3lZ3SAhVDeCYKHV_ABbIQ6AEIGjAA">dangerous</a> for the integrity of the race.” </p>
<p>The total number of Europeans arrested for being LGBTQ under fascism is impossible to know because of the lack of reliable records. But a conservative estimate is that there were many <a href="https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/bib214108">tens of thousands</a> to <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/ernst-rohm-the-highest-ranking-gay-nazi/">one hundred thousand</a> arrests during the war period alone.</p>
<p>Under these nightmare conditions, far more LGBTQ people in Europe painstakingly hid their genuine sexuality to avoid suspicion, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+men+with+the+pink+triangle&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWjr-vj5_SAhVI4CYKHWsgB-oQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=%22escaped%20into%20marriage%22&f=false">marrying</a> members of the opposite sex, for example. Still, if they had been prominent members of the gay and trans community before the fascists came to power, as Berlin lesbian club owner Lotte Hahm was, it was too late to hide. She was <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=PW1GjP0_6Y4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=A+history+of+homosexuality+in+Europe:+Berlin,+London,+Paris,+1919-1939&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-krqE9p7SAhVG7YMKHaw9DhkQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=lesbian%20club%20Violetta%20was%20arr">sent</a> to a concentration camp. </p>
<p>In those camps, gay men were marked with a pink triangle. In these places of horror, men with pink triangles were <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/m/pdfs/20050726-giles.pdf">singled out</a> for particular abuse. They were mechanically <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/I_Pierre_Seel_Deported_Homosexual.html?id=S6sdDOjK05YC">raped</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/260778?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">castrated</a>, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=men+with+the+pink+triangle&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF-5rUjJ_SAhWF7iYKHairBhUQ6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=prioritized%20for%20medical%20experiments&f=false">favored</a> for medical <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22the+men+with+the+pink+triangle%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjirZC8mJ_SAhUl3YMKHXUZDDsQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=capsules&f=false">experiments</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=S6sdDOjK05YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=I+pierre+seel&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBhKT4jZ_SAhVCRiYKHQdDAc4Q6AEIHDAA#v=snippet&q=%22never%20forget%20the%20barbaric%20murder%22&f=false">murdered</a> for guards’ sadistic <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=men+with+the+pink+triangle&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF-5rUjJ_SAhWF7iYKHairBhUQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22use%20us%20pink-triangle%20prisoners%20as%20living%20targets%22&f=false">pleasure</a> even when they were not sentenced for “liquidation.” One gay man attributed his survival to <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=UYh_OaQrEvcC&dq=tear+off+pink+triangle+for+red&source=gbs_navlinks_s">swapping</a> his pink triangle for a red one – indicating he was merely a Communist. They were <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=cRUfXHoNfNcC&dq=V%C3%ADctimas+de+la+victoria&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQo4Hcjp_SAhUFOyYKHePeCfoQ6AEIGjAA">ostracized</a> and tormented by their fellow inmates, too.</p>
<h2>The looming danger of a backslide</h2>
<p>This isn’t 1930s Europe. And making superficial comparisons between then and now can only yield superficial conclusions. </p>
<p>But with new forms of authoritarianism entrenched and seeking to expand in Europe and beyond, it’s worth thinking about the fate of Europe’s LGBTQ community in the 1930s and ‘40s – a timely note from history as Germany <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-gay-marriage-idUSKBN19L0PQ">approves</a> same-sex marriage and on this first anniversary of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0">Obergefell v. Hodges</a>. </p>
<p>In 1929, Germany came close to erasing its anti-gay law, only to see it strengthened soon thereafter. Only after a gap of 88 years are convictions under that law being annulled. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Broich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The 1920s and early ‘30’s looked like the beginning of the end for centuries of gay intolerance. Then came fascism and the Nazis.John Broich, Associate Professor, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/735892017-03-14T23:59:35Z2017-03-14T23:59:35ZThe power of ordinary people facing totalitarianism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160753/original/image-20170314-10763-1viqztw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A 1969 photo of political theorist and scholar Hannah Arendt.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source"> AP Photo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the election of President Donald J. Trump, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/books/1984-george-orwell-donald-trump.html">sales of George Orwell’s “1984”</a> skyrocketed. But <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/01/totalitarianism-in-age-donald-trump-lessons-from-hannah-arendt-protests">so did those</a> of a lesser-known title, “<a href="https://archive.org/details/HannahArendtTheOriginsOfTotalitarianismHarcourtBraceJovanovich1973">The Origins of Totalitarianism</a>,” by a German Jewish political theorist Hannah Arendt. </p>
<p>“The Origins of Totalitarianism” <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrKGGxBKjAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">discusses the rise of the totalitarian movements</a> of Nazism and Stalinism to power in the 20th century. Arendt explained that such movements depended on the unconditional loyalty of the masses of “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrKGGxBKjAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=slumbering%20majorities&f=false">slumbering majorities</a>,” who felt dissatisfied and abandoned by a system they perceived to be <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrKGGxBKjAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=stupid%20and%20fraudulent&f=false">“fraudulent”</a> and corrupt. These masses sprang to the support of a leader who made them feel they had a place in the world by belonging to a movement. </p>
<p>I am a scholar of political theory and have written <a href="http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/book/diving-for-pearls-a-thinking-journey-with-hannah-arendt">books</a> and scholarly essays on Arendt’s work. Published more than 50 years ago, Arendt’s insights into the development of totalitarianism seem especially relevant to discussions of <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/26/reichstag-fire-manipulating-terror-to-end-democracy/">similar threats to American democracy today</a>. </p>
<h2>Who was Hannah Arendt?</h2>
<p>Arendt was born in Hanover, Germany in 1906 into a secular Jewish household. She began studying the classics and Christian theology, before turning to philosophy. Subsequent developments made her turn her attention to her Jewish identity and political responses to it. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160763/original/image-20170314-10759-17lmv94.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘The Origins of Totalitarianism.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathleen Jones</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It began in the mid-1920s, when the nascent Nazi Party started spreading its anti-Semitic ideology at mass rallies. Following the <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/02/26/reichstag-fire-manipulating-terror-to-end-democracy/">arson attack on the Reichstag (the German Parliament),</a> on Feb. 27, 1933, the Nazis blamed the Communists for plotting against the German government. A day later, the German president declared a state of emergency. The regime, in short order, deprived citizens of basic rights and subjected them to preventive detention. After Nazi parliamentary victories a week later, the Nazis consolidated power, passing legislation allowing Hitler to rule by decree.</p>
<p>Within months, Germany’s free press was destroyed. </p>
<p>Arendt felt she could no longer be a bystander. In a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsoImQfVsO4">1964 interview for German television</a>, she said,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Belonging to Judaism had become my own problem and my own problem was political.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Leaving Germany a few months later, Arendt settled in France. Being Jewish, deprived of her German citizenship, she became stateless – <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742521513/The-Reluctant-Modernism-of-Hannah-Arendt-New-Edition">an experience that shaped her thinking</a>. </p>
<p>She remained safe in France for a few years. But when France declared war on Germany in September 1939, the French government began ordering refugees to internment camps. In May 1940, a month before Germany defeated France and occupied the country, Arendt was arrested as an “enemy alien” and sent to <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005298">a concentration camp in Gurs</a>, near the Spanish border, from which she escaped. Assisted by American journalist <a href="http://www.varianfry.dk/">Varian Fry’s</a> <a href="https://www.rescue.org/">International Rescue Committee</a>, Arendt and her husband, Heinrich Blücher, immigrated to the United States in 1941.</p>
<p>Soon after arriving in America, Arendt published a series of essays on Jewish politics in the German-Jewish newspaper “Aufbau,” now collected in <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/4708/the-jewish-writings-by-hannah-arendt/9780805211948/">The Jewish Writings</a>. While writing these essays she learned of the Nazi destruction of European Jewry. In a mood she described as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrKGGxBKjAC&q=%22reckless+optimism+and+reckless+despair%2C%22#v=snippet&q=%22reckless%20optimism%20and%20reckless%20despair%2C%22&f=false">“reckless optimism and reckless despair,”</a> Arendt turned her attention back to the analysis of anti-Semitism, the subject of a long essay (<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=RIE2KKIXhLQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Jewish+Writings&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2xf77oNTSAhUD6iYKHUWdDDYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=The%20Jewish%20Writings&f=false">“Antisemitism”</a>) she’d written in France in the late 1930s. The basic arguments from that essay found their way into her magnum opus, <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/essayb1.html">“The Origins of Totalitarianism</a>.” </p>
<h2>Why ‘Origins’ matters now</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/515610/is-trump-a-populist-authoritarian/">Many of the factors</a> that Arendt associated with the rise of totalitarianism have been cited to explain Trump’s ascendancy to power. </p>
<p>In “Origins,” for example, some key conditions that Arendt connected with the emergence of totalitarianism were increasing xenophobia, racism and anti-Semitism, and hostility toward elites and mainstream political parties. Along with these, she cited an intensified alienation of the “masses” from government coupled with the willingness of alarming numbers of people to abandon facts or to “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8f2y0F2wzLoC&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=escape+from+reaity+into+fiction+Origins+of+Totalitarianism&source=bl&ots=p-Fz2lcp4E&sig=9KJyW056PRZsZxjvCIpyc2SPMTE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivhPLZpdTSAhVL72MKHQxhBXQQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=escape%20from%20reaity%20into%20fiction%20Origins%20of%20Totalitarianism&f=false">escape from reality into fiction</a>.” Additionally, she noted an exponential increase in the number of refugees and stateless peoples, whose rights nation-states were unable to guarantee. </p>
<p>Some scholars, such as political theorist <a href="http://polisci.indiana.edu/faculty/profiles/isaac.shtml">Jeffrey Isaacs</a>, have noted “Origins” might <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/12/17/how-hannah-arendts-classic-work/?utm_term=.26325735abe5">serve as a warning</a> about where America is heading. </p>
<p>Although that might be true, I argue there is an equally important lesson to be drawn – about the importance of thinking and acting in the present.</p>
<h2>Why people’s voices and actions matter</h2>
<p>Arendt rejected a “cause and effect” view of history. She argued that what happened in Germany was not inevitable; it could have been avoided. Perhaps most controversially, Arendt claimed the creation of the death camps was not the predictable outcome of “eternal anti-Semitism” but an unprecedented “event that <a href="https://memory.loc.gov/ammem/arendthtml/essayb2.html">should never have been allowed to happen</a>.” </p>
<p>The Holocaust resulted neither from a confluence of circumstances beyond human control nor from history’s inexorable march. It happened because ordinary people failed to stop it. </p>
<p>Arendt wrote <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JuOrvfNA-8QC&pg=PT18&lpg=PT18&dq=a+very+complex+historical+situation+in++Origins+of+Totalitarianism&source=bl&ots=6bQreJziXg&sig=UwmZ_QXYk-PmBiH52FjmWHa8GEs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSuP6srNTSAhUO22MKHfKEBPYQ6AEIOjAG#v=onepage&q=a%20very%20complex%20historical%20situation%20in%20%20Origins%20of%20Totalitarianism&f=false">against the idea</a> that the rise of Nazism was the predictable outcome of the economic downturn following Germany’s defeat in World War I. She understood totalitarianism to be the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=8f2y0F2wzLoC&pg=PA352&lpg=PA352&dq=escape+from+reaity+into+fiction+Origins+of+Totalitarianism&source=bl&ots=p-Fz2lcp4E&sig=9KJyW056PRZsZxjvCIpyc2SPMTE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwivhPLZpdTSAhVL72MKHQxhBXQQ6AEIJzAC#v=snippet&q=crystallized%20in%20the%20novel%20totalitarian%20phenomenon&f=false">“crystallization”</a> of elements of anti-Semitism, racism and conquest present in European thought as early as the 18th century. She argued that the disintegration of the nation-state system following World War I had exacerbated these conditions. </p>
<p>In other words, Arendt argued these “elements” were brought into an explosive relationship through the actions of leaders of the Nazi movement combined with the active support of followers and the inactions of many others.</p>
<p>The redrawing of European states’ political boundaries after World War I meant a great number of people became stateless refugees. <a href="http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1926022400">Post-war peace treaties, known as minority treaties</a>, created “laws of exception” or separate sets of rights for those who were not “nationals” of the new states in which they now resided. These treaties, Arendt argued, eroded principles of a common humanity, transforming the state or government “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=VWCGiJQ-60wC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA6&dq=from+an+instrument+of+the+law+into+an+instrument+of+the+nation+in+Origins+ofTotalitarianism&source=bl&ots=-JLOYs96E6&sig=v--dRDbccl4_mEF9DOFlISBVSxM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4q5yZr9TSAhVKymMKHVtuDtYQ6AEIMzAE#v=onepage&q=from%20an%20instrument%20of%20the%20law%20into%20an%20instrument%20of%20the%20nation%20in%20Origins%20ofTotalitarianism&f=false">from an instrument of the law into an instrument of the nation</a>.”</p>
<p>Yet, Arendt warned, it would be a mistake to conclude that every outburst of anti-Semitism or racism or imperialism indicated the emergence of a “totalitarian” regime. Those conditions alone were not sufficient to lead to totalitarianism. But inaction in the face of them added a dangerous element into the mix.</p>
<h2>Not submitting quietly</h2>
<p>I argue that “Origins” engages readers in thinking about the past with an eye toward an uncharted future. </p>
<p>Arendt worried that totalitarian solutions could outlive the demise of past totalitarian regimes. She urged her readers to recognize that leaders’ manipulation of fears of refugees combined with social isolation, loneliness, rapid technological change and economic anxieties could provide ripe conditions for the acceptance of “<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=zLrKGGxBKjAC&q=The+great+danger+arising#v=snippet&q=The%20great%20danger%20arising&f=false">us-against-them</a>” ideologies. These could result in ethically compromised consequences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/160759/original/image-20170314-10751-db47g0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Protesters march in front of the White House to protest Trump administration’s ban on immigration and travel from seven Muslim majority countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenmelkisethian/32558152266/in/photolist-RB43mS-R67SiG-RECiGg-RECj5v-Qo5d4u-Qo5dPC-RECihD-RB43VC-RB43Hy-RGxJot-Qog6io-RBeY39-RsRQRU-RvyXCz-QpTdhf-RB487o-RvyXnK-Qq2TyA-RvHvpe-RriezS-QpTeBQ-RvHv82-Qog7Ts-RsRN6y-RtYbwM-Rriev3-RBeYdj-RsRNCA-RridUU-Qog8k9-Qog6KL-RGxK4X-RsRQCC-QpTdzj-QsCAEn-RGxJDt-Mj9V9J-Mj9Udq-Mj9TcY-RvsZPS-Qs5HCf-SJjnWc-SJjpeH-Qog62S-RujstD-RujtXk-Rujukz-SJjo9M-SEGSTS-RujtqZ">Stephen Melkisethian</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In my view, “Origins” offers both a warning and an implicit call to resistance. In today’s context, Arendt would invite her readers to question what is being <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/robert-reich-how-trump-lies-about-his-many-lies-562520">presented as reality</a>. When President Trump and his advisers claim <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/after-saying-dangerous-people-may-be-pouring-into-our-country-trump-has-repeatedly-put-off-inking-new-travel-ban/2017/03/01/6f3ca47e-fe86-11e6-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html?utm_term=.a93fdd9b1b05">dangerous immigrants</a> are “pouring” into the country, or stealing Americans’ jobs, are they silencing dissent or distracting us from the truth?</p>
<p>“Origins” wasn’t intended to be a formulaic blueprint for how totalitarian rulers emerge or what actions they take. It was a plea for attentive, thoughtful civil disobedience to emerging authoritarian rule. </p>
<p>What makes “Origins” so salient today is Arendt’s recognition that comprehending totalitarianism’s possible recurrence means neither denying the burden events have placed on us, nor submitting quietly to the order of the day.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathleen B. Jones receives funding from The National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a registered Democrat and member of the ACLU.
</span></em></p>Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, fled Germany during Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and later wrote about ‘the banality of evil.’ Her work has recently become a best-seller. Here’s why.Kathleen B. Jones, Professor Emerita of Women's Studies, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697622016-12-07T02:09:50Z2016-12-07T02:09:50Z‘Hail Trump’ salute recalls a powerful message of hate<p>During a Nov. 22 celebration of Donald Trump’s election triumph, members of a far-right organization, the National Policy Institute, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/richard-spencer-speech-npi/508379/">were filmed</a> extending a stiff arm in the iconic “Heil Hitler” salute of Nazi Germany. Ensuring there would be no mistaking the gesture, National Policy Institute President Richard Spencer shouted, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!”</p>
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<p>The video echoed, on a very small scale, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXST0wF5T4s">mass rallies</a> that were once held in Nazi Germany. Huge crowds with their arms raised “were an essential part of Nazi propaganda, designed to demonstrate public solidarity with the policies of the Nazi Party,” write Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell in <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/propaganda-persuasion/book239374">“Propaganda & Persuasion</a>.”</p>
<p>Two years ago, when I prepared slides on the Nazi salute for my rhetoric class on “The Art of Argument,” I had no idea that I would soon see that gesture reborn in the America political landscape.</p>
<p>Before the Nov. 8 election, the use of the Nazi salute by a fringe group might have been dismissed as a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmYIo7bcUw">“Springtime for Hitler”</a> moment, something too outrageous to be taken seriously, as satirized in “The Producers” <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063462/">movie</a> and Tony-winning Broadway <a href="http://broadwaymusicalhome.com/shows/producers.htm">musical</a>.</p>
<p>Post-election, the gesture represents something that demands serious attention. Historically, hand and arm gestures have had as powerful an impact as slogans or symbols. That Nazi salute should be considered in that context.</p>
<h2>History of gestures</h2>
<p>Certain gestures can send powerful rhetoric and cultural messages. There’s even an <a href="http://www.gesturestudies.com/">International Society for Gesture Studies</a> which promotes gesture studies worldwide. </p>
<p>Consider a common two-finger salute. During World War II, the two-finger salute of <a href="http://time.com/3880345/v-for-victory-a-gesture-of-solidarity-and-defiance/">“V for Victory”</a> gave courage to Allied troops. A similar gesture morphed into the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/from-churchill-to-libya-how-the-v-symbol-went-viral/2011/03/18/AFzPiYYB_story.html?utm_term=.d39cb938adde">peace sign</a>, a gesture of resistance and solidarity during the 1960s protests against the Vietnam War. Turn the V-sign palm facing in, and you have a <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/10/15/the_up_yours_gesture_looks_like_a_peace_sign.html">gesture</a> that is considered rude in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>The Vulcan salute, adopted by actor Leonard Nimoy for the original “Star Trek” series, came from a Jewish blessing, and has become part of the American lexicon of gesture. After Nimoy’s death, <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0228/A-sign-from-space-Live-long-and-prosper-Leonard-Nimoy-video">NASA astronaut Terry Virts</a> made the “Live Long and Prosper” sign while aboard the International Space Station and sent it to Earth via Twitter.</p>
<p>The current uproar over athletes kneeling during the National Anthem pales beside the outrage that greeted athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos when they each held aloft a black-gloved fist clenched in the “Black Power” salute during their <a href="http://time.com/3880999/black-power-salute-tommie-smith-and-john-carlos-at-the-1968-olympics/">medal ceremony</a> at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.</p>
<p>A three-fingered salute plays a key role in the book series “The Hunger Games.” According to narrator Katniss Everdeen, <a href="https://www.quora.com/Why-has-the-three-finger-salute-in-The-Hunger-Games-become-the-icon-of-resistance-even-though-it-means-showing-thanks-admiration-and-good-bye-to-a-loved-one">raising a hand with three fingers</a> extended is “an old and rarely used gesture [that] means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.” In the book, the gesture becomes a sign of resistance.</p>
<p>Fiction became reality in May 2014, when three Thailand political activists protesting a coup held their hands up in a three-finger salute and were <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/world/asia/thailand-protesters-hunger-games-salute.html?_r=0">detained</a>. Thai authorities likely never heard of Katniss Everdeen, yet they knew a sign of rebellion when they saw it.</p>
<h2>As old as politics</h2>
<p>“Gestures are as old as politics itself,” <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-09-03/isis-sends-message">writes</a> Nathaniel Zelinsky in a Foreign Affairs article that probes the use of gestures employed by radical Islamists and other groups in Middle East. Zelinsky argues that we must pay attention to these hand signals as they “communicate complex political messages that Western observers have largely ignored.”</p>
<p>Gestures, he <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2014-09-03/isis-sends-message">notes</a>, including the Nazi salute, became especially important with the advent of mass media in the 20th century:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Consider what is perhaps the best-known example: Adolf Hitler’s fascist salute. In a single gesture, Hitler communicated the power of National Socialism, the obedience of German crowds, and his own role as a supreme leader. And because pictures of him saluting were printed in newspapers around the world, the symbol reached billions.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Europe, the Nazi salute is so potent it can be considered <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/queen-nazi-salute-countries-where-gesture-is-illegal-10401630.html">hate speech</a>. To get around these laws, a controversial <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-dieudonnes-quenelle-gesture-poses-challenges-for-britain-and-france-22731">French comedian</a> created an inverted Nazi salute called the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-25550581">“quenelle,”</a> in which a stiff arm is held down, rather than up, and is interpreted as support of anti-Zionism. The gesture has spread across the internet through selfies, as <a href="http://www.jewishledger.com/2015/04/conversation-with-prof-gavriel-rosenfeld/">Gavriel Rosenfeld</a> explores in his book “Hi Hitler: How the Nazi Past Is Normalized in Contemporary Culture.”</p>
<p>Unlike in France, gestures may fall under First Amendment protection in the United States, affording protection to even Nazi salutes. The National Policy Institute may have taken advantage of this protection in that November meeting. Whether deliberate or not, Trump supporters have displayed a Heil Hitler-like gesture at more than one <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-right-hand-salute_us_56db50d8e4b03a405678e27a">Trump rally</a>.</p>
<p>The stiff-arm salute is not a trivial gesture. It is not <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/29/an-establishment-conservatives-guide-to-the-alt-right/">alt-right</a> so much as it is Third Reich redux, a revival of a dangerous ideology. Just consider the message from the National Policy Institute’s <a href="http://www.npiamerica.org">website</a>, which declares it is “dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.” It is not a stretch to compare this to the Nazi veneration of the supposed <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aryan">“Aryan”</a> or “ethnically pure” race. </p>
<p>Thus far, the president-elect has expressed more outrage over <a href="http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/11/22/13714604/donald-trump-twitter-hate-crime">the cast of “Hamilton”</a> addressing Mike Pence at the theater than neo-Nazis saluting in his name.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Schorow does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reboot of the Nazi salute should not be taken lightly, given its history of hatred and genocide.Stephanie Schorow, Adjunct Professor of Professional Writing, Regis College, Regis CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535272016-01-25T09:54:52Z2016-01-25T09:54:52ZWhy is it so hard to get a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf?<p>Hitler’s infamous political memoir, <a href="https://theconversation.com/mein-kampf-publication-the-best-way-to-destroy-hitlers-hateful-legacy-51707">Mein Kampf</a>, continues to trouble us like few other texts in the world. Seven decades after the end of the Third Reich, it fascinates and appals in equal measure.</p>
<p>Available in many translations, Mein Kampf is widely read around the world and regularly features on <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/5182107/Indian-business-students-snap-up-copies-of-Mein-Kampf.html">bestseller lists in India</a>. The state of Bavaria, however, used copyright legislation to ban any new German editions from being produced after 1945. All that came to an end though, when the copyright expired at the end of 2015. It is now legal to produce new copies of the book.</p>
<p>This has obviously caused some anxiety and, in an attempt to steer the way the German public engages with the text, the <a href="http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/?id=550">Institute for Contemporary History in Munich</a> decided to launch a critical scholarly edition. It includes a long introduction and countless footnotes that point out the many flaws in Hitler’s arguments. As the editors have explained, their main aim was to foreground “what we can counterpose to Hitler’s innumerable assertions, lies and expressions of intent”. </p>
<p>The edition sold out before it even appeared on the shelves of bookstores. Many readers, including me, are still waiting for their copies. It seems that 15,000 advance orders were placed for a print run of just 4,000. The printers were overwhelmed and left unable to fulfil the requests of many frustrated customers. </p>
<p>It has also created a thriving black market. Copies are being <a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/hitlers-mein-kampf-sells-out-instantly-after-being-published-in-germany-for-first-time-in-70-years-34351999.html">traded</a> at extortionate prices, well above the official €59.</p>
<p>Some worry that the Institute is inadvertently spreading Nazi propaganda. There is a real question as to whether those 15,000 advance orders could have come only from people with a historical interest in the text.</p>
<p>Others object to the overtly pedagogic approach taken by the editorial team that produced the new version. Are this group acting like a “nanny state”, using a tsunami of footnotes to control how the text is read today, rather than allowing readers to use their own judgement? </p>
<h2>Not exactly a beach read</h2>
<p>The moral taboo surrounding Mein Kampf is of course all about its author. Hitler was unique in writing a major political work before he came to power, and then continuing to issue that same work throughout the lifespan of the Third Reich.</p>
<p>As Hitler is now regarded as the very epitome of evil, his authorship suggests that Mein Kampf must also be the most evil book in the world.</p>
<p>But those looking for dangerous examples of Nazi ideas will find them in other places much more readily. The infamous speeches of <a href="http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/joseph-goebbels">Joseph Goebbels</a>, rousing the masses to enthusiasm around the idea of “total war”, Leni Riefenstahl’s great propaganda movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025913/">Triumph of the Will</a>, or the much reproduced anti-Semitic caricatures of <a href="http://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/sturmer.htm">Der Stuermer</a> are all easily accessed and offer far more to worry about to people fearing the spread of extreme views.</p>
<p>The lengthy ramblings of Mein Kampf are unlikely to turn anyone into a modern-day fascist. The book was distributed in its millions under the Nazi regime, but there is little evidence that it worked as effective propaganda. It is, in fact, extremely hard to read.</p>
<p>It doesn’t present a particular political theory, either. Personal anecdotes are interwoven with observations on a vast array of different issues, from economics to architecture, from landscape aesthetics to history. There are certainly antisemitic rants, too, but what gives the text coherence, in so far as it has any, is a general mood music about a new style of politics of “intuition” and “character”, rather than theory and logical deduction. And indeed, much of it is not original Hitler. Whole passages are plagiarised or adapted from an array of earlier thinkers. Hitler’s skill was to synthesise, and to make these ideas and assumptions accessible. </p>
<h2>Why the appeal?</h2>
<p>The ideological context on which Hitler was drawing was familiar to many at the time. This contributed to the book’s apparent “commonsense” appeal, which in turn helped to mask some of Hitler’s more outlandish conclusions as apparently self-explanatory.</p>
<p>But this historical context has long faded, and a critical edition like that presented by the Munich editors can help explain these connections, that are so central to the book’s appeal. What this shows, however, is neither the nature of Nazi “propaganda” (this Hitler mostly left to his henchmen), nor what was unique about the regime (while racist ideas are sprinkled liberally throughout the book, there is no “blueprint” for the Holocaust in it).</p>
<p>What Mein Kampf does explain is precisely how ordinary, in many respects, National Socialism was at the time – and how that very ordinariness lured so many people into supporting a regime that committed the most extraordinary crimes.</p>
<p>A critical scholarly edition that explains that appeal would certainly be worthwhile. And it could serve as a warning against uncritical modern uses, where Mein Kampf has been treated as anything from an entertaining novel to a manual for management techniques in business.</p>
<p>At least some of the 15,000 people trying to get a copy of the new version may well be disappointed by what they find. I for one look forward to finally receiving mine and discovering what new light it casts on the “normality” of one of history’s most infamous dictators.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maiken Umbach collaborates with the Institute for Contemporary History at Munich on a project about the history of private life under National Socialism funded by the Leibniz Gemeinschaft. She also receives AHRC funding to work with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum in Laxton on the use of photography to exhibit the history of the Third Reich and genocide. </span></em></p>Printers have been overwhelmed with orders for the first edition of the text to be published in Germany since 1945.Maiken Umbach, Professor of Modern History and Faculty Research Director, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/479652015-09-28T05:33:38Z2015-09-28T05:33:38ZWWII trial poses uncomfortable questions of guilt and complicity for Germans<p>Seventy years after the end of World War II, the defeat of the Nazi regime and the liberation of the death camps, a German court has charged a 91-year old woman who worked as a radio operator at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The woman, who has not been named, is accused of accessory to murder in more than 260,000 cases between April and July 1944. The case itself – and the fact these cases still command such enormous media attention after so long – raise a number of questions about the war, the responsibility of individuals and the effect the war still has on us.</p>
<p>The question of how much responsibility ordinary Germans had for Nazi atrocities has haunted Germany since 1945. It has raised questions such as whether there should be such a thing as collective guilt for Germans and prompted a great deal of soul-searching over how much Germans knew about the death camps and massacres on the Eastern front. It is difficult to distinguish clearly between perpetrators, fellow travellers and bystanders – and assess their responsibility. These categories are not as clear-cut as they might appear and they reflect our own moral standards on human behaviour. </p>
<p>The distinction between <a href="http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1230&context=gov_fac_pubs">four types of guilt</a> offered by the <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/jaspers/">German philosopher Karl Jaspers</a> in 1946, though flawed, is still instructive. First, there is criminal guilt of those individuals who committed crimes. Second, political guilt refers to the responsibility of ordinary citizens for the actions of the government that they had supported or tolerated. </p>
<p>Moral guilt, by contrast, means that individuals have to examine their own conscience for having taken part in crimes, no matter whether they did so voluntarily or by obeying orders. Finally, metaphysical guilt relates to the lack of human solidarity shown by perpetrators and bystanders with the victims as fellow human beings by not preventing crimes against humanity. </p>
<p>This distinction also helps understand why some of the perpetrators are only being tried now. The definition of “criminal guilt” and the “perpetrator” changed in the course of the trial of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12321549">John Demjanjuk in 2011</a>. Until then, prosecutors of Nazi war crimes had to prove that individual perpetrators held responsibility for or had been directly involved in committing murder. Since the Demjanjuk trial, courts are no longer required to prove that individuals had actually committed murder. </p>
<p>By working in a death camp they were “part of the machinery of extermination”. As such they were culpable as accessories to genocide and they can face criminal charges. The Demjanjuk ruling resulted in a re-investigation of cases, which in turn led to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/15/auschwitz-guard-oskar-groening-jailed-over-mass-murder">trial of Oskar Groening</a> earlier this year and now the proceedings against the 91-year old radio operator at Auschwitz. This wider interpretation of criminal guilt takes into account some of the political, moral and metaphysical dimensions of guilt that Jaspers had separated from criminal guilt. </p>
<h2>National responsibility</h2>
<p>It also reflects a different understanding of the active role ordinary Germans played in the Third Reich. There is a greater awareness of the <a href="http://www.johndclare.net/Weimar6_Geary.htm">high levels of popular support</a> for <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-fuehrer-myth-how-hitler-won-over-the-german-people-a-531909.html">Hitler</a> and Nazi policies, including <a href="http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/293">the exclusion of Jews</a>, and of how much ordinary Germans knew – or could have known – about the Holocaust. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/11fl8AykFqo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">January 1939: Hitler predicts annihilation of Jews if war occurs.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only few Germans actually knew about the death camps in Eastern Europe. Knowledge was normally limited to the Nazi leadership and those who worked in the camps. Yet, many more Germans had at least a vague idea that Jews were being systematically slaughtered. Not only was the phrase the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/media_fi.php?ModuleId=10007271&MediaId=5700">“annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe”</a> in the public domain – ordinary German soldiers and policemen were involved in the <a href="http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005130">mass shootings of Jews</a> on the Eastern front. These mass killings are estimated to account for well over a million of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Those who witnessed them shared their knowledge with friends and families at home. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XXBmDlHwod8C&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Reports of the Security Service</a> showed that rumours about the mass killing of Jews were fairly widespread in Germany.</p>
<p>Was it possible for ordinary Germans to resist actively against the Nazi regime in the climate of fear created by the Nazi terror state? It would be ludicrous to deny that fear played a role. But at least equally important was that many Germans supported the regime and became actively involved, thereby contributing to its stability. </p>
<p>The exclusion of Jews from public life was widely approved or at least accepted. It provided new opportunities for Aryan Germans to advance their careers, benefit economically, or to assert their alleged superiority through <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Y7jCBAAAQBAJ&source=gbs_navlinks_s">“self-empowerment”</a>, suggesting that some “fellow travellers” and “bystanders” were actively involved in exclusion. There were occasional acts of human decency and resistance such as Germans providing food or shelter for Jews or Germans even speaking out in public against the deportation of Jews. But these remained isolated incidents.</p>
<p>Just as interesting as the question of guilt and the possibility of resistance of the former radio operator at Auschwitz and others is the question why the recent court cases are so widely reported in the media and stimulate heated debates. Over the past 20 years, the Holocaust has become such an important part of how we remember the war and define our identities in Germany, Britain and elsewhere. </p>
<p>With fewer and fewer survivors around to share their gruesome stories with younger generations, there is a concern over the how the memory of the Holocaust and its lessons can be kept alive. Putting the last perpetrators on trial is also part of a quest to remember and find meaning in the Holocaust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephan Petzold is a member of the Green Party. </span></em></p>A 91-year-old radio operator from Auschwitz death camp has been charged as an accessory to the murder of 260,000 inmates of the notorious death camp.Stephan Petzold, Lecturer in German history, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.