Our Most Serious Enemy”

The Specter of Judeo-Bolshevism in the German Military Community, 1914–1923

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9645009
AutoresBrian E Crim (0009-0007-6874-8655, University of Lynchburg, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen44
Número4
Páginas624-641
Fecha de publicación2011-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCentral European History (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0008-9389 • E-ISSN: 1569-1616
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0008938911000665
OpenAlexW2151322156
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas29

That the Wehrmacht participated fully in a racial war of extermination on behalf of the National Socialist regime is indisputable. Officers and enlisted men alike accepted the logic that the elimination of the Soviet Union was necessary for Germany's survival. The Wehrmacht's atrocities on the Eastern Front are a testament to the success of National Socialist propaganda and ideological training, but the construct of “Judeo-bolshevism” originated during World War I and its immediate aftermath. Between 1918 and 1923, central Europe witnessed a surge in right-wing paramilitary violence and anti-Semitic activity resulting from fears of bolshevism and a widely held belief that Jews were largely responsible for spreading revolution. Jews suffered the consequences of revolution and resurgent nationalism in the borderlands between Germany and Russia after World War I, but it was inside Germany that the construct of Judeo-bolshevism evolved into a powerful rhetorical tool for the growing völkisch movement and eventually a justification for genocide

Economic history · Front (military · Genocide · Geography · German · Ideology · Nationalism · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European history and politics · History · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society · Law · Soviet and Russian History