International Jewish conspiracy

Last updated

The international Jewish conspiracy or the world Jewish conspiracy has been described as "the most widespread and durable conspiracy theory of the twentieth century" [1] and "one of the most widespread and long-running conspiracy theories". [2] Although it typically claims that a malevolent, usually global Jewish circle, referred to as International Jewry, conspires for world domination, the conspiracy theory's content is extremely variable, which helps explain its wide distribution and long duration. [2] It was popularized in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century especially by the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion . Among the beliefs that posit an international Jewish conspiracy are Jewish Bolshevism, Cultural Marxism, [3] Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory, White genocide conspiracy theory and Holocaust denial. The Nazi leadership's belief in an international Jewish conspiracy that it blamed for starting World War II and controlling the Allied powers was key to their decision to launch the Final Solution.

Contents

History

Belief in an international Jewish conspiracy for world domination can be traced back to the thirteenth century, but increased in the second half of the nineteenth century under the influence of writers such as Frederick van Millingen, an Ottoman-born Englishman who wrote The Conquest of the World by the Jews in 1873, and Hermann Goedsche, a Prussian agent provocateur promoting a new ideological antisemitism. The invention of the newspaper invited the new accusation that Jews controlled the press. [4] Goedsche's novel Biarritz was plagiarized in the antisemitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion published at the turn of the twentieth century. [5] The Protocols appeared in print in the Russian Empire as early as 1903, published as a series of articles in Znamya , a Black Hundreds newspaper. [6] [7] The forgeries were possibly creations of the Okhrana secret police. [8] The Protocols popularized the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy such that this belief became essential to modern antisemitism. [9] According to Armin Pfahl-Traughber, the Protocols are "the most significant document for propagating the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy". [5]

Belief in this conspiracy increased following the Russian Revolution, spread at first by frustrated Tsarist exiles. [7] A popular British conspiracy theorist Nesta Webster recycled the older Illuminati conspiracy theories with a new emphasis on the role of Jews to explain the revolution. [1] In the second half of the twentieth century, as overt antisemitism became increasingly unacceptable, many conspiracists found detours to avoid explicitly referencing Jews while retaining conspiracy theories descended from the Protocols and earlier beliefs of a Jewish world conspiracy. [10]

The Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory asserts that Freemasons are the agents of an international Jewish conspiracy. [11]

Holocaust denial presupposes the existence of a massive Jewish conspiracy that (according to Holocaust deniers) perpetrated the biggest hoax in history in order to scam money out of Germany and found the state of Israel. This conspiracy may be present either implicitly or explicitly in Holocaust denying works. [12] [13]

As of the 1970s, the expression Zionist Occupation Government (ZOG) has been used by antisemites to refer to the supposed Jewish control over Western countries. [14] [15]

By country

China

Some Chinese people believe that Jews secretly rule the world and are business-minded. [16] Hongbing Song, a Chinese American IT consultant and amateur historian, published the Currency Wars series, believing Jewish financiers controlled the international banking systems since the era of Napoleon. Song also says in his book that the key functions of the Federal Reserve were ultimately controlled by five private banks, including Citibank, all of which maintained "close ties" with the Rothschild family, one Jewish group that led to the 1997 financial crisis. The book became a bestseller and even has been read by some high ranking Chinese officials. [17] [18]

Germany

Nazi propaganda poster entitled Das judische Komplott ("The Jewish Plot") Das judische Komplott Parole der Woche December 1941 crop.jpg
Nazi propaganda poster entitled Das jüdische Komplott ("The Jewish Plot")

In his first recorded political speech in 1919, Adolf Hitler claimed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy plotting to weaken the Aryan race and Germany. [19]

In documenting the appearance of fascism from the end of WWI to end of WWII, the historian Michael Kellogg noted that adherents of the "sinister world-wide Jewish" conspiracy theory included monarchist emigres who formed the Aufbau Vereinigung, a conspiratorial anti-Semitic group that sought to re-establish a Tsar in Russia while perpetrating right-wing terrorism in Germany. The Aufbau cooperated with, and included as members, early German Nazis such as Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter. The group, with its emphasis on claiming a Protocols-like myth, would influence the ideologies of Hitler and Alfred Rosenberg, mainly from 1918 to 1923, when Scheubner-Richter was killed by German police officers during the Beer Hall Putsch. [20] [21]

The leaders of Nazi Germany believed that World War II was a conflict pitting Germany against a massive conspiracy secretly engineered by Jews and fronted by the Allies. According to this conspiracy theory, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin were merely puppets for the Jews. [22] Nazi propaganda repeatedly accused "International Jewry" of starting and extending the war and plotting the extermination of Germany. [23] Hitler and other Nazi leaders repeatedly stated that they would "exterminate" Jews before the Jews had a chance to enact this alleged plot. [24] Nazi propagandists drew on earlier Jewish conspiracy tropes and updated The Protocols of the Elders of Zion with prominent individuals from Europe and North America. [25] According to historian Jeffrey Herf, it was the Nazis' conspiratorial beliefs about Jews, rather than older antisemitic beliefs, that caused them to resort to extreme anti-Jewish violence. "The desire for a Final Solution to the Jewish question was inseparable from the Nazis’ view of the Jews as an internationally organized political power that was playing a decisive role in the events of World War II." [26]

Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 under the pretext of fighting Judeo-Bolshevism. By August 1941, Nazi propaganda was already making radical assertions suggesting a global war against Jews. American entry into World War II prompted Nazi ideologues to plunge into further extremism, who claimed that an international coalition of communism and capitalism, led by a sinister "Jewish world conspiracy" were seeking the destruction of Aryan race. Radicalization of anti-semitic discourse went hand in hand with Nazi Germany's intensification of anti-Jewish persecutions and genocide. [27]

According to historian Jeffrey Herf, the Nazis used the purported international Jewish conspiracy to answer "such seemingly difficult questions as, Why did Britain fight on in 1940 rather than negotiate? Why was it likely that the Soviet regime would collapse like a house of cards following the German invasion of June 1941? Why did Franklin Roosevelt oppose Hitler? Why did the anti-Hitler coalition remain intact as the Red Army continued to push toward Central Europe after spring 1943?" [25] Nazi belief in a powerful, international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings of world affairs was not dispelled by the ease with which the German Jewish community was expropriated and forced into exile. [28]

Malaysia

Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has repeatedly asserted that Jews control the world by proxy. [29]

Turkey

In 2007, the bestselling book in Turkey was Musa'nın çocukları Tayyip ve Emine by Ergün Poyraz. Poyraz claims that there is an international Jewish conspiracy pulling the strings behind the world, including installing Recep Tayyip Erdogan as prime minister of Turkey. [30]

United States

In The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem , American industrialist Henry Ford largely recycled the Protocols and did more than any other American to promote them. [31] [32] During the First Red Scare, United States Congress investigated the veracity of the Protocols. [33] The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were well received by some conservative evangelicals in the 1920s and 1930s. [34] However, even those evangelicals who believed that there was an international Jewish conspiracy against Christianity did not consider themselves anti-Jewish and hoped that Jews would convert to Christianity. [35] By the end of the 1930s, the belief in an international Jewish conspiracy came to be discredited in conservative evangelical circles as it was seen as inconsistent with world events, especially the rise of Nazi Germany. [36] In 2020, pro-Trump campaigner Mary Ann Mendoza was removed from the schedule of the Republican National Convention after she retweeted a thread asserting a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. [19] In 2021, it was reported that almost half of QAnon followers believed that there is a Jewish plot to take over the world. [37]

See also

Related Research Articles

Antisemitism has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians; Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world; resentment over Jewish nationalism; the rise of Arab nationalism; and the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.

A number of organizations and academics consider the Nation of Islam (NOI) to be antisemitic. The NOI has engaged in Holocaust denial, and exaggerates the role of Jews in the African slave trade; mainstream historians, such as Saul S. Friedman, have said Jews had a negligible role. The NOI has repeatedly rejected charges made against it as false and politically motivated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zionist Occupation Government conspiracy theory</span> Antisemitic conspiracy theory

The Zionist occupation government, Zionist occupational government or Zionist-occupied government (ZOG), sometimes also referred to as the Jewish occupational government (JOG), is an antisemitic conspiracy theory claiming Jews secretly control the governments of Western states. It is a contemporary variation on the centuries-old belief in an international Jewish conspiracy. According to believers, a secret Zionist organization is actively controlling international banks, and through them governments, in order to collude against white, Christian, or Islamic interests.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hermann Goedsche</span> German writer

Hermann Ottomar Friedrich Goedsche, also known by his pseudonym Sir John Retcliffe, was a German government employee and author who is remembered mainly for his antisemitism.

Antisemitism in Japan has developed over the years despite the presence of a relatively small and obscure Jewish population. Japan had no traditional antisemitism until nationalist ideology and propaganda began to spread on the eve of World War II. Before and during the war, Nazi Germany, an ally to the Japanese, encouraged Japan to adopt antisemitic policies. In the post-war period, extremist groups and ideologues have promoted conspiracy theories.

Hadassa Ben-Itto was an Israeli author and jurist. She was best known for her bestselling book The Lie That Wouldn't Die: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

Jewish Bolshevism, also Judeo–Bolshevism, is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was a Jewish plot and that Jews controlled the Soviet Union and international communist movements, often in furtherance of a plan to destroy Western civilization. It was one of the main Nazi beliefs that served as an ideological justification for the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the Holocaust.

Antisemitic tropes or antisemitic canards are "sensational reports, misrepresentations, or fabrications" that are defamatory towards Judaism as a religion or defamatory towards Jews as an ethnic or religious group. Since the Middle Ages, such reports have been a recurring motif of broader antisemitic conspiracy theories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory</span> Anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theory

The Judeo-Masonic conspiracy is an antisemitic and anti-Masonic conspiracy theory involving an alleged secret coalition of Jews and Freemasons. These theories were popular on the far-right, particularly in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Russia, Serbia, Eastern Europe, and Japan, with similar allegations still being published.

<i>The Protocols of the Elders of Zion</i> 1903 antisemitic fabricated text first published in Russia

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, or The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion, is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multiple languages, and disseminated internationally in the early part of the 20th century. It played a key part in popularizing belief in an international Jewish conspiracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-Zionism</span> Opposition to Jewish ethnonationalism

Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way. Anti-Zionism includes, for example, criticism of the current policies of the state of Israel as well as moral, ethical, or religious criticism of the idea of a Jewish nation-state, in contrast to a secular state.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is a fabricated antisemitic text purporting to describe a Jewish plan to achieve global domination. The text was fabricated in the Russian Empire, and was first published in 1903. While there is continued popularity of The Protocols in nations from South America to Asia, since the defeat of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan in World War II, governments or political leaders in most parts of the world have generally avoided claims that The Protocols represent factual evidence of a real Jewish conspiracy. The exception to this is the Middle East, where a large number of Arab and Muslim regimes and leaders have endorsed them as authentic. Past endorsements of The Protocols from Presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Iraqi President Arif, King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, and Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, among other political and intellectual leaders of the Arab world, are echoed by 21st century endorsements from the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Ekrima Sa'id Sabri, and Hamas, to the education ministry of Saudi Arabia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Racism in the State of Palestine</span> Discussion of racism

Racism in the Palestinian territories encompasses all forms and manifestations of racism experienced in the Palestinian Territories, of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, irrespective of the religion, colour, creed, or ethnic origin of the perpetrator and victim, or their citizenship, residency, or visitor status. It may refer to Jewish settler attitudes regarding Palestinians as well as Palestinian attitudes to Jews and the settlement enterprise undertaken in their name.

<i>Mein Kampf</i> in Arabic

Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler's 900-page autobiography outlining his political views, has been translated into Arabic a number of times since the early 1930s.

Antisemitism in Russia is expressed in acts of hostility against Jews in Russia and the promotion of antisemitic views in the Russian Federation. This article covers the events since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Previous time periods are covered in the articles Antisemitism in the Russian Empire and Antisemitism in the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany</span>

Comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany occur frequently in some veins of anti-Zionism in relation to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The legitimacy of these comparisons and their potential antisemitic nature is a matter of debate. Historically, figures like Arnold J. Toynbee have drawn parallels between Zionism and Nazism, a stance he maintained despite criticism. Scholar David Feldman suggests these comparisons are often rhetorical tools without specific antisemitic intent. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sees them as diminishing the Holocaust's significance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitler's prophecy</span> Adolf Hitlers speech on 30 January 1939

During a speech at the Reichstag on 30 January 1939, Adolf Hitler threatened "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe" in the event of war:

If international finance Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, the result will be not the Bolshevization of the earth and thereby the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe.

<i>Parole der Woche</i> Nazi propaganda wall newspaper

Parole der Woche was a wall newspaper published by the Reichspropagandaleitung der NSDAP from 1937 to 1943. Historian Jeffrey Herf describes Parole der Woche as "the most ubiquitous and intrusive aspect of Nazism's visual offensive ... no form of Nazi visual propaganda made so crucial a contribution to the regime's presentation of ongoing events".

The claim that there was a Jewish war against Nazi Germany is an antisemitic conspiracy theory promoted in Nazi propaganda which asserts that the Jews, framed within the theory as a single historical actor, started World War II and sought the destruction of Germany. Alleging that war was declared in 1939 by Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, Nazis used this false notion to justify the persecution of Jews under German control on the grounds that the Holocaust was justified self-defense. Since the end of World War II, the conspiracy theory has been popular among neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers.

Anti-antisemitism is opposition to antisemitism or prejudice against Jews, and just like the history of antisemitism, the history of anti-antisemitism is long and multifaceted. According to historian Omer Bartov, political controversies around antisemitism involve "those who see the world through an antisemitic prism, for whom everything that has gone wrong with the world, or with their personal lives, is the fault of the Jews; and those who see the world through an anti-antisemitic prism, for whom every critical observation of Jews as individuals or as a community, or, most crucially, of the state of Israel, is inherently antisemitic". It is disputed whether or not anti-antisemitism is synonymous with philosemitism, but anti-antisemitism often includes the "imaginary and symbolic idealization of ‘the Jew’" which is similar to philosemitism.

References

  1. 1 2 Konda 2019, p. 67.
  2. 1 2 Bangerter et al. 2020, p. 206.
  3. ↑ Jay, Martin. "Dialectic of Counter-Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School as Scapegoat of the Lunatic Fringe". Salmagundi Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 November 2011.
  4. ↑ Rathje 2021, pp. 54–56.
  5. 1 2 Rathje 2021, p. 56.
  6. ↑ Balakirsky Katz, Maya (2 January 2021). "Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Antonio Gramsci, and the Myth of Niccolò Machiavelli". East European Jewish Affairs. 51 (1): 18–35. doi:10.1080/13501674.2021.1952024. ISSN   1350-1674. S2CID   238861172.
  7. 1 2 "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". encyclopedia.ushmm.org. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  8. ↑ "A Hoax of Hate: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
  9. ↑ Konda 2019, pp. 51, 67.
  10. ↑ Rathje 2021, pp. 46, 64–65.
  11. ↑ Poli, Barbara De (2014). "The Judeo-Masonic Conspiracy: The Path from the Cemetery of Prague to Arab Anti-Zionist Propaganda". Conspiracy Theories in the United States and the Middle East. De Gruyter. ISBN   978-3-11-033827-0.
  12. ↑ Achcar, Gilbert (2011). "Assessing Holocaust Denial in Western and Arab Contexts" (PDF). Journal of Palestine Studies . 41 (1): 82–95 [85]. doi:10.1525/jps.2011.XLI.1.82.
  13. ↑ Cohen-Almagor, Raphael (2009–2010). "Holocaust Denial is a Form of Hate Speech". Amsterdam Law Forum. 2: 33. doi: 10.37974/ALF.96 .
  14. ↑ Swain, Carol (2003). Contemporary voices of white nationalism in America. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. p.  253. ISBN   0521816734.
  15. ↑ Issitt, Micah; Main, Carlyn (16 September 2014). Hidden Religion: The Greatest Mysteries and Symbols of the World's Religious Beliefs. ABC-CLIO. pp. 31–32. ISBN   9781610694780.
  16. ↑ Davis, Bob (14 May 2014). "Is China Anti-Semitic? One Jew's Reflections". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  17. ↑ McGregor, Richard (25 September 2007). "Chinese buy into conspiracy theory". Financial Times . Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  18. ↑ Keating, Joshua. "The World's Most Persistent Conspiracy Theories". Foreign Policy . Retrieved 9 January 2023.
  19. 1 2 Whitfield, Stephen (2 September 2020). "Why the 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion' is still pushed by anti-Semites more than a century after hoax first circulated". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  20. ↑ Schwonek, Matthew R. (2006). "Review of The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945; Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The Exodus of Poles and Balts to Britain". The Russian Review. 65 (2): 335–337. ISSN   0036-0341. JSTOR   3664431.
  21. ↑ Stackelberg, Roderick; Kellogg, Michael (2006). "Reviewed Works: The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Émigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917–1945 by Michael Kellogg; Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The Exodus of Poles and Balts to Britain by Thomas Lane". The American Historical Review. 111 (5): 1618–1619. doi:10.1086/ahr.111.5.1618. ISSN   0002-8762. JSTOR   10.1086/ahr.111.5.1618.
  22. ↑ Herf 2006, pp. 9–10.
  23. ↑ Herf 2006, p. 2.
  24. ↑ Herf 2006, p. 7.
  25. 1 2 Herf 2006, p. 8.
  26. ↑ Herf 2006, p. 10.
  27. ↑ Longerich, Peter (2012). "19: An Ideological War of Annihilation". Heinrich Himmler. New York, USA: Oxford University Press. pp. 529, 530. ISBN   978-0-19-959232-6.
  28. ↑ Herf 2006, p. 37.
  29. ↑ "Former Asian leader won't stop claiming Jews 'rule the world'". Washington Post. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  30. ↑ Baer 2013, p. 523.
  31. ↑ Konda 2019, p. 50.
  32. ↑ Ariel 2013, p. 146.
  33. ↑ Ariel 2013, p. 147.
  34. ↑ Ariel 2013, pp. 142–143.
  35. ↑ Ariel 2013, p. 148.
  36. ↑ Ariel 2013, p. 150.
  37. ↑ "Nearly half of QAnon followers believe Jews are plotting to rule the world". Newsweek. 28 June 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.

Sources

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.