The Anti-Komintern and nazi anti-Bolshevik propaganda in the 1930s

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 42, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 573-594

  Waddington, Lorna L ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 51249148816     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0022009407081488     Document Type: Review

References (61)

1. A. Hitler, Mein Kampf (Munich 1942), 202
2. W. Laqueur, Russia and Germany: A Century of Conflict (London 1965), 176
3. H.-A. Jacobsen, Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik, 1933-1938 (Frankfurt am Main 1968), 454
4. There is a further brief survey of the Anti-Komintern's work in J. Sywottek, Mobilmachung für den totalen Krieg. Die propagandistische Vorbereitung der deutschen Bevölkerung auf den Zweiten Weltkrieg (Hamburg 1976), 104-6
5. For the Anti-Komintern's growing concentration on anti-Semitic propaganda in 1941, see L.L. Waddington, Hitler's Crusade. Bolshevism and the Myth of the International Jewish Conspiracy (London 2007), 179-80, 192-3
6. G.L. Weinberg, The Foreign Policy of Hitler's Germany, vol. 1, Diplomatic Revolution in Europe, 1933-36 (Chicago 1970), 27
7. On these developments see G. Stoakes, Hitler and the Quest for World Dominion (Leamington Spa 1986), 64ff
8. Also useful are K.-U. Merz, Das Schreckbild. Deutschland und der Bolschewismus 1917 bis 1921 (Berlin 1995), especially chaps 20-22
9. and, more recently, M. Kellogg, The Russian Roots of Nazism: White Emigrés and the Making of National Socialism, 1917-1945 (Cambridge 2005)
10. F. Genoud (ed.), trans. R.H. Stevens, intro. H.R. Trevor-Roper, The Testament of Adolf Hitler. The Hitler-Bormann Documents February-April 1945 (London 1959), 34
11. NA, GFM34/1265, Goebbels circular, 8 December 1936
12. BBL, NS43/17, Rosenberg to Schwarz, 16 January 1935
13. See A. Ehrt, Ein deutscher Todesweg (Berlin 1930)
14. A. Ehrt and J. Schweickert, Entfesselung der Unterwelt. Ein Querschnitt durch die Bolschewisierung Deutschlands (Berlin 1932)
15. A. Ehrt, Totale Krise - Totale Revolution? Die 'Schwarze Front' des völkischen Nationalismus (Berlin 1933)
16. Terror: Die Blutchronik des Marxismus in Deutschland. Auf Grund amtlichen Materials bearbeitet von Adolf Ehrt und Hans Rosen (Berlin 1934)
17. A. Ehrt, La Terreur Rouge: La Révolte Armée. Révélations sur l'organisation bolcheviste en Russie, en Allemagne et en France. Introduction et conclusion de Nicolas Delile (Paris 1934)
18. A. Ehrt, Bewaffneter Aufstand! Enthüllungen über den kommunistischen Umsturzversuch am Vorabend der nationalen Revolution (Berlin 1933), 185
19. Jacobsen, Nationalsozialistische Aussenpolitik, op. cit., 453
20. BBL, NS43/18, memorandum by Reischauer, 'Tätigkeitsbericht Referat II', 28 February 1935
21. NA, GFM34/458, German Embassy Warsaw to AA, 16 June 1936
22. National Archives, Maryland [hereafter NARA], T85/406, memorandum by Maass, 'Bericht über Reise nach Polen vom 2 bis 5 September 1934'
23. PAB, R31832, Renthe-Fink to AA, 25 March 1936
24. BBL, NS43/18, Gielen to Leibbrandt, 5 November 1935
25. BBL, R431/509, Aubert to Avenol, 13 June 1934. The following year Aubert founded the International Anti-Marxist Institute, also based in Geneva, the inauguration of which was attended in a private capacity by Alfred Gielen, a senior functionary of the Anti-Komintern. It was noted at the time by the German Consulate in Geneva that Aubert, who had originally concentrated his attacks on the Bolshevik system of government in the USSR, had more recently shifted his attention to 'the more general theme of the fight against international Marxism'. PAB, R31831, Truetzschler to AA, 13 June 1935
26. Taubert MSS, fol. 17
27. Hoover Archives, Stanford University [hereafter Hoover], GDAV, box 177, Belgium, report by Gielen of a visit to Brussels, 31 October 1936. For Degrelle's conversation with Goebbels on 9 October 1936 see J. Goebbels, Die Tagebücher von Joseph Goebbels. Im Auftrag des Instituts für Zeitgeschichte und mit Unterstützung des Staatlichen Archivdienstes Russlands, Teil I, Aufzeichnungen 1923-1941. 9 Bde, Hrsg. E. Fröhlich et al. (Munich 1998-2003), I/3/ii, 10 October 1936
28. BBL, NS43/18, report by Kommoss, 'Tätigkeitsbericht der Presseabteilung der Anti-Komintern, März 1936'
29. PAB, R31832, Bergen to AA, 30 April 1936
30. Nils von Bahr, a Swedish journalist living in Germany, had contributed a piece on Sweden's fight against Bolshevism to Der Weltbolschewismus and had assisted Ehrt with the running of the Feldafing conference. During the initial stages of the second world war he ran a German propaganda news agency in Stockholm called 'Skandiapress'. Immediately after the German defeat at Stalingrad he resurrected an unlikely scheme, first mooted in 1942, for a rapid post-war reconciliation between Germany and the West in order that together they might yet confront Russia. See Hoover, Deutsche Kongress Zentrale [hereafter DKZ] 16/AK, 'Wer ist Kapitän Nils von Bahr?'; PRO, FO188/402, Tennant to Rabagliati, 7 January 1943
31. Taubert MSS, fol. 12
32. H. Michels, Ideologie und Propaganda. Die Rolle von Joseph Goebbels in der national-sozialistischen Außenpolitik bis 1939 (Frankfurt am Main 1992), 268
33. Hoover, GDAV, box 190, 'Die Tätigkeit der Anti-Komintern in Spanien während des Bürgerkriegs', undated. Internal evidence suggests after March 1939
34. Rotbuch über Spanien: Bilder, Dokumente. Zeugenaussagen. Gesammelt und herausgegeben von der Anti-Komintern (Berlin 1937)
35. BBL, R43II/1492a, DNB Nacht-Ausgabe, 21 June 1937
36. Hoover, GDAV, box 190, 'Die Tätigkeit der Anti-Komintern in Spanien während des Bürgerkrieges', undated. Internal evidence suggests after March 1939
37. On the Rotbuch see also H.R. Southworth, Conspiracy and the Spanish Civil War. The Brainwashing of Francisco Franco (London 2002), 11
38. Taubert MSS, fol. 11
39. On the role of the Comintern during the Spanish Civil War see S.G. Payne, The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union and Communism (New Haven and London 2004) passim, and T. Rees, 'The Highpoint of Comintern Influence? The Communist Party and the Civil War in Spain', in T. Rees and A. Thorpe (eds), International Communism and the Communist International, 1919-43 (Manchester 1998), 143-67
40. H. Graham, The Spanish Republic at War (Cambridge 2002), 60
41. On these issues see S. Pons, Stalin and the Inevitable War 1936-1941 (London 2002), 42ff
42. B. Lazitch, 'Stalin's Massacre of the Foreign Communist Leaders', in M.M. Drachkovitch and B. Lazitch (eds), The Comintern: Historical Highlights. Essays, Recollections, Documents (New York 1966), 172
43. On the fate of the Comintern during the purges see W.J. Chase, Enemies Within the Gates? The Comintern and Stalinist Repression, 1934-1939 (New Haven 2001)
44. K. McDermott and J. Agnew, The Comintern. A History of International Communism from Lenin to Stalin (London 1996), 142ff
45. K. McDermott, 'Stalinist Terror in the Comintern', Journal of Contemporary History, 30 (1995), 111-30. In early February 1937 Stalin declared chillingly to Dimitrov: 'All of you there in the Comintern are playing right into the enemy's hands.'
46. See I. Banac (ed.), The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949 (New Haven 2003), 11 February 1937, 52. In the wake of the worst of the purges the German Embassy in Moscow was quick to point out both the scale of the decimation wrought within the senior ranks of the Comintern and, in consequence, the impact on the organization's effectiveness, which was nowhere more apparent than in its lacklustre performance during the celebrations to mark the twenty-first anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution in October-November 1938. See NARA, T84/404, Schulenburg to AA, 19 November 1938, and Hoover, GDAV, box 197, von Dippelskirch [sic] to AA, 28 January 1939
47. Hoover, GDAV, box 178, 'Kommunistischer Umsturzplan für Südamerika', AKND, 1 December 1937. The other articles can be found in the AKND issues for June and August
48. Hoover, GDAV, box 178, unsigned memorandum, 21 June 1937
49. Hoover, GDAV, box 178, AKND, 1 June 1937
50. J. Henke, England in Hitlers politischem Kalkül 1935-39 (Boppard am Rhein 1973), 99
51. K. Vietz, Verrat an Europa. Ein Rotbuch über die Bolschewisierung der Tschecho-Slowakei. Herausgegeben von der Anti-Komintern (Berlin 1938)
52. See, for example, A. Gielen et al., Denkschrift über die Einmischung des Bolschewismus und der Demokratien in Spanien. Ausgewähltes Material und typische Beispiele. Zusammengestellt von der Anti-Komintern (Berlin 1939)
53. O. Kriegk, Wer treibt England in den Krieg? Die Kriegshetzer Duff Cooper, Eden, Churchill und ihr Einfluss auf die englische Politik. Herausgegeben von der Anti-Komintern (Berlin 1939)
54. On the impact of the nazi-Soviet pact on the Anti-Komintern see J. Herf, The Jewish Enemy. Nazi Propaganda during World War Two and the Holocaust (Cambridge, MA, 2006), 27
55. For indications of the Anti-Komintern's activities after the signature of the German-Soviet non-aggression pact see Hoover, GDAV, box 184, 'Bericht unseres Vertrauensmannes in Ungarn, 29 August 1939'
56. NARA, T84/404, 'Sowjetunion und Weltrevolution. Die politische Haltung der Sowjet-, bzw. Kominternpresse seit dem Abschluss des deutsch-russischen Nichtangriffpaktes', 11 December 1939. Relevant telegrams from the German Embassy in Moscow also appear to have been forwarded by the Wilhelmstrasse to the Anti-Komintern's offices
57. See Hoover, GDAV, box 186, Schulenburg to the AA, 21 November 1939, reporting prevailing attitudes in the Soviet 'Youth International'
58. NARA, T84/405, extracts from 'Volk en Staat', 5 January 1940, and Gaceta del Norte, 23 December 1939
59. BBL, NS19/1174, memorandum by Loew-Albrecht, 'Neue Wege der Anti-Komintern-Arbeit', 3 November 1939, under cover of a letter from the Oberbürgermeister of Stuttgart to Himmler, 10 November 1939
60. See, for example, M. Muggeridge (ed.), Ciano's Diplomatic Papers, trans. S. Hood (London 1948), 58
61. I. Kershaw, Hitler. Nemesis 1936-1945 (London 2000), 12