A few remarks not only on big Nazi-lies

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), May 1, 2007 at 17:22

Dr. Pipes writes :

> Fishman's answer revisits World War I, which is not a surprise, as post-cold war analysts increasingly recognize the extent to which Europe lives still under the shadow of that disaster,

I am not so sure what was more disasterous - the war itself, or the Entente victory .

> Fishman begins by noting the topsy-turvy situation whereby Israel is perceived as a dangerous predator as it defends its citizens against terrorism, conventional warfare, and weapons of mass destruction. A 2003 survey, for instance, found Europeans seeing Israel as "the greatest threat" to world peace. How did this insane inversion of reality – the Middle East's only fully free and democratic country seen as the leading global menace – come to be?

With c. 20 000 000 Moslem colonizers and silent invaders in Europe and who knows how many native Europe-haters one can't be amazed about why anti-semitism is so "successful" in Europe.

> Back then, the British government first exploited advances in mass media and advertising to target both the enemy's and its own civilian populations, hoping to shape their thinking.

The USA mustn't be forgotten though . On the contrary , it did assume a leading role in the war time big lie propaganda . The notorious "Committee on Public Information" created by Wilson five days after America had declared war on Germany conducted an ingenious mass campaign to denigrate and demonize Kaiser Germany . Its success was impressive and perhaps even greater than that by the British official propaganda department at Crewe House under Lord Northcliffethe . To mention just a few American "masterpieces" of that time : "The Kaiser : The Beast of Berlin", "Wolves of Kultur" , "Pershing's Crusaders" , " , "To Hell With The Kaiser" or "Home or Hun" . Mass censorship and intimidation was introduced , skeptics were shouted down , denounced or jailed . An American Jewish film director (Robert Goldstein) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the movie "The Spirit of 76" , where he dared present the good Brits as not so good at all . The fact that he had produced the movie before 1917 didn't help him at all. Nor did the First Amendment . As one analyst put it : " It is fascinating that this phenomenon, often linked with totalitarian regimes, emerged in a democratic state".

> The Central Powers' publics heard messages designed to undermine support for their governments,

Alas , one has to view in that context the famous Balfour Declaration of 2.11.1917 which was not only designed to attract to the entente Cause the Jews in America and in Russia whose support Lenin was so eager to exploit. 100 000 German Jews fighting faithfully on the German side and millions of Jews in the German-occupied territories benefited from the Kaiser German pro-Jewish policy at that time , were also obviously targeted. I think that the Germans never forgot and forgave that .

> while Entente publics were fed news reports about atrocities, some of them false. Notably, the British authorities claimed that Imperial Germany had a "Corpse Conversion Factory" (Kadaververwerkungsanstalt), that plundered enemy dead soldiers' bodies to produce soap and other products. After the war's conclusion, when the British learned the truth, these lies left a residue of what Fishman calls "skepticism, betrayal, and a mood of postwar nihilism."

> This British disinformation campaign had two disastrous implications for World War II. First, it prompted the Allied public to be skeptical concerning German atrocities against Jews, which bore a close resemblance to the imaginary horrors the British had disseminated, so that reports from Nazi-occupied territories were regularly discounted. (This explains why Dwight D. Eisenhower arranged for visits to the concentration camps immediately upon their liberation, to witness and document their reality.)

A. Ponsonby's , " Falsehood in wartime" published in 1928 , one of the most fundamental analyses of propaganda in world war I , confirms this brilliantly :

"It must be admitted that many people were conscious and willing dupes. But many more were unconscious and were sincere in their patriotic zeal. Finding now that elaborately and carefully staged deceptions were practised on them, they feel a resentment which has not only served to open their eyes but may induce them to make their children keep their eyes open when next the bugle sounds."

http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050824i/ponsonby.html#into

> Second, Hitler admiringly noted the British precedent in his book, Mein Kampf (1925): "At first the claims of the [British] propaganda were so impudent that people thought it insane; later, it got on people's nerves; and in the end, it was believed."

It seems worthwhile to complete the quotation though : "After four and a half years a revolution erupted in Germany whose slogans came from the enemy war propaganda". (A.Hitler , Mein Kampf , p.203-204 , Munich 1935 )

Besides , Hitler speaks of propaganda of both the British and the Americans. He admires both .

> A decade later, this admiration translated into the Nazi "Big Lie" that turned reality on its head, making Jews into persecutors and Germans into victims. A vast propaganda machine then drummed these lies into the German-speakers' psyche, with great success.

As Hitler remarked before : "I have learnt infinitely much from this enemy propaganda". (ibidem, p. 193-194)

> Such groundwork proved its value after Israel's historic victory in the Six Day War of 1967, a humiliating defeat for both the Soviet Union and its Arab allies. The subsequent Soviet-Arab propaganda campaign denied Israel the right to defend itself and inverted reality by relentlessly accusing it of aggression.

Even if the above is true , it is only partly true . Accusing the Soviet Union of doctrinal anti-semitism sounds rather unconvincing , if not unjust . I could quote tens , if not hundreds of examples , which prove the contrary . On the 25 of July 1918 the Soviet of People's Comissars issued a decree "On fighting anti-semitism" where it read : "antisemtic movement and anti-Jewish pogroms are the undoing of the cause of workers' and peasants' revolution" or Lenin's slogan "Antisemitism equals Counterrevolution". Both were treated as capital crimes in Soviet Russia. I can't recall any country where at that time fighting anti-semitism was declared part of the official policy. Of course , it's true that Stalin persecuted the Soviet Jews too. But Stalin made no exceptions. For him it was only absolute power that counted , not being a German or a Jew.

It was the Soviet Union that stood firmly behind the emergence of Israel in 1948 and for a long time supported it. Surely, it was not dictated by any doctrinal philosemitism ( a phenomenon equally unknown to America ) but by hope to have an ally in the struggle for world domination. As it became clear that Israel stands on America's side , the Soviet Union had few choices left . It attacked the friend of its enemy. But this change was dictated by power politics , not inborn anti-semitism in Khrushtschov or Brezhnev. It makes it so different from Moslem-Nazi anti-semitism.

> Precisely as Hitler had analyzed in Mein Kampf, if these impudent claims were at first thought insane, in the end they were believed.

> Today's political madness, in other words, is directly linked to yesterday's.

How true, Dr. Pipes ! If politicians and influential leaders in democracies had known history better , this world would most probably not suffer so much from re-vitalized past political madnesses.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".