In December 1938, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet told German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop of a French plan to deport 10,000 Jews to Madagascar, a French colony. After the defeat of France in June 1940, the idea was taken up by the German Foreign Office. On July 3, 1940, Franz Rademacher, an official in… Continue reading “Britain’s Refugee Policy Is a Fantasy of Fear”
In the latest of the series looking at ‘icon’s of the radical right, Senior Fellow Chris Webb takes a look at the life and murderous career of Reinhard Heydrich – mastermind of the Holocaust. Reinhardt Heydrich was born in Halle, Germany, a provincial town in Prussian Saxony, on 7 March 1904. He was the son… Continue reading “The Psychology of a Fascist Leader: Hitler’s ‘Blond Beast’ Reinhard Heydrich”
Operation Paperclip has fueled neo-Nazi conspiracy theories regarding the CIA, espionage, and government smokescreens for decades. Operation Paperclip is the historical inspiration behind Hunters, a television series on Amazon Prime, depicting a ragtag band of Nazi hunters operating in New York in 1977, who discover that hundreds of Nazi war criminals are conspiring to establish… Continue reading “False flags, paperclips, and super spies: the secret Nazi origins of the CIA”
Dawid Sierakowiak recorded in his diary that at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, on September 4, 1942, Chaim Rumkowski, the Chairman of the Jewish Council of Elders, and Warszawski, the head of many factories, spoke at 13 Lutomierska Street in the Łódź Ghetto, Poland. They said: ‘Sacrificing the children and the elderly is necessary, since… Continue reading “Chaim Rumkowski – Give Me Your Children Speech”
In the latest of a series looking at eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust, CARR Senior Fellow, Mr Chris Webb presents David Sierakowiak’s account of the Lodz Ghetto, describing the horrific conditions under Nazi occupation and Chaim Rumkowski’s leadership. Dawid Sierakowiak was born in Lodz on July 25, 1924, and graduated from the Lodz Ghetto’s Gymnasium… Continue reading “David Sierakowiak’s Lodz Ghetto Diary”
One. Every second article written about fascism starts by complaining that there is no consensus about what fascism is, then agrees with Roger Griffin’s definition of fascism as an ideology of national regeneration before going on to prove, once again, that fascism involved an ideology of national regeneration. Two. Scholars stubbornly refuse to separate… Continue reading “Ten Things I Hate About Fascism Studies”
During the Second World War, the Sonderkommando [Special Working Group] was forced by Auschwitz-Birkenau’s SS commandantur to carry out the ghastly work at the gas chambers. This included leading the victims to their deaths, often unsuspectingly, and afterwards burning the bodies of those gassed on pyres, at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. A crematoria was established… Continue reading “75th commemoration of the Sonderkommando Revolt at Auschwitz–Birkenau”
A key under-studied area for analysis is how contemporary extreme right movements can also be seen as totalitarian. Indeed, it is not difficult to find examples of such. According to an old joke, while in a liberal democracy everything that is not forbidden is allowed, in a totalitarian system everything that has not been banned… Continue reading “Totalitarianism in the twentieth century and beyond”
This August 2019 CARR blogpost follows the account of Stanislaw-Shulem Kon who was born in 1909 in Praszka, near Lodz, a city in which he resided until 1939. As a Polish soldier he fought during the September 1939 Polish campaign. He returned to Lodz and from there in March 1940, together with his wife and… Continue reading “The Eyewitness Account of Stanislaw Kon and Treblinka Death Camp Uprising – 2 August 1943”
The creation of new symbols and rituals to evoke belief in a higher cause are central to the concept, ‘political religion’, prevalent in fascism studies for at least two decades. ‘I’m beginning to comprehend, I think, some of the reasons for Hitler’s astounding success. Borrowing a chapter from the Roman church, he is restoring pageantry… Continue reading “Political religions and fascism”
