Abstract: “Jewry” was conceived as controlling both Soviet communism and Western plutocracy. This fact provided an explanation for why two such seemingly distinct systems “stuck together through thick and thin.”

England's decision to ally with the Soviet Union was “a new piece of evidence of the absolute identity of plutocracy and Bolshevism.” The oft-posed question: how was it possible that very wealthy English plutocrats and the moneybag dynasties of America were going hand in hand with the (supposedly) anti-capitalist Soviet power holders? For Moscow's victory would mean the end of these wealthy people and strata.

Nazi propaganda addressed this paradox: "Plutocracy and Bolshevism have one master, the Jews! The answer to this question (why the Soviets, British, and Americans were allied) was found in the idea that both plutocracy and Bolshevism were led by a power whose representatives shape the fate of the people in the same way in all three countries and subject them to its will. This power is international Jewry."

Jeffrey Herf is professor of Modern European History at the University of Maryland. The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the Holocaust   Publisher: Harvard U. Press Author: Jeffrey Herf For information on purchasing this book through Amazon, click here.

As of 1917, roughly 1,000, or about 5%, of the 23,000 members of the Bolshevik party were Jewish. The party census of 1922 showed 19,564 Jewish members, 5.21 percent of the total.

By 1927, the 49,627 Jewish members comprised 4.34 percent of all party members. Pinkus estimated the percentage of Jewish members of the party in 1940 at 4.3 percent or less. Herf concludes that Nazi propaganda about Jewish domination of the Soviet regime had no basis in reality. “It was a complete fantasy.”

“Jewry,” in short, was conceived as controlling both Soviet communism and Western plutocracy. This fact provided an explanation for why two such seemingly distinct systems “stuck together through thick and thin.” Both “hated a single enemy,” Nazi Germany and its emerging Volksgemeinschaft.

England's decision to ally with the Soviet Union was “a new piece of evidence of the absolute identity of plutocracy and Bolshevism.” Speakers needed to answer the “oft-posed question:" how was it possible that very wealthy English plutocrats and the moneybag dynasties of America were going hand in hand with the (supposedly) anti-capitalist Soviet power holders--for Moscow's victory would mean the end of these wealthy people and strata.

Nazi propaganda directly addressed this central paradox with the assertion:

Plutocracy and Bolshevism have one master, the Jews! The answer to this question (why the Soviets, British, and Americans were allied) is found in the idea that both plutocracy and Bolshevism are led by a power whose representatives shape the fate of the people in the same way in all three countries and subject them to its will. That power is international Jewry.

Herf tells us that the pace at which anti-Semitic messages appeared in Word of the Week wall newspapers series quickened. An edition of fall 1941, “The Jews Wanted the War,” focused on England and the Jews. This edition conveyed to the reader or viewer the idea that “world Jewry” was, through its proxies, conducting the war against Germany. Therefore, Germany would conduct a war against Jewry until it was “exterminated:”

In order to subject the world to domination by Jewish money and blood, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin, as instruments of world Jewry, have opted for war. They have received war in return! The German army has already delivered decisive blows against its enemies and will not rest until it has achieved final victory and the Jew has been exterminated.

Now the richly deserved fate of Jewry will be pitilessly realized. It will perish per its own law, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” along with those who do its business. Mr. Churchill belongs in the family tree!