[Marxism] Re: The Anti-Deutscherites

["Paul Flewers" <trusscott.foundation@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Perhaps the 'Anti-Deutscher' phenomenon can be seen as taking the old
anti-militarist slogan 'the enemy is at home' rather too far!

Seriously, however, it may be worth looking at the exiled SPD leaders in
Britain during the Second World War. I read some years back a book on the
German exiles in Britain -- I can't remember the title or author at the
moment -- and certain leading SPDers became outright anti-German, that is,
going beyond an anti-Nazi line to one considering that the German nation was
beyond redemption. They therefore became full supporters of the
Anglo-American total war against Germany.

With these people, the question of a class response to Nazism and
imperialist war went right out of the window. Certain German socialist
exiles in Britain had therefore adopted the position of the anti-German
faction of the British bourgeoisie that I described in an earlier post.

It should also not be forgotten that the German Stalinists adopted the line
of German war-guilt, saying that all Germans were responsible for Hitler, a
libel against those who did fight against the Nazi threat, and also, by
blaming all Germans, helping to obscure the Stalinists' own stupidities in
the early 1930s that undermined a united working-class response to Hitler.

I hope to go to a college library this afternoon to do a bit of research; if
I find the book I recall seeing years back, I'll note it and give the
reference in a post tomorrow.

Finally, one may also draw a parallel between the 'Anti-Deutscher' people
and Jewish anti-Zionists such as Paul Eisen who have taken their disgust
with Zionist practices so far as to become actually anti-Jewish, taking on
board the rationale and clichés of classic anti-Semitism, and hanging about
with Holocaust deniers.

Paul F



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