Abstract
In: Jahrbuch für Historische Kommunismusforschung 2017. Berlin: Metropol Verlag, pp. 201–215.
The Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg played a decisive role in conveying to Adolf Hitler the image of the Russian Revolution as a Jewish affair. Rosenberg in his writings (e.g., the introduction to Dietrich Eckart's 1921 pamphlet The Grave of Russia or his 1922 brochure on Fighting the Plague of Bolshevism in Russia among Its Leaders, Activists, and Victims) described the upheaval as a “Judeo-Bolshevik Revolution.” On the one hand, Rosenberg wanted to expose the Jewish influence on revolutionary events; on the other hand, he highlighted the brutality and cruelty of the revolution for his contemporaries. For him, the anti-Semitic image of the enemy and the anti-Bolshevik image of the enemy were two sides of the same coin. This was Rosenberg’s mantra, which he repeated throughout his time in power. In 1934, Rosenberg said at the Nazi Party Congress: “In essence, Bolshevism is the Jewish form of World Revolution.” He who overcame the Soviet subhumans also at the same time defeated the Jewish world enemy. Both Hitler and Rosenberg shared this conviction. It ultimately led to the war of racial extermination in the East.
Über den Autor
Ernst Piper, apl. Prof. Dr., geb. 1952 in München. 1972 bis 1981 Studium der Geschichte, Philosophie und Germanistik, 1981 Promotion in Mittelalterlicher Geschichte an der TU Berlin, 2006 Habilitation in Neuerer Geschichte an der Universität Potsdam. Autor einer großen Zahl von Veröffentlichungen, vor allem zur Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Zuletzt erschienen: 1945. Niederlage und Neubeginn, Köln 2015; Das Zeitalter der Weltkriege, Köln 2014; Nacht über Europa. Kulturgeschichte des Ersten Weltkriegs, Berlin 2013; Nationalsozialismus. Seine Geschichte von 1919 bis heute, Münster 2012; Savonarola. Prophet der Diktatur Gottes, München 2009.