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How do fascists reason that communism is a Jewish conspiracy?

To me general fascist / white nationalist rhetorical strategy seems like a complete refusal of approaching communism on its own terms. In my experience reading their rhetoric online, most white nationalists and fascists absolutely refuse to criticize their opponents by using the terms and ideas employed by their opponents. Instead they merely reverse psychologize counter arguments, while bastardizing concepts like genocide, ethnic cleansing, and Zionism.

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    You should lookup bios of first bolshevik government - those who made 1917 revolution in Russia. Most of them were Jews. This is just historical fact.
    – lowtech
    Jun 15, 2016 at 20:24
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    This comment isn't helpful for reasons I've already identified elsewhere, but you're conflating Jewish ancestry with an active identification with Judaism. Not to mention Bolshevism is totally intolerant of organized religion. Trotsky, Lenin, and Stalin were professed atheists.
    – Kyle
    Jun 15, 2016 at 21:54
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    My comment is exact answer to your question. antisemitic leaders in europe used the fact in their anticommunism and antimarxism propaganda: most of russian revolutionary leaders being born in jewish families. Religion didn't play any role in propaganda rationale - it was sufficient to mention the person being a jewish by birth.
    – lowtech
    Jun 16, 2016 at 15:24
  • Related question: Is the conspiracy theory of “Cultural Marxism” inherently tied to antisemitism?
    – agc
    May 21, 2020 at 19:03
  • @lowtech You forgot to mentioned, that Marx himself was a jew.
    – convert
    Feb 2, 2022 at 11:56

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The association of Jews with various left-wing forces can possibly be traced to the Great French Revolution.

At the time the rights of Jews in various European countries were severely restricted and assimilation was very difficult because of Christian anti-seminitism.

Thus the Jews welcomed very much the revolution that removed any civil restrictions on the Jews and was militantly anti-religious (even Christian priests for a period were replaced with "civil priests").

Thus the Jews became viewed as the enemies of the established order: the monarchy, the Christianity and the traditional values.

This was especially visible in Eastern Europe where the population was more religious and in Russian Empire where there were very harsh anti-Jewish laws intended to persuade them to convert to Christianity.

Jews also were viewed as unpatriotic and foreign agents, which was partly true because Jews mostly were against nationalism, segregation, wars and did not experience very good feelings to the anti-semitic host state.

As such, most monarchists and conservatives in Eastern Europe and in Russia, such as Russian Black Hundreds became highly anti-semitic, with Jews on the opposite becoming pro-revolutionary.

As such, the conservative, right-wing monarchist forces started to link the Jews with any left-wing movements. This was not that complicated because Marx was a Jew, and many revolutionary leaders also were Jews. Particularly, they alleged that Jews wanted the revolution so to replace Christianity with Atheism, and then, probably, Judaism, because they hated Christ and Christians.

In Italy there were no such processes, at least to the same degree as in Russia, so fascism as an ideology was not that anti-semitic.

But Hitler was more influenced by Russian far-rights, white emigrants and the Black Hundred, especially given that in Austria similar processes were taking place.

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    You ought to distinguish between the religion one was born with and the religion one chooses, or chooses not to have. Marx was a stalwart Atheist. Yet it seems to me, most fascists will believe, in spite of the lack of evidence, that even when those of Jewish background abandon religion altogether, they are still covertly working toward Jewish world domination, or whatever. But you're comment about the French Revolution was helpful, if a bit reductive. Reductive because there were also fascist Italian Jews until Mussolini followed Hitlers antisemitism.
    – Kyle
    Jun 17, 2015 at 20:26
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    @Kyle they alleged that Jews were just enemies of Christ, so first of all they wanted to divert say, Russians from Christianity. As such they believed Communism followed these Jewish desires. Regarding Italy, as I said, there was little anti-semitism in the fascist movement so the question is somewhat incorrect, it should be about Nazism and/or Conservatism and/or Monarchism.
    – Anixx
    Jun 17, 2015 at 20:38
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    @Kyle, wheter he followed Judaism or not, Marx was a Jew - so there's one connection for the Nazis to "prove" the connection. That Jews were rather unpopular in both Russia and later the Soviet-Union, didn't prevent Nazi-German propaganda to claim the Jews where behind Communism... nor to claim they were part of "The Great Jewish Worldwide Conspiricy" - which of course also included UK and the USA, since - according to the conspiracy - the banks controlled the politicians, and the Jews controlled the banks.
    – Baard Kopperud
    Jun 23, 2015 at 17:30
  • this is an excellent answer. I would like to learn more, however, on the influence russian fascists had on Hitler, in case you can make some pointers
    – amphibient
    Jan 26, 2017 at 20:29
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    But Hitler was more influenced by Russian far-rights, white emigrants and the Black Hundred, especially given that in Austria similar processes were taking place. can you further explain that? and also, where do you know that from?
    – toogley
    Mar 10, 2017 at 12:38
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You've got to remember that prominent communists were Jews, Trotsky being the most obvious. During the German Revolution in 1918 the rebel communist leadership was disproportionately Jewish. Karl Marx was Jewish too.

In much of Europe Jews had been excluded from most professions and forced to live in ghettos. Gentiles simply didn't encounter Jews, and when they did their initial reaction was suspicion and prejudice. Anti-Semites began to interpret what they saw as evidence of a conspiracy; between wealthy Jews in finance, Jews in the media, and communist Jews.

The simple truth was these were some of the few professions and organisations Jews were able to access. But that fact, and any ideological specifics, were irrelevant in face of this paranoia. Plus fascism is generally anti-intellectual; so a reasoned argument is irrelevant when they feel something is true based on their anecdotal observation.

EDIT [to clarify Trotsky, etc]:

It's important to remember that the traditional Jewish view of who is a Jew is based on the continuity of the maternal line. Was your mother a Jew? And her mother? etc. Whether one practices Judaism or not is rarely considered qualifying. There are still lots of debates, legal and religious, in and outside of Israel regarding this very issue.

Trotsky's atheism is irrelevant. Anti-Semites rarely consider renunciation of faith sufficient to prove non-Jewishness. For example the Spanish Inquisition was paranoia about secret Jews. Sometimes even generations after their ancestors converted to Catholicism. This was complicated by the fact some Jews who converted did secretly practice their old faith, and passed this down to their children.

Also keep in mind that anti-Semitism often insists that the Jews are a "race" of their own. In this case they viewed all Jews as a monolithic danger; a Jew is always a Jew. So what difference does it make that they are atheist, or go to church? They will always work to benefit their race.

That was the idea anyway, and we still see it playing out in contemporary anti-Semitism, with suspicion that Jews are only loyal to Israel. Perhaps that in itself is a projection of fascist values and attitudes; the belief that they must work to protect their own "race" against enemies, therefore they would naturally assume other races would do the same.

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  • While you begin with a premise I don't subscribe to (Trotsky like all Bolsheviks was an atheist), your comment about the restrictions of Jews to certain economic areas is appreciated.
    – Kyle
    Jun 16, 2016 at 14:06
  • Edited to clarify the point about Trotsky, and how this relates to broader perception of conspiracy.
    – user8398
    Jun 16, 2016 at 14:51
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TL;DR: Marxism and Nazism are just two competing ideologies, so they thought of some dogmatic ideas to criticize each other. Their goal was to win the competition between the two ideologies, so virtually none argument was based on any solid, scientific research; instead, most (all?) of the arguments appeal to the senses, not to the minds.

In order to completely answer this question, it may require a book to cover all aspects, so please excuse me for losing accuracy in favor of compact answer.

First off, Fascism and National Socialism are different things: Fascism is a regime (type of government), while National Socialism (Nazism) is an ideology. Between WWI and WWII they used to be tightly related, but they are not the same.

Note: Regardless "National Socialism" contains a word "Socialism", which suggests a counter-intuitive understanding, it has nothing to do about the type of the government:

Our adopted term 'Socialist' has nothing to do with Marxist Socialism. Marxism is anti-property; true Socialism is not. — Hitler, 1930 (ref. Carsten „The Rise of Fascism“, 1982)

The Kommunist counterparts are Socialism (a regime) and Marxism (an ideology). They also used to co-exist in the Russia and the countries it occupied.

As far as I understood your question, we are not talking about the social system, but about the ideologies.

Nazism is an ideology of racial supremacy. It included several aspects like "racial hierarchy" where Aryans supposed to be the "master race", while others are "lower" ones. The special attention was directed towards antisemitism as Jews were declared the "worst" race.

Marxism is an ideology of class supremacy. It included several aspects like "class hierarchy" where Proletariat supposed to be the "master class", while others are "lower" ones. The special attention was directed towards Bourgeoisie as they were declared the enemy who exploits the proletariat.

Being two competing ideologies, both Nazism and Marxism have elaborated some dogmatic ideas to confront each other. Here can be a huge list of arguments, but they are really unimportant since all of them are artificial, deliberately created in order to withstand each other.
Anyway, the ideology struggle had not in any way prevented the Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany to be loyal allies in the period of 1933-1941.

An important aspect is that the vast majority of Russian Intelligentsia of mid-1910's who led the October revolution were ethnic Jews. This may make someone think that Marxism is a kind of Jewish conspiracy. However, Marx's own views were arguably anti-Semitic:

What is the worldly religion of the Jew? Huckstering. What is his world god? Money. — Marx, „On the Jewish Question“, 1844; (ref. Francis Wheen — „Karl Marx: A Life“, 2001)

Yet another important aspect is that after defeat of Nazi Germany, the Soviet lawyers in Nuremberg trials have insisted to add Anticommunism in a list of Defining Characteristics Of Fascism.

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    Fascism arguably is also an ideology
    – Anixx
    Jun 17, 2015 at 15:21
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    @Anixx, yes, many Russians make such claims to make us believe that Marxism and Nazism are distant from each other. As soon as you ask them for an explanation, they simply start appealing to irrational, dogmatic arguments, just as as in the original question.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:04
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    Can you explain a bit more about how Marxism would place the proletariat as the master class over lower classes? I always understood Marxism as a restructuring society so that everyone was in the same proletariat class (or exiled/executed as an enemy of the revolutionary government).
    – lazarusL
    Jun 17, 2015 at 16:54
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    Technically speaking, the last paragraph should say "Soviet lawyers"
    – user4012
    Jun 17, 2015 at 17:08
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    @lazarusL, Class consciousness is the answer. According to Marxism, the Proletariat has one, therefore it must be considered a supreme social class. It is important to understand that, according to classical Marxism, supremacy, dominance, and, finally, seizure of power goes first; while the social reforms the Proletariat is supposed to carry out using that power, goes second.
    – Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
    Jun 17, 2015 at 17:52
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According to Yale's Timothy Snyder, it was a common cliche to conflate Communists with Jews and Jews with communists - Hitler used this cliche to justify his colonialist aspirations for a lebensraums for the German race in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Snyder goes onto argue that the sole features of Hitlers worldview was racial annihilation. Racial anarchy, races destroying each-other is our nature, and all there is to nature is this racial annihilation. Except for the Jews. The Jews have introduced everything else, all humanisms, capitalism, law, contracts, civil rights - all of these are Jewish inventions. In order to return to a state of primal racial annihilation, the Jews need to be removed from the face of the earth. Later on in WWII when the USSR and the Allies collaborate Hitler can then say, 'See I told you they're both controlled by the Jews.'

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As I pointed out in a previous post, fascist saw communism as a Jewish conspiracy for the same reason many of them where also anti-capitalist and saw too much private ownership as part of a Jewish conspiracy.

Fascist tend to want to prevent preventing too much capitalism from allowing enemies of the state to take control and too much socialism to prevent economic growth or allow a state power to have complete economic control (ex: Hitler hated capitalism and warned against capitalism, calling America Germany's enemy filled with Jewish capitalists and called for nationalization of education and healthcare. However, Hitler also hated socialism and also saw it as a Jewish conspiracy so the Jews could potentially install their own leader in places like Germany to control everything. Mussolini also denounced socialism and claimed modern capitalism was leading to anti-nationalist consumerism and the "standardization of humankind"). -my previous post

Also, fascist believe that the only reason for the state to exist is to fight constant wars of survival of the fittest.To a fascist, other states and political systems are simply rivals to eventually be eliminated. Those systems are seen as systems made by enemies of the state in order to weaken and destroy the rightful state/people. Add this to the fact that fascism is far-right socially, espousing a conservative social culture while communism is left wing with even version like Marxist-Leninism being socially left wing and creating socially left wing off-shoots, and you can see why fascists disdain communism.

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