Fascism & the Holocaust
Seventy-five years since the Wannsee Conference
By Clara Weiss, 25 January 2017
Last Friday, January 20, marked the 75th anniversary of the notorious Wannsee Conference, in which 15 influential representatives of the Nazi regime discussed the so-called “final solution of the Jewish question.”
Hitler’s Professors: A documentation of war crimes by German academics against the Jewish people
By Clara Weiss, 16 January 2017
Max Weinreich’s classic study, Hitler’s Professors, first published in 1946, documents the role of leading German academics in the murder of Europe’s Jewish population.
Close race in Austrian presidential election
By Markus Salzmann, 23 May 2016
After the casting of 4.4 million votes, the two candidates are separated by only 3,000, according to projected results.
Oppose the witch-hunt of Ken Livingstone!
By Robert Stevens and Chris Marsden, 2 May 2016
Ken Livingstone, accused of anti-Semitism, is the target of a smear campaign aimed at discrediting all criticism of Israel and shifting the Labour Party still further to the right.
Seventy years since the Nuremberg Trials
By Verena Nees, 3 December 2015
The post-World War II trials led to the adoption of the Nuremberg principles, forbidding aggressive war as the greatest international crime.
New book from Mehring Verlag
Scholarship or War Propaganda attracts wide interest in Germany
By Christoph Dreier, 9 November 2015
The book Scholarship or War Propaganda, published by the Mehring Verlag publishing house in October, has hit a nerve in Germany.
Auschwitz bookkeeper Gröning sentenced to four years in prison
By Sybille Fuchs, 18 July 2015
For decades, the German judicial system showed little interest in prosecuting those who participated in the murder machinery of the Nazis.
Trial of Auschwitz guard continues in Germany
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 2 July 2015
The indictment of former SS member Oskar Gröning charges him with acting as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 people.
German secret service involved in NSU far-right terrorist attacks
By Dietmar Henning, 18 June 2015
Evidence linking the state with murders committed by far-right terrorists continues to mount.
US government paid millions in Social Security benefits to ex-Nazis
By Thomas Gaist, 4 June 2015
Between 1962 and 2015, more than 130 former Nazis received at least $20 million worth of Social Security retirement benefits.
“Münkler-Watch” and the dictatorship of the elites
By Peter Schwarz, 23 May 2015
The attacks on the critics of political science professor Herfried Münkler are now being directed against the freedom of the Internet.
75 years since the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands
The Westerbork transit camp and the destruction of Dutch Jewry
By Josh Varlin, 11 May 2015
May 10, 2015 marked the 75th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. Over the next five years, tens of thousands of Jews were deported from the Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz and other camps.
Fascist leader Yarosh appointed advisor to Ukrainian army
By Johannes Stern, 7 April 2015
On the basis of the struggle against “communism,” the regime in Kiev installed and financed by the West is turning ever more directly into an ultra-right dictatorship.
The legitimization of Marine Le Pen
By Joseph Kishore and Alex Lantier, 20 January 2015
By opening its pages to Le Pen, the New York Times has signaled that powerful sections of the ruling class view anti-Muslim racism as a legitimate part of the public debate.
UK to launch enhanced “anti-terror measures” and domestic use of troops
By Julie Hyland, 20 January 2015
Since 9/11, successive UK governments have introduced a series of “anti-terror” measures, each more draconian than its predecessor.
German city plans to accommodate refugees in former concentration camp
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 20 January 2015
The German city of Schwerte announced plans to accommodate around 20 refugees in a former SS barracks on one of the sites of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Ukraine premier’s pro-Nazi version of World War II: USSR invaded Ukraine, Germany
By Lena Sokoll, 19 January 2015
On Germany’s public television channel ARD, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the USSR was the aggressor against Ukraine and Germany in World War II.
Charlie Hebdo and the specter of Vichy: From Laval to Hollande
By Joseph Kishore and Alex Lantier, 16 January 2015
The events of the past week in France have a troubling historical resonance with an earlier period of French history, when the French ruling class collaborated directly with the Nazi regime in Germany.
At Lyon congress, French National Front prepares itself as party of capitalist rule
By Francis Dubois, 11 December 2014
The National Front's advance can be explained, above all, by the naked bankruptcy of the Socialist Party and its pseudo-left allies, such as the NPA.
Witness implicates German intelligence agency at neo-Nazi murder trial
By Sven Heymanns, 17 November 2014
New courtroom testimony confirms that the Thuringian intelligence agency aided and abetted neo-Nazis.
Excavation of gas chamber at Nazi Sobibor concentration camp completed
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 16 October 2014
The Sobibor, Belzec and Treblinca concentration camps were designed to carry out the systematic extermination of Jews and Roma living in those parts of Ukraine and Poland occupied by the Wehrmacht.
Holocaust survivors indict Israel’s massacre in Gaza
By Bill Van Auken, 26 August 2014
The principled and courageous denunciation of the slaughter of Palestinians is symptomatic of a terminal crisis of Zionism.
German secret service paid undercover agent “Hitler’s birthday” premium
By Sven Heymanns, 10 April 2014
In recent weeks, there have been a series of revelations about the German secret service’s systematic build-up of neo-Nazi elements in the 1990s.
Hungarian government exploits Holocaust Memorial Year to revise history
By Markus Salzmann, 14 February 2014
The Hungarian government is collaborating with extreme right-wing forces to rehabilitate the pro-Hitler regime of Miklos Horthy.
A contemporary account of the German pogroms of November 1938
By Elizabeth Zimmerman, 7 January 2014
Konrad Heiden’s graphic account of Kristallnacht shows the horrors of which capitalism in its death throes is capable.
The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact with Hitler—how the studios suppressed films about Nazi crimes
By Charles Bogle, 5 December 2013
Author Ben Urwand lays bare the high degree of collaboration between Hollywood and the Nazi regime during the “golden age” of studio filmmaking.
German government report highlights Nazi past of public officials
By Sybille Fuchs, 25 January 2012
A recent report issued by the German government makes clear the extent to which the West German authorities were riddled with former Nazi Party, SS and SA members.
Berlin exhibition: “Hitler and the Germans”—a historical travesty
By Verena Nees, 25 March 2011
A recent exhibition at the German Historical Museum sought to blame the German people and conceal the responsibility of German capitalism for the Hitler dictatorship.
Nazi “Butcher of Lyon” was a German intelligence agent
By Dietmar Henning, 22 January 2011
Long known to have collaborated with the CIA, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is now revealed to have worked as a paid agent of the German intelligence service well into the 1960s.
Netherlands judiciary demands extradition of Nazi war criminal from Germany
By Elizabeth Zimmermann, 9 December 2010
The German judicial system continues to protect convicted war criminal Klaas Carel Faber from extradition to Holland, where he faces a life sentence.
Marxism and the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 15 May 2010
The following is an addendum to the lecture “Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust,” delivered by Nick Beams at San Diego State University on April 29.
Imperialism and the political economy of the Holocaust
By Nick Beams, 12 May 2010
This lecture was delivered at San Diego State University on April 29. It was the eighth in a series entitled "Killing for a higher cause: Political violence in a world in crisis" sponsored by the Institute on World Affairs within the Political Science Department of the San Diego State University.
Germany: Demjanjuk trial sheds light on Nazi crimes
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 27 January 2010
The trial of the alleged SS guard John Demjanjuk has shed further light on Nazi crimes.
Nick Beams delivers lecture in Sydney and Melbourne
World War Two: Lessons and Warnings
By Nick Beams, 18 November 2009
Nick Beams, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) and a member of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, delivered a lecture on “World War Two: Lessons and Warnings” to audiences in Sydney and Melbourne in November, 2009.
Myths and legends about World War II exposed at Australian SEP public meetings
By our correspondents, 18 November 2009
The Socialist Equality Party in Australia held public meetings in Sydney and Melbourne this month on “Seventy years since World War II: lessons and warnings”.
The Silence of the Quandts: The history of a wealthy German family
A documentary film by Eric Friedler and Barbara Siebert
By Emma Bode and Brigitte Fehlau, 29 November 2008
The award-winning The Silence of the Quandts deals with the unscrupulous rise of one of Germany’s richest and most influential families. The family, which owns 47 percent of auto manufacturer BMW, is implicated in the crimes of the Nazi regime.
Spain: Judge Garzón abandons investigation into Franco-era crimes
By Paul Mitchell, 22 November 2008
Judge Baltasar Garzón has decided to abandon his investigation into the executions and repression carried out by the fascist regime of General Francisco Franco after protests from right-wing politicians, the media and the Roman Catholic Church.
Letters from our readers
4 November 2008
A selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site.
Sixty-five years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
By Harvey Thompson, 16 April 2008
This week marks 65 years since the uprising by the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto against the attempt by the Nazis to transport the remaining Jewish population of the Polish capital to the Treblinka death camp.
German war crimes in Italy: part three
A scorched-earth policy
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 9 October 2004
This is the third article in a three-part series based on two books that appeared in the 1990s: Friedrich Andrae’s Auch Gegen Frauen und Kinder—Der Krieg der Deutschen Wehrmacht Gegen die Zivilbevölkerung in Italien 1943-1945 [Against Women and Children—the German Wehrmacht’s War Against the Civilian Population in Italy, 1943-45] (Piper Verlag München, Zürich, 1994); and Gerhard Schreiber’s Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien—Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung [German War Crimes in Italy—Perpetrators, Victims, Punishment] (Becksche Reihe, Verlag C.H. Beck, München, 1996). The first part was posted on October 7, and the second was posted on October 8.
German war crimes in Italy: part two
Nazi terror and the resistance in Italy
By Elisabeth Zimmermann, 8 October 2004
This is the second article in a three-part series based on two books that appeared in the 1990s: Friedrich Andrae’s Auch Gegen Frauen und Kinder—Der Krieg der Deutschen Wehrmacht Gegen die Zivilbevölkerung in Italien 1943-1945 [Against Women and Children—the German Wehrmacht’s War Against the Civilian Population in Italy, 1943-45] (Piper Verlag München, Zürich, 1994); and Gerhard Schreiber’s Deutsche Kriegsverbrechen in Italien—Täter, Opfer, Strafverfolgung [German War Crimes in Italy—Perpetrators, Victims, Punishment] (Becksche Reihe, Verlag C.H. Beck, München, 1996). The first part was posted on October 7.
Forty years since the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial
Part 3—Juridical cover-up of Nazi crimes
By Sybille Fuchs, 29 April 2004
The following is the last in a three-part series of articles.
Forty years since the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial
Part 2—The accused: Henchmen acting under orders
By Sybille Fuchs, 28 April 2004
The following is the second in a three-part series of articles.
Forty years since the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial
Part one—a belated inquiry
By Sybille Fuchs, 27 April 2004
The following is the first in a three-part series of articles.
The anti-Semitism and anti-Bolshevism of the German Nazis: a letter and reply
23 December 2003
The following letter was written in response to the article “Germany: MP’s anti-Semitic speech exposes ugly face of the CDU,” posted by the World Socialist Web Sitelast November 14. The letter was originally circulated via a mailing list of disgruntled supporters of the German Greens. We publish it with a reply by the WSWS.
Sixty years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
By Harvey Thompson, 27 May 2003
“... The decline of capitalism has suspended the Jews between heaven and earth.” (1)
The debate in Germany over the crimes of Hitler’s Wehrmacht
Part 2
By Wolfgang Weber, 20 September 2001
This is the second and concluding part of a two-part article on the debate in Germany surrounding an exhibit on the crimes of Hitler’s army (the Wehrmacht). Part one was posted Wednesday, September 19.
The debate in Germany over the crimes of Hitler’s Wehrmacht
Part 1
By Wolfgang Weber, 19 September 2001
This is the first part of a two-part article on the debate in Germany surrounding an exhibit on the crimes of the German army (Wehrmacht ) under the Nazis. The second part will be posted Thursday, September 20.
Verdict in David Irving case due in two weeks
Libel suit brought by apologist for Nazi role in Holocaust concludes in London
By Richard Tyler & Peter Reydt, 24 March 2000
The 10-week trial of a libel suit brought by British author David Irving against American historian Deborah Lipstadt concluded Wednesday March 15, as closing arguments were delivered before a packed London courtroom.
The report of former forced-labor prisoner Nicholas Livkovsky
By Carola Kleinert and Brigitte Fehlau, 17 March 2000
Nicholas Livkovsky took part in the February 19 conference in Slubice, Poland on the history of the Gestapo prison camp "Oderblick", which was located in Schwetig, near Frankfurt/Oder, Germany and Slubice (see accompanying article). Livkovsky was imprisoned there from July to November 1942, and his story speaks for that of tens of thousands who suffered the same fate. He has never received compensation for what he suffered, and in all likelihood never will, because what was done to him does not fulfil the legal criteria entitling him to compensation. Nicholas Livkovsky, now 76 years old, lives in the Polish town Rzepin, not far from the German border. The following is his report on what he experienced:
The history of the former Gestapo concentration camp "Oderblick" in Schwetig/Swiecko
By Carola Kleinert and Brigritte Fehlau, 17 March 2000
On February 19 a conference on the history of the former concentration camp “Oderblick” took place in the Polish town of Slubice, which lies on the border with Germany. The conference was organised by the Project for German-Polish History of the Polonicum College, a joint institution of the universities of Slubice and the neighbouring German town of Frankfurt/Oder.
At University of Michigan forum
Historians criticize Goldhagen book
By Martin McLaughlin, 17 November 1997
At a forum held at the University of Michigan on November 8 an international panel of historians concurred that the bestselling book by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Hitler's Willing Executioners, was a travesty of historiography.
Why did the Holocaust take place?
By David Walsh, 2 June 1997
More than any other trend of thought, Marxism insists on adopting a historical attitude to every phenomenon.
Anti-Semitism, Fascism & the Holocaust
A critical review of Daniel Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners
By David North, 17 April 1997
The following was given as a lecture by David North, national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States, at Michigan State University in East Lansing.
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