Antisemitismus von links : kommunistische Ideologie, Nationalismus und Antizionismus in der frühen DDR

Posits criteria for the definition of antisemitism: Manichaeism - polarization of good and evil forces; the personification of these in groups and a conspiracy of the evil group against the good one; and nationalism, based on the antithesis of fatherland and foe. By these criteria, early German socialism and communism were not antisemitic, despite anti-Jewish views of individual leaders, the prevalence of stereotypes, and tactical compromises of the Weimar-period Communist Party with popular antisemitism. However, Marxism-Leninism displayed the above characteristics, although the foe was not the Jews but the capitalist imperialists. This made it easy for late Stalinism to incorporate antisemitism in the existing structure in the form of anti-Zionism. Zionists were portrayed as agents of a Western capitalist-imperialist conspiracy. Judges that the East German leadership (with the exception of the security services) was not antisemitic; anti-Zionism was a tool to suppress potential rivals. The DDR's anti-Zionism had specifically German aspects: condemnation of Jewish demands for restitution as a plot to bring economic ruin on Germany, and release from guilt through the assertion that Zionists had collaborated with the Nazis, while the real victims were the German working people. 1. Aufl. 527 pages ; 24 cm