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International Jewish conspiracy

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The international Jewish conspiracy is a widespread and long-running antisemitic trope. It is a false idea used to spread hatred against Jewish people. The theory typically claims that a secret, global group called "International Jewry" works to achieve world domination. Because the specific claims of the theory change frequently, it is able to spread widely across different cultures and eras. This flexibility allows the theory to take many forms, making it a persistent part of modern antisemitism.

Many different names are used to describe these various versions of the conspiracy. Some people use terms like "Jewish Bolshevism" or "Cultural Marxism." Others refer to the "Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory," which claims that Freemasons act as agents for a Jewish group. Some conspiracy theorists use the term "Zionist Occupation Government" to suggest Jewish control over Western nations. There is also the "White genocide conspiracy theory" and "Holocaust denial," which claims the Holocaust was a hoax designed to benefit Jewish people and the state of Israel.

History shows that beliefs in a global Jewish conspiracy can be traced back to the thirteenth century. However, these ideas grew significantly during the late nineteenth century. In 1873, an Ottoman Army officer named Frederick van Millingen wrote a book titled "The Conquest of the World by the Jews." Later, a Prussian agent provocateur named Hermann Goedsche promoted new ideological antisemitism. The invention of the newspaper also led to new, false accusations that Jewish people controlled the press.

A major turning point occurred with the publication of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." This text was a forgery created by the Okhrana, which was the secret police of the Russian Empire. It first appeared in print around 1903 as a series of articles in the newspaper "Znamya." Historian Armin Pfahl-Traughber described the Protocols as the most significant document for spreading the myth of a Jewish world conspiracy. The text was actually plagiarized from Goedsche's novel "Biarritz." This fake document became a foundation for much of modern antisemitism.

In Germany, the Nazi leadership used these conspiracy theories to justify extreme violence. In 1919, Adolf Hitler claimed in a political speech that a Jewish conspiracy was plotting to weaken the Aryan race. Nazi leaders believed that Jews secretly engineered World War II and controlled the Allied powers. They claimed that leaders like Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin were merely puppets.

Das jüdische Komplott Parole der Woche December 1941 crop
Das jüdische Komplott Parole der Woche December 1941 crop

This propaganda was used to explain why different nations fought together against Germany.

Historian Jeffrey Herf notes that these conspiratorial beliefs were a primary cause of the Holocaust. The Nazi view of Jews as an organized international power was inseparable from their decision to launch the "Final Solution." In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union using the pretext of fighting "Judeo-Bolshevism." Nazi ideologues used the idea of a global conspiracy to answer difficult political questions. They claimed a coalition of communism and capitalism was working to destroy the Aryan race. This radicalization of discourse went hand in hand with the intensification of genocide.

These myths have appeared in many different countries throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the United States, industrialist Henry Ford promoted the Protocols in his work "The International Jew." In China, an author named Hongbing Song wrote the "Currency Wars" series, claiming Jewish financiers controlled international banking since the era of Napoleon. In Turkey, books have claimed that conspiracies are responsible for installing political leaders. In Malaysia, former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad also made claims regarding Jewish control. Even in recent years, reports show that many followers of the QAnon movement believe in these plots.

Today, these ideas continue to circulate through various media and political movements. In the 1990s, the book "The New World Order" by Pat Robertson was criticized for promoting these themes. In 2020, political campaigners in the United States were removed from events after sharing conspiracy threads. The persistence of these ideas shows how false narratives can be adapted to fit new social and political contexts. While the specific details change, the underlying goal of the trope remains the same.

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