Rolling Back Fascism Is Not Easy, Part One

This was first published in January 2013


I spent a good part of my life reading about a favorite historical subject of mine, World War Two. People my age grew up at a time when the subject of the war was a very hot topic, and movies and documentaries were common fare at theaters and on television. Books on the subject were frequently on the best seller lists. Our fathers, uncles, and neighbors served in the armed forces during the war in some capacity, likely overseas. I'm not deliberately slighting the women, as many women served during the war, and many more left their homes to work in factories and other workplaces to take the place of the men serving in the military, although I don't recall any of our women neighbors or family members having served in the military back then, but if I've erred on this, I'm sure I'll hear, and rightly so. The common thread was the fight against fascism. Perhaps naively, people seemed to believe fascism had been so badly bludgeoned, so overtly exposed as murderous, it would remain relegated to small groups of fanatics. If there was any likely threat of a fascist resurgence, it was thought to be in West Germany, where unrepentant Nazis still lingered among the populace, or in South America, where a number of Nazi bigwigs and ...ah ... "smallwigs," had found sanctuary, at least to some extent, after the war.* Evil adapts to exploit fear and make itself acceptable. Nazis and other fascists made themselves important in the fight against communism (the Cold War), as they had military or economic information on the Soviet Union or scientific expertise for the new era of nuclear weapons and rocketry. Western nations cut some of them slack to an extent, as communism was the feared enemy after World War Two, not fascism. Like "Jason" in the "Friday the 13th" movies, we may think we've killed evil, but it always comes back. We must be vigilant; thus, we must repeatedly remind ourselves "never forget" and "never again."

So what is "fascism," anyway? Attempting to give a concise and comprehensive definition of fascism is pretty much akin to trying to nail gelatin to the wall. There are characteristics of fascism, but one of those characteristics, "extreme nationalism," makes it impossible to lump all fascist elements in the world together, because the very concept of this nationalism means "my country is better than your country," and that kind of shoots the idea of international fascism in the ass... ah, I mean, butt. Fascism rather seems to be "nationalistic," but also with characteristics that draw people from various nations to other characteristics, often anti-communism. Fascist nationalism may become more palatable to segments of a national population when a nation is seen by many of its people as in decline, real or imagined. Fascism likes to dwell on the past, the good old days, when the nation was riding high (see more further below).

During World War Two there were fascist movements throughout Europe, and many men from these movements volunteered to fight in Hitler's campaign against the Soviet Union, even later, when the tide of war had shifted against the Nazi dictator. One of Hitler's devout followers was Leon Degrelle. He was from the Walloon region of Belgium; the Walloons being from the French-speaking southern segment of Belgium, which constitutes nearly 40% of the country. Initially he served in a Walloon unit that had been made part of the German Armed Forces (the "Wehrmacht"), but which then became a part of the Nazi Waffen SS; that is, the militarized branch of the SS.**

Besides the characteristic of extreme nationalism, the two most prominent fascist movements, Italian Fascism and German Nazism, had socialist characteristics. Mussolini had even previously been a socialist and after World War One, Hitler joined the small "German Workers Party," which was renamed the "National Socialist German Workers Party, the shortened form of which became "Nazi." Two powerful characteristics, nationalism and socialism, therefore joined forces and eventually gained power in Germany when Hitler was appointed chancellor in January 1933. The "socialism" of both movements was closely tied to the nationalism and the idea of "national community." Interestingly, fascism is fiercely anti-communist, yet it embraces, in part, the major element of communism... socialism. Hm, you think this might all be about just gaining power, pure and simple?

Other important and generally common characteristics of fascism are domination of the state and anti-democratic ideas, with democracy often seen as weak in the fascist ideal society of "survival of the fittest." Big business tended to support both Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany, since once you've got lots of money, "survival of the fittest" doesn't scare you, but workers and those less well off trying to survive, or advance, can be seen as the enemy. Another element is anti-unionism, as unions represent organized workers, and thus they are a threat to the fascist control of the state. Without unions, business had no organized worker groups to fear. As mentioned earlier, emphasis on a nation's past is an extremely important part of fascism. Both Mussolini and Hitler staged parades and rallies promoting their respective national pasts, with Mussolini tying Italian Fascism to the Roman Empire of about fifteen hundred years before. Hitler and the Nazis linked themselves to Medieval times and knights, but also further back to the time of the old Germanic tribes, seemingly in an effort to unite the Germanic peoples in some sort of world domination, but with certain Germanic physical characteristics being an elite. Interestingly, Hitler was dark haired and not like the ideal Nazi racial type with blond hair and blue eyes, more typical of the Nordic Germanic people,*** than many Germans, who, like Hitler himself, were likely of mixed background, including from various Slavic peoples, Latins, Magyars (Hungarians), Baltic peoples, and Jews.****    

More in Part Two

* The most famous, or I should say, "infamous," of these Nazis was Adolf Eichmann, the SS officer charged with overseeing the transport of Europe's Jews to extermination camps in eastern Europe, where millions died. Eichmann was captured by Israeli agents in Argentina, taken to Israel, tried and executed. The trial reminded the world to some degree of how inhuman the Nazis had been, with actual films taken by Nazis themselves and by Allied photographers as concentration camps were liberated late in the war. I say "reminded the world to some degree," because there is really nothing that can convey the mind boggling atrocities and the horrible suffering and terror of those victims trapped by such evil. 

** The German word "Waffe" is closely related to English "weapon," and indeed, that's what it means. Centuries ago, middle and southern Germanic dialects in central Europe, in generally higher terrain, underwent sound shifts, one of which often changed the "p" sound to "f" or "pf." This all happened after the Anglo-Saxons had already left what is now northern Germany and taken control of a good portion of Britain and were founding England; thus, English was unaffected by this shift, although it likely would not have been affected anyhow, as its close cousins, Frisian and Low German, located in the same area of northern Germany (lowlands), were unaffected by the sound shift. Since the dialects affected were in more elevated, even mountainous, areas, the term "High German" is often applied by many people, although that term also equates to "standard German." .

*** Nordic is usually meant of Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes.

**** Jews had scattered from the Middle East into North Africa and parts of Europe over time. Hitler seemingly was troubled for some time that he might be part Jewish, a distinct possibility, now that we have DNA testing. One of Hitler's secretaries said in an interview from about a dozen years ago (she may have said it previously, too), that if she had a chance to see Hitler again in this life or in another, she would ask him what he would have done if he had found out that he was part Jewish, gassed himself? For more on Hitler's ancestry, see my article: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/10/hitler-jew.html

WORD HISTORY:
Murder-This word traces back to the Indo European root "mer/mor," which meant "die," and its offspring "mertro," which meant "kill." This gave the Old Germanic offshoot "murthran," which meant "murder, death." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "murthor," which meant "sinful act, punishable killing, murder," and also "myrthra," which meant "murder." These later merged to become "murder." The verb form came from Old Germanic "murthjan," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "myrthrian." Other Germanic languages have: German "Mord" (noun) and "ermorden" (verb), Low German Saxon "Moord" (noun) and some dialects have "morde" (verb), Dutch "moord(en)" (noun) and "vermoorden" (verb"), West Frisian "moard" (noun) and "moardzje" (verb), "Danish "mord" (noun) and "myrde" (verb), Icelandic "Morð" (noun-essentially equivalent to "morth") and "myrða/myrtha" (verb), Norwegian "mord" (noun) and "myrde" (verb), Swedish "mord" (noun) and "mörda" (verb).