https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6231-9090
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In his magnus opus Nazi Germany and the Jews (1997), Saul Friedländer identifies redemptive antisemitism as a model of world explanation, which offers a universal answer to all alleged problems of modern society, such as capitalism, communism, liberalism and cultural, social and biological decline. Its core element is the perception of history and politics as a struggle against the Jews and their alleged world conspiracy. Consequently, Friedländer considers redemptive antisemitism the major ideological precondition for the Holocaust. Apart from the local arrangements of the Norwegian occupation regime (1940–1945), we argue that it was the specifically aggressive form of redemptive antisemitism that provided the ideological basis for the Holocaust. Building on Friedländer’s conceptualization, we define the phenomenon as consisting of three main elements: 1) Dualism and Demonisation, 2) Conspiracism and Intentionalism and 3) Apocalypticism and Palingenesis. By using three Norwegian case studies – articles and books of the radical antisemites Eivind Saxlund, Mikael Sylten and Halldis Neegaard Østbye – we demonstrate how a marginal phenomenon, due to changed circumstances and its transferability, became crucial during the German occupation. Our source material shows the potential for violence and the totality of redemptive antisemitism and underscores the impact of conspiracy beliefs on society.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. See among others, Harket, Paragrafen; Ulvund, Fridomens grenser.
2. See, for example, the standard work of Jong, Het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, 698–883.
3. Bruland, Holocaust i Norge; Corell, Likvidasjonen; Johansen, ed., På siden av rettsoppgjøret.
4. Moore, Victims and Survivors. See also Hirschfeld, Nazi Rule.
5. Simonsen, “Threats and Euphemisms”; Simonsen, “En apokalyptisk antisemittisme”. See also Westlie, Det norske jødehatet.
6. Christensen, “Jøder og Gojim”; Toftesund, ‘ʻDa allt folketʼ’; Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”.
7. Ringdal, ‘ʻNorge, vokn op!ʼ’.
8. See, for example, Berggren, Nationell upplysning; Bak, Dansk antisemittisme; Bak and Emberland, ‘Early Nordic Fascism and Antisemitic Conspiracism’.
9. Winiewski, Soral and Bilewicz, “Conspiracy Theories”, 32. A clear case apart from National Socialism, is Rwanda. See Hintjens, “Explaining the 1994”, 263.
10. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 87.
11. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 84–5.
12. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 87.
13. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 86–7.
14. Birnbaum and Kaznelson, eds., Paths of Emancipation.
15. Mosse, ‘ʻSchutzjudenʼ’.
16. Pulzer, The Rise.
17. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 89.
18. Mosse. The Crisis, 94–5; Berggren, “Ras och religion”; Field, Evangelist of Race.
19. The term ‘Verjudung’ was applied by Richard Wagner already in 1850, and in the late 1860s a term with similar connotations was employed by French antisemites. During the German occupation, it became an important feature of the anti-Jewish propaganda of Nasjonal Samling. Rose, Revolutionary antisemitism, 40; Modras, The Catholic Church, 243; Simonsen, “Threats and euphemisms”.
20. Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, 25.
21. Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, 26.
22. On German and Austrian ‘racialist’ antisemitism, see, for example, Pulzer, The Rise, 47–57.
23. Confino, A World, 236.
24. Dentith, “Conspiracy theories”, 94–104.
25. Barkun, A Culture, 3.
26. See, for example, Heil, Gottesfeinde – Menschenfeinde. On antisemitism as a longue-durée conspiracist tradition, see Simonsen, “Antisemitism and Conspiracism”, 357–70.
27. On antimodernism and antisemitism in Germany, see, for example, Hoffmann, ‘ʻThe Newʼ’, 100; Volkov, Germans, Jews, 107–18; on France, see Caron, “Catholic Political Mobilization”, 296, 300–1; on Russia for example, Kellogg, The Russian Roots, 30–46.
28. Simonsen, “Antisemitism and Conspiracism”, 362–3.
29. On the Protocols, see, for example, Cohn, Warrant for Genocide; Bronner, A Rumour; Utrup, Kampf gegen; Webman (ed.), The Global Impact.
30. On conspiracism as a form of intentionalism, see, for example, Cubitt, The Jesuit Myths, 2–26.
31. Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style”, 29.
32. Hofstadter, “The Paranoid Style”, 29–30.
33. ‘Millennialism’, according to historian Richard Landes, refers to belief systems assuming that the world will be radically transformed at some point; that a new utopian order will be realized on earth. While millennial movements historically have been religious in outlook, they also can rest on secular premises. See Landes, Heaven and Earth, 20.
34. Friedländer, Nazi Germany, 87.
35. See, for example, Frøland, Nazismens idéunivers, 181.
36. Simonsen, “En apokalyptisk antisemittisme”, 60.
37. Harket, Paragrafen, 12.
38. On the history of Article 2, see in detail, Harket, Paragrafen; on its reinstatement during the German occupation, Bruland, “The 1942 Reinstatement”.
39. On this discourse, see in more detail, Rürup, “The Politics of Jewish”; on its impact in Norway, D’Aprile and Harket, “Constitutional Discourse”.
40. On the term, see also Antisemitism without Jews by journalist Paul Lendvai, published in 1971.
41. Mendelsohn, Jødenes historie, 9–46; Ulvund, “The Practice”, 143–6. On the history of the enforcement of Article 2, see also in detail, Ulvund, Fridomens grenser.
42. Ulvund, “The Practice”, 149–58.
43. Ulvund, “The Practice”, 158–64.
44. Ulvund, “The Practice”, 169.
45. Lorenz, ‘ʻVi har ikke invitertʼ’, 36–7.
46. On Jewish life in Norway from the 1880s, see Gjernes, “Jødar i Kristiania”; Mendelsohn, Jødenes historie; Sebak, “ … vi blir neppe”.
47. Lorenz, Jødenes historie, 204–32.
48. Emberland, “Antisemittismen i Norge”, 406–7; in more detail, Lien, ‘ʻ … pressen kan kun skriveʼ’. See also Brakstad, “Jøden som kulturell konstruksjon”.
49. Lorenz, ‘ʻVi har ikke invitertʼ’, 37; Volkov, Jüdisches Leben, 62. All non-English quotes are translated by the authors of this article.
50. Lorenz, ‘ʻVi har ikke invitertʼ’, 38–42, Emberland, “Antisemittismen i Norge”, 404–8. See also Henden, “Tidlig norsk kriminallitteratur”.
51. Ringdal, ‘ʻNorge, vokn op!ʼ’, 84–6.
52. Lorenz, ‘ʻVi har ikke invitertʼ’, 39–42; Karcher, “Victor Mogens”; Simonsen, “Nasjonalitetens antitese”.
53. See in detail, Snildal, “An Anti-Semitic Slaughter”.
54. Lorenz, ‘ʻVi har ikke invitertʼ’, 48–50; Brustad, I limbo, 61–5, 73–102.
55. Bruland, Holocaust i Norge, 28.
56. See in particular, Simonsen, “Antisemittismen i Norge”, 21–50.
57. Ringdal, ‘ʻNorge, vokn op!ʼ’, 58.
58. See Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1910 edition), 8. Here, Saxlund mentions Fritsch’s book Handbuch der Judenfrage and Chamberlain’s Die Grundlagen des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts as sources of inspiration.
59. See Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1910 edition), 19–23 (on Holberg), and 78–83 (on Luther).
60. Such an ‘interpretation of tradition’ was common in modern antisemitic agitation. See Hoffmann, “Christlicher Antijudaismus and moderner Antisemitismus”, 306.
61. Christensen, ‘Jøder og Gojim’. Saxlund also seems to have gained influence in more respectable political circles, particularly within the movement affiliated with the Norwegian Agrarian Association [Norges Bondelag] and the Farmer’s Party [Bondepartiet]. In 1923, the party’s main newspaper, Nationen, stated in an editorial that a large Jewish movement threatened to strangle Europe, and that Saxlund beckoned a ‘racial struggle that the Norwegian people one day will regret to have averted’. Editorial, Nationen, 26 June 1923. See also Simonsen, ‘Nasjonalitetens antitese’.
62. Brattelid, ‘Mikal Sylten’, 43.
63. Quoted in Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 43.
64. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1910 edition), 13.
65. Mosse, The Crisis, 95.
66. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1910 edition), 27.
67. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1910 edition), 33.
68. Hoffmann, ‘ʻThe Newʼ’, 112.
69. Herf, Reactionary Modernism, 136.
70. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1911 edition), 148.
71. “Den nye verdenskeiser”, Aftenposten, 10 January 1922.
72. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1911 edition), 15.
73. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1911 edition), 21.
74. Saxlund, Jøder og Gojim (Citation1911 edition), 145.
75. Brattelid, 'Mikal Sylten'.
76. See for example, Stoltheim, F. Roderick [Theodor Fritsch], ‘Jødernes indflydelse paa kvinderne’, Sandheten, no 5/6 (1916): 68–75; Bönisch, “Die ʻHammerʼ-Bewegung’, 350.
77. See, for example, ‘Fedrelandslagets bukkesprang”;, Nationalt Tidsskrift, May 1934; Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 77–8.
78. Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 63.
79. Nasjonalt Tidsskrift, quoted in Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 62.
80. See Nationalt Tidsskrift, 12 December 1920.
81. “Sandhetens sak”, Sandheten, February 1917.
82. Ascheim, “The Jew Within”, 45.
83. Hitler referred in Ascheim, “The Jew Within”, 67.
84. See, for example, “Jødedommen i oldtiden som nu”, Nationalt Tidsskrift, no. 5 (1923).
85. Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 76.
86. Quoted in Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 67.
87. “De vise fra Zion”, Nasjonalt Tidsskrift, March 1920.
88. Nationalt Tidsskrift, August 1923.
89. Planert, “Women’s Suffrage”, 117. See also Guido, The German League, 101–2.
90. Barkun, A Culture, 26.
91. Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 33.
92. For details, see Toftesund, ‘ʻDa allt folketʼ’, 28–52.
93. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 9.
94. Holz, Nationaler Antisemitismus, 543.
95. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 10.
96. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 16.
97. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 10.
98. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 53.
99. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 86.
100. Hanebrink, A Specter Haunting, 4.
101. See in detail, Lien, ‘ʻ … pressen kan kun skriveʼ’; Snildal, “An Anti-Semitic Slaughter”. See also Simonsen, ‘Nasjonalitetens antitese’, 65–108.
102. Figueiredo, ‘Nasjonal Samling’, 79–88.
103. Figueiredo, “Nasjonal Samling”, 88–92.
104. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 56.
105. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 30.
106. Østbye [Irene Sverd], Jødeproblemet, 7.
107. See also other Norwegian antisemitic far-right organizations’ attitude towards the pogroms in Nazi Germany, for example, Karcher, “National Socialisms in Clinch”, 51–70.
108. On the so-called Madagascar solution in detail, see Brechtken, ‘Madagaskar’.
109. Østbye, “Jødenes krig”, Fritt Folk, 19 June 1940.
110. Simonsen, ‘Threats and Euphemisms’, 228–48; Bruland, Holocaust i Norge.
111. Brattelid, “Mikal Sylten”, 107–16.
112. Toftesund, ‘ʻDa allt folketʼ’, 86–91.
113. Østbye, “Jødeånden må bekjempes over alt!”, Hirdmannen, 28 November 1942.
114. Zia-Ebrahimi, ‘When the Elders’, 314–37; Bangstad, Anders Behring Breivik, 71–106.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Nicola Karcher
Nicola Karcher is a historian and Associate Professor in Social Science at the Østfold University College, Norway, where she leads the research group Politics, Religion, Ideology and Society in Education (PRIS) and is a member of the Research Steering Committee on her faculty. She is also co-head of the steering committee of the Network for Nordic Fascism Studies (NORFAS). Karcher has been part of the research project Democratic institutions facing Nazi occupation: Norway in a comparative perspective from 2013 to 2017, at the Norwegian Holocaust Center (HL-senteret), financed by the Norwegian Research Council. She has been a visiting researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam and a guest lecturer at the University of Valencia. Karcher’s PhD thesis in 2012 dealt with Norwegian-German fascist networks in the interwar period. She has published articles and books in Norwegian, German, and English on the history of fascism and occupation history, particularly with respect to the Nordic countries. In her monograph Kampen om skolen (Dreyers forlag, 2018), she analysed fascist education in the light of Nazification policy and civil resistance in occupied Norway. Karcher is the co-editor of the anthology Nordic Fascism: Fragments of an Entangled History (Routledge, 2022).
Kjetil Braut Simonsen
Kjetil Braut Simonsen works as a researcher at the Jewish Museum in Oslo, Norway. He has written extensively on antisemitism, the Holocaust, Jewish history and the far right before, during and after the Second World War in journals such as Scandinavian Journal of History and Historisk tidsskrift. In autumn 2023, he published the monography I skyggen av Holocaust: Antisemittisme i norsk historie 1945–2023 (Humanist forlag) on antisemitism in Norway from the end of the Second World War to the present day. In this book, he analyses the character and development of Norwegian post-Holocaust antisemitism, focusing both on the far right, the public debate, and the political left. Simonsen has been a PhD candidate in the research project Democratic institutions facing Nazi occupation: Norway in a comparative perspective from 2012 to 2016, at the Norwegian Holocaust Center (HL-senteret), financed by the Norwegian Research Council. In his PhD thesis of 2016, he analyses the Nazification of the Norwegian ministerial bureaucracy and its manoeuvring room during the German occupation. He is the co-editor of the anthology Historie og moral: Nazismen, jødene og Hjemmefronten (Dreyers forlag, 2020). Simonsen received the prestigious Sverre Steen Price from the Norwegian Historical Association in 2021.