"Judeo-Bolshevism" thesis and Mennonites in Ukraine, 1941-44

In 1941 with a young adult population almost fully ignorant of their faith tradition and bitter about their family lot, there is no reason to doubt that many easily adapted their worldviews to the novel Nazi claim that linked Jews as a whole with “anti-Christian Bolshevism,” and complied with the new regime—as others had done under communism.

The first outcome of occupation newspapers in Ukraine was for worldview training. Multiple copies of the German Nazi daily newspaper Deutsch-Ukraine Zeitung were circulated in each Mennonite village beginning early in 1942, complemented by the weekly Ukraine Post which published its first isu on July 18, 1942. In some villages these newspapers were the only German reading materials available (note 1).

The Ukraine Post reported on the German settlements—including Molotschna and Chortitza—and reinforced in almost every issue the foundational message that “Bolshevism equals Judaism,” that the Soviet Union is a “state of Jews,” and wherever Bolshevism arises, it is only as a storm-trooper of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to enslave and exploit (note 2). Lengthy columns by Professor Dr. Johann von Leers, a high-ranking official in the Ministry of Propaganda, were notoriously anti-Semitic.

“If earlier wars were fought between princes and their armies, this war has become a war of the peoples (Völker): … If the Jew wins, then all who are of German blood will be destroyed, sterilized, tortured to death, slaughtered. If we win, then Judaism will—according to the words of the Führer—be eradicated (ausgerottet) from the world.” (Note 3)

“The Jew is the primordial evil in the world, completely satanic and devilish—we are now fighting this fight against him until his ultimate end. That is why this fight has become so hard and so ruthless. The Jew wants our blood and the blood of our children, and we want his destruction (Vernichtung) in Europe. In between, there is no compromise.” (Note 4)

The official propaganda from von Leers alone was inescapable in the Mennonites villages in Ukraine and designed to be compelling. Von Leers tells his readers that “Judaism is the devil in human form, criminality incarnated, and the expulsion of these ‘servants of Satan’ from all countries is an imperative of justice and self-protection of decent peoples” (note 5). The war itself is ultimately explicable by Jews in Washington, Moscow, and London. “There would be no war without Roosevelt—a half-Jew under the influence of world Judaism,” according to von Leers (note 6). The Red Army too “upsets the order of life among other nations in order to bring their property into the hands of the Jews” (note 7).

Many of the anti-Semitic articles were designed to provide ethnic Germans with an explanatory framework for their years of suffering in the Soviet Union. Von Leers tells his readers that “when the half-Jew Lenin and the full-Jew Trotsky together with their Jewish accomplices smelled opportunity and seized the government, their merciless destruction of the people revealed the true Jewish soul as thirst for human blood and diabolical mockery of the human disposition” (note 8). That “most brutal exploitation of workers” which ethnic Germans had endured was “in the interests of the Jewish potentates in Moscow” (note 9). The Ukraine Post published testimonials and photographs of Soviet-era torture chambers with the claim that “such methods” of torture “can only be devised by a Jewish-Oriental mind” (note 10). One columnist twisted a biblical verse into his rationale for the annihilation of Jews: “What did Moses say in Deuteronomy 7:16? ‘You shall consume all the peoples whom the LORD your God gives over to you. Show them no mercy ... !’ However in the end it will be the Jewish people, who will be consumed!” (note 11).

For years already, the Office of the Propaganda Ministry in Germany had issued daily press directives on what may or may not be said on any issue, whose speeches should be reprinted, which themes should be exploited for maximum impact on German readership—e.g., a Jewish connection to anything that is contemptuous—and especially with regard to the Soviet Union. For example, in 1938 German newspapers were not to show anti-Semitism in Soviet-Russia—which in other contexts Germany would exploit—but rather to display the violence of “intra-Jewish cliques” (note 12); international communist rebels in 1935 were not to be referred to as “Russians,” but as “Bolshevik Jews” (note 13) or “Bolshevik hordes” (note 14). Five years later and during war, German occupation newspapers were entirely Party controlled with targeted anti-Semitic propaganda.

Over twenty-five weeks the Ukraine Post outlined and winningly explained the twenty-five planks of the Nazi Party platform to its Volk German readership, with the fourth instalment on the racial unity of the German Volk on October 24, 1942 (note 15). Pseudo-scientific beliefs about blood purity were deemed to be critical for understanding the “why” of German cultural achievement or decline, and it gave a rationale for Germany’s rejection of universal human rights.

“A people can only attain high achievements if it keeps its blood pure. … A mixture of German blood with Jewish blood leads to a reduction in the achievements of our people and thus to racial decline and finally to collapse.” (Note 16)

The article connected this party plank with Hitler’s 1935 Nuremberg Race Laws that sought to “eliminate the influence of Jewry on the racial value of the German people.” This required that “every German must be able to prove that there are no Jews among his ancestors [see the later EWZ naturalization forms filled out by Mennonites from Ukraine in Warthegau]. … Only he who has German blood in his veins can think, feel, and act German. He is free from the bad qualities inherent in the Jewish race” (note 17).

Goebbels’s October 1941 intention to increase anti-Semitic propaganda in the newly occupied eastern territories was an extension of the themes he had repeated since his infamous 1936 address, “Communism with the Mask off”—namely, that a Jewish minority was the terrorist power behind the Russian Revolution and contemporary Bolshevism; that international Bolshevism was nothing less than international Jewry; that both were joined in a satanic battle against human civilization itself to control world politics; and that both must be met with the same ruthless and even brutal means. The address was even reprinted in the Canadian Russian Mennonite paper Der Bote in 1936 (note 18).

While this form of anti-Semitism was not wholly new in Russia, German propaganda offered a new interpretive framework for the cause of Mennonite suffering which as planned fueled latent local Christian anti-Semitism (note 19).

Regime-coherent answers by Mennonites were encouraged and cited in the Ukraine Post: “the Jews tortured us the most,” soldiers were told by one Volksdeutsche woman (note 20). In their 1942 village reports, ethnic German mayors and teachers were asked to give detailed “descriptive reports of arrests, incarcerations, maltreatments, persecutions, and the like.” Where a known Jew was involved, it was highlighted. Twenty-two of thirty-three families in the village of Schöndorf, Borosenko (Rayon Friesendorf) were missing the male head, for example. Their 1942 official village report included a survivor account which repeated three times that the interrogator and torturer of some was a Jew (note 21). In neighbouring Heuboden, it was “a Jewish supervisor” who whipped the women and older men on to dig trenches to thwart the German advance (note 22). In Nikolaidorf, 44-year-old Johann Buller was “discovered and shot dead by a Jewish commissar” when he escaped arrest just outside his village immediately prior to the arrival of German troops (note 23). From Nieder Chortitza, Mennonite village Mayor Redekop reported July 1942 that their Jewish manager “had a brother who came to help” with the evacuation. “They were all armed and because they were Jews everyone was afraid.” The evacuation was accompanied by the “military, GPU [secret police] and Jews” (note 24). Another village report noted that “immediately after the arrival of the German troops there was calm again, and everyone began to breathe easy, even the Ukrainian population was happy to be saved from Jewish yoke” (note 25). And the Schönhorst (Rayon Chortitza) village report noted that until recently they had had “a wind orchestra and sixteen instruments, but these were taken when the Jews fled the village” (note 26). The village reporter for Gnadental (Sofiewka) recalled how they when war was declared: “Either we are now completely lost, or we will finally be freed from Judeo-Bolshevik slavery by Germany” (note 27). It was not unusual for a report to be signed with exuberant praise: “Heil to the Liberator and Führer, Adolf Hitler!,” as Mayor Redekop concluded his report, stamped with an official village swastika seal and the signature of the regional administrator for Special Commando Dr. Stumpp, Gerhard Fast (note 28).

It is estimated that a half-million Jews were murdered in Nazi-occupied Ukraine alone (note 29). How does one begin to understand the inexplicable? Hitler and his propagandists found understanding and some support in Ukraine among Mennonites for the call to cleanse the world of all that is decrepit and to unmask all that is degenerate and evil, in order to purify and perfect the Volk and to inaugurate a joyous new age. James Rhodes likens this to a modern, secular apocalyptic movement (note 30).

Minimally it is possible to say that a majority of Soviet Mennonites were silent, fearful observers as local Jews fled, sought refuge or were gathered to be executed. Some were ideologically convinced or set on finding revenge. The sources certainly show deep prejudice and broad agreement with the tone of official propaganda, though they fall short of documenting actions taken.

            ---Arnold Neufeldt-Fast

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Link for newspapers referenced below:

• Deutsche Ukraine-Zeitung: https://libraria.ua/en/all-titles/group/875/.
• Ukraine Post: https://libraria.ua/en/all-titles/group/878/.

Link for “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp” referenced below:

• Bundesarchiv Koblenz, BArch R6 GSK, files 620 to 633; 702 to 709. Prepared for the German Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, 1942. State Electronic Archive of Ukraine, https://tsdea.aewrchives.gov.ua/deutsch/. Also directly from the BArch: R 6/620 to 633; R 6/705-709, https://invenio.bundesarchiv.de/invenio/direktlink/c44832a9-2cd8-4796-9a6c-29793c8e9f7d/.

Note 1: “Hunger nach dem Deutschen Wort,” Ukraine Post, no. 12 (October 3, 1942), 3f.

Note 2: “Bolschewismus = Judentum,” Ukraine Post, no. 14 (October, 17, 1942), 4. Similarly, “Vom Ziel dieses Krieges,” Ukraine Post, no. 21 (December 5, 1943), 1f.

Note 3: “Judas Kriegsziel,” Ukraine Post, no. 15 (October, 24, 1942), 1.

Note 4: “Die dunkle Spur des Judentums: Warum ist unser Kampf so hart und schonungslos?,” Ukraine Post, no. 22 (December 12, 1942), 4; similarly: “Vor dem Angesicht Jahwes,” Ukraine Post, no. 19 (May 15, 1943), 3.

Note 5: Johann von Leers, “Tod der Tausend Qualen,” Ukraine Post, no. 16 (April 24, 1943), 3.

Note 6: Johann von Leers, “Schachfiguren Judas,” Ukraine Post,” no. 11 (March 20, 1943), 8.

Note 7: Johann von Leers, “Kulturträger, Made in USA,” Ukraine Post, no. 21 (May 29, 1943), 4.

Note 8: Rudolf Dammert, “Juden auf Bauernjagd: Ihr Weg aus dem Getto zur Macht,” Ukraine Post, no. 9 (September 12, 1942), 2.

Note 9: “Volksgemeinschaft statt Klassenkampf,” Ukraine Post, no. 7 (February 20, 1943), 4.

Note 10: “Folterkammer 7, 8, 9: Inquisitionen in den Gefängnissen,” Ukraine Post, no. 24 (June 19, 1943), 3.

Note 11: “‘Du wirst alle Völker zehren’: Jüdische Massenmorde in der Geschichte,” Ukraine Post, no. 26 (July 3, 1943), 4; “Trotz schwerer Prüfungen: Volksdeutsche Bauern packen wieder an,” Ukraine Post no. 26 (July 3, 1943), 7.

Note 12: Karen Peter, N-S Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit 6, no. 1, Quellentexte Januar bis April, 1938 (Berlin: Saur, 2013), 207.

Note 13: Gabriele Toepser-Ziegert, ed., N-S Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit 3, no. 2, 1935 (New York: Saur, 1984–2001), 800.

Note 14: Karen Peter, N-S Presseanweisungen der Vorkriegszeit 5, no. 1, Quellentexte Januar bis April, 1937 (Berlin: Saur, 2015), 491; cf. also 394, 509, etc.

Note 15: “Die 25 Punkte: Das Programm der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP),” Ukraine Post, no. 15 (October 24, 1942), 4.

Note 16: “Die 25 Punkte (no. 4),” Ukraine Post, no. 15 (October 24, 1942), 4.

Note 17: “Die 25 Punkte (no. 4),” Ukraine Post, no. 15 (October 24, 1942), 4.

Note 18: Cf. Joseph Goebbels, “Communism with the Mask Off. Speech delivered in Nurnberg on September 13, 1935 at the Seventh National Socialist Party Congress” (Berlin: Müller, 1935), https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb58.htm; Jonathan F. Wagner, Brothers Beyond the Sea: National Socialism in Canada (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1981), 108; Der Bote, October and November 1936 issues.

Note 19: Cf. Wendy Lower, “Hitler’s ‘Garden of Eden’ in Ukraine: Nazi Colonialism, Volksdeutsche, and the Holocaust, 1941–1944,” in Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and its Aftermath, edited by Jonathan Petropoulos and John Roth (New York: Berghahn, 2006), 191f.

Note 20: “‘… daß ihr endlich da seid:’ Volksdeutsche umjubeln unsere Soldaten,” Ukraine Post, no. 24 (Weihnachten 1942), 8; this woman lived in the Caucasus region, were some Mennonite Brethren churches were planted.

Note 21: Schöndorf (Rayon Friesendorf), Dorfbericht, August 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.5, 9, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK file 702b, Mappe 180, 97.

Note 22: Heuboden (Rayon Friesendorf), Dorfbericht, August 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.6, 10,” BA R6 GSK file 623, Mappe 170, 156b.

Note 23: Nikolaifeld (Rayon Kronau), Dorfbericht, March 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.6, 10, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK, file 620, Mappe 39, 352b.

Note 24: Nieder Chortitza (Rayon Chortitza) Dorfbericht, July 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.6, 10b, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK, file 705, Mappe 100, 37.

Note 25: Friesendorf (Rayon Friesendorf) Dorfbericht, July 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.6, 10, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK, file 623, Mappe 169, 106b.

Note 26: Schönhorst (Rayon Chortitza) Dorfbericht, June 1942, Fragebogen Nr. VII.e, 4, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK R6 GSK, file 622, Mappe 92, 160b.

Note 27: “Gnadental (Rayon Sofiewka) Dorfbericht,” May 1942,” Fragebogen XI.6, 10 (469b), “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BArch R6/623, Mappe 182.

Note 28: Nieder Chortitza (Rayon Chortitza) Dorfbericht, July 1942, Fragebogen Nr. XI.6, 10b, “Village Reports Commando Dr. Stumpp,” BA R6 GSK, file 705, Mappe 100, 37.

Note 29: Cf. Dieter Pohl, “Just How Many? On the Death Toll of Jewish Victims of Nazi Crimes,” in Denial of the Denial, or the Battle of Auschwitz: Debates about the Demography and Geopolitics of the Holocaust, edited by Alfred Kokh and Pavel Polian, (Brighton, MA: Academic Studies, 2011), 139.

Note 30: James M. Rhodes, The Hitler Movement: A Modern Millenarian Revolution (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1980), 198.

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To cite this post: Arnold Neufeldt-Fast, "The 'Judeo-Bolshevism' thesis and Mennonites in Ukraine, 1941-44," History of the Russian Mennonites (blog), June 11, 2023, https://russianmennonites.blogspot.com/2023/06/judeo-bolshevism-thesis-and-mennonites.html.