{"title":"South African Anti-Fascism and the Nazi Foreign Office: Antisemitism, Anti-communism and the Surveillance of the Third Reich’s International Enemies","authors":"Kasper Braskén","doi":"10.1080/02582473.2022.2027005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article offers a new analysis of how the Third Reich’s Foreign Office reported on anti-fascist activities in the Union of South Africa during the 1930s. Based on letters, dispatches and reports written by the German legation and official German representatives in South Africa, the article reveals and discusses how Nazi officials followed and reacted to anti-fascist activity in South Africa. The article demonstrates how the German legation perceived anti-fascist movements and analysed them as a part of a rising global anti-German sentiment, Jewish activism, and ‘international bolshevism’. South African anti-fascism reveals itself also as a direct concern for the official bilateral relations between South Africa and Nazi Germany during the 1930s. Germany was intensely concerned with South African public opinion when it came to protests against German Nazism, international fascism and local fascist groups in South Africa. The article thus offers to expand our understanding of South Africa’s place in the global struggle between anti-fascism and fascism and discusses the ways in which anti-fascism was delegitimised. Furthermore, it shows how German clubs, offices, ships and consulates became important sites of protest and targets of anti-fascist activities and boycotts.","PeriodicalId":45116,"journal":{"name":"South African Historical Journal","volume":"74 1","pages":"30 - 54"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"South African Historical Journal","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2022.2027005","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article offers a new analysis of how the Third Reich’s Foreign Office reported on anti-fascist activities in the Union of South Africa during the 1930s. Based on letters, dispatches and reports written by the German legation and official German representatives in South Africa, the article reveals and discusses how Nazi officials followed and reacted to anti-fascist activity in South Africa. The article demonstrates how the German legation perceived anti-fascist movements and analysed them as a part of a rising global anti-German sentiment, Jewish activism, and ‘international bolshevism’. South African anti-fascism reveals itself also as a direct concern for the official bilateral relations between South Africa and Nazi Germany during the 1930s. Germany was intensely concerned with South African public opinion when it came to protests against German Nazism, international fascism and local fascist groups in South Africa. The article thus offers to expand our understanding of South Africa’s place in the global struggle between anti-fascism and fascism and discusses the ways in which anti-fascism was delegitimised. Furthermore, it shows how German clubs, offices, ships and consulates became important sites of protest and targets of anti-fascist activities and boycotts.
期刊介绍:
Over the past 40 years, the South African Historical Journal has become renowned and internationally regarded as a premier history journal published in South Africa, promoting significant historical scholarship on the country as well as the southern African region. The journal, which is linked to the Southern African Historical Society, has provided a high-quality medium for original thinking about South African history and has thus shaped - and continues to contribute towards defining - the historiography of the region.