Background: The Zeitschriften-Dienst was a weekly newsletter for magazine editors during the Third Reich, first published in 1939. It was supposed to be confidential. Editors were to keep it locked away, and use it to help guide them in their duties. Here, I translate an article on how to deal with the expected victory over the Soviet Union, published at the end of October 1941. Editors were to place the victory in historical context, suggesting that Europe had been rescued from the greatest threat it had ever faced. I include the extensive list of sources for each point. It suggests the work editors might do, though I suspect few visited the library to dig up the books listed. Other material from the ZD on the invasion of the Soviet Union is available elswhere on the GPA.

For general information about the ZD, see Robert Young, “‘Not this way please!’ Regulating the press in Nazi Germany,” Journalism Quarterly (1987), 787-792.

The source: Zeitschriften-Dienst, 31 October 1941, 4-5.

5604: Decisive Battles — Battles of Annihilation

Why now?

The war against Bolshevism is characterized by a significant number of battles of annihilation which have protected us from the danger of Bolshevism, which the Führer, in his message to soldiers on 2 October 1941, called the greatest threat since the attacks of the Huns and the Mongols.

Goal:

The vast historical significance of this battle to save Europe should be made clear from the historical and political standpoints.

General outline:

Emphasize: Bolshevism is a threat for any culture, but particularly Europe’s culture. Bolshevism threatens to wipe out all the successful and hard-working racial lines in Europe. In the areas it rules, culture gradually disappears. Bolshevism means general poverty, the extermination of all previous intellectual achievements (art, literature, music, science). Europe’s standing in the world depends on its many gifted racial groups, on its intellectual capital in achievements and knowledge. If once destroyed, this culture cannot be rebuilt. Europe has never faced a similar danger. The Huns and the Mongols were somewhat similar, but not so dangerous, as they were not motivated by a worldview that promoted cultural destruction, even if they did do terrible damage.

Avoid: Using the term “Asiatic” for Bolshevism, and any insult to Asian cultures. Confusing border conflicts with other cultures (e.g., the Arabian battles of Tours and Poitiers) with genuine threats to European culture. Do not say that the Persian kings’ attacks on Greece were a danger to European culture, since the Persians were an advanced Nordic people. Do not say that the Slavic peoples are inferior. (The Slovaks and the Croats are our allies, the Bulgarians our friends). Do not discuss a Catholic “Occidental ideal.” Do not insult the Maygars. Be careful in discussing the Turks, whose expansion under the great sultans cannot be compared with Bolshevism).

Themes and suggestions:

Was Cato right? (Rome’s defensive battle against Carthage, led by Scipio and Cato, which was a genuine struggle by an Indo-Germanic Mediterranean peasant culture against state ruled by a small layer of Phoenicians and Jewish merchants that hired mercenaries, and had little culture of its own. Material: The Italian film Zama; Fritz Taeger, Das Altertum, vol. II; Ed. Meyer, Gesch. des Altertums).

The Battle of Zama saved Europe’s future (the leadership of Carthage lost the battle). The victory over Spartacus (the Roman slave revolt that almost become a mob revolt threatened the entire classical culture with destruction). Material: Fr. Altheim: Epochen der römischen Geschichte, vol. III; Taeger, 206 ff.).

The attack of the Huns — an enrichment or a danger for Europe? (Portraying their culture, strongly influenced by the Chinese and the Turks, as it really was and how it was portrayed by Greek and Roman writers; Attila as a significant leader, his army leader, the Germanic Ardarich, famed as King Etzel in the Niebelungenlied — and the conglomeration of very unequal tribes, much senseless destruction, and the rapid collapse into insignificant small hordes after the death of Attila (the battle between his sons). Their power depended on their German allies. They were more a threat than an enrichment to Europe. Material: K. Zeuss, Die Deutschen und ihre Nachbarstämme; Hirth, Ueber Wolge — Hunnen und Hiungnu; Helzer, Byzantinische Kulturgeschichte, Tübingen, 1909, pp. 55 ff; O. Franke: Beiträge aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kennntnis der Turkvölker und Skythen Zentralasiens).

The Mongol storm — a real danger for Europe (accounts of the Mongol Empire and its methods of destroying and carrying off other peoples. Material: O. Wolff, Geschichte der Mongolen oder Tartaren, Breslau, 1872; Ernst Haenisch: Kulturbilder aus Chinas Mongolzeit, in Histor. Zeitschrift, vol. 164, Nr, 1m o. 21, 1941; S. E. Haenisch: Geheime Geschichte der Mongolen, Leipzig, 1937/41). — Battle at Liegnitz by the Wahlstatt. Proclamation by Frederick II in Frz. Iblher, Vor der Entscheidung, Berlin, Alfred-Metzner-Verlag, 1941, p. 93.

The attack of the Turks, and the defense against it (Use great caution! We have a friendship treaty with Turkey! The Turks are very sensitive to misunderstandings and denigration of their national history. — Discuss the extent of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. Has a unified administration, exemplary military, a high culture — but there was also a danger of the subordination of Central Europe, just as the Balkans and Byzantium had been conquered. Fierce warfare, slavery, desolation. In the defense against this powerful and in many ways admirable foe, Germany saved its own culture and soil, and thereby also protected other European nations (Do not bring up Christian agitation of the time against Turkey and Islam. — Be careful of our current relations with the Middle East. No religious issues!). The battle of annihilation at Zenta, 1697. fall of Belgrade 1717. Material: Jorga: Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches, vo. III, p. 135 and after; C. Ritter von Sax: Geschichte des Machtverfalls der Türkei, Vienna 1913; Zinkeisen: Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches; Alfons von Czibulka: Grosse deutsche Soldaten, Berlin 1933, “Vivat Eugenius” and the works on Prince Eugen.

Dangers to European culture from within: The rebaptizers of Münster (riots led by a sect that entirely followed the Jewish thinking of the Old Testament. confiscation of property, communism, immorality, murder). Coming from the same Jewish spirit as Bolshevism, it had the same drive to destruction [do not confuse it with earlier peaceful rebaptizers and the later Mennonites]. The destruction of the communist “Kingdom of Zion” in Münster saved culture from the Jewish spirit. Material: Ranke: Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation. Full edition. Vienna, chapt. 9, p. 696 and following; Egelhaaf: Deutsche Geschichte im 16. Jahrhundert, Stuttgart 1892, vol. 2, p. 247).

The Jacobeans and the reign of terror of the French Revolution as mob rule that threatened culture under the leadership of ideologues (mass executions, Jewish influence). The terrible Marat, influenced by the Jew Pereira, and the destruction of the native French aristocracy and the granting of citizenship to the Jews. Mass seizure of property, a battle against God, moral decay. Material: Michelet: Geschichte der französischen Revolution, German translation by Friedrich M. Kirheisen, vol. 9; Hoppenstedt: Die franzözische Revolution, Berlin, two volumes; A. Thiers: Histoire de la Révolution française, ten volumes, Paris 1923-1827. German edition, Mannheim, 1855. Compare A. Aulard, Thiers: Histoirie de la Révolution française; La Révolution française, vols. LXVI and LXVII, 1914; H. v. Sybel: Geschichte des Revolutionszeit. 1st edition, 2 vols, Düsseldorf 1853-1858, 4th edition [up to 1800]. 5 vols., Frankfurt 1872-79. Volksausgabe, 10 vols., Stuttgart, 1897-1900; L. v. Ranke, Ursprung und Beginn der Revolutionskriege 1791 und 1792. Leipzig 1875. Collected Works, vol. 45; A. Aulard, Histoire politique de la Révolution française, Paris 1901. German edition, Munich 1909. Compare A. Cochin, La crise de l’histoire révolutionare. Taine et M. Aulard, Paris 1909).

The Paris Commune of 1871 as a new destruction of culture by mob rule.

Bolshevism as the most serious threat to culture and to Europe. (Material: Karl L. Albrecht, Der verratene Sozialismus, Niebelungen-Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig, 1939; Ernst Ertl, Werkmeister im “Paradies,” Niebelungen-Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig, 1939; Prof. Dr. Karl Michael: Bauern unterm Sowjetstern, Blut und Boden Verlag, Goslar 1939; Dr. Hermann Greife: Die Klassenkampfpolitik der Sowjetregierung, Niebelungen-Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig; Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch: Jüdischer Imperialismus, Theodor-Fritsch-Verlag, Leipzig C 1; Hermann Fehst: Bolshewismus und Judentum, Berlin 1934; Adolf Ehrt und Julius Schweickert: Entfesselung det Unterwelt, ein Querschnitt durch die Bolshewisierung Deutschlands, Niebelungen-Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig; Dr. Rudolf Ehrt, Bewaffneter Aufstand! Enthüllungen über den kommunistischen Umsturzversuch am Vorabend der nationalen Revolution. Published by the Gesamtverband deutscher antikommunistischer Vereinigungen e.V., Eckart-Verlag, Berlin-Leipzig; R. Nilostonski: Der Blutrausch des Bolschewismus. Bericht eines Augenzeugen über die Schreckensherrschaft der Bolschewisten in Rußland. Neudeutsch-Verlags-und Treuhandgesellschaft 1921, Berlin).

Additional basic themes:

The threat of subhumanity (including treatment of the book by Lothrop Stoddard, translated into German by Dr. Wilhelm Heise: Der Kulturumsturz — die Drohung des Untermenschen, J. F. Lehmann Verlag, Munich 1925).

“Die Republik der Gleichen,” (Gracchus Baboeuf) as the signal for subhumanity. — Jewry as the leader of the underworld (see especially Schwartz Bostunitsch: Jüdischer Imperialismus).

Literature:

In addition to that already mentioned: F. von Freytagh-Loringhoven: Geschichte der russischen Revolution. — Heinrich Wolf: Weltgeschichte der Revolutionen. Düsseldorf 1930. — Sorokin: Soziologie der Revolution.

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