Political Murders
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
VOLUME 16 NO.9 SEPTEMBER 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Political murders Link with Wiener Library he murder of Jo Cox MP on 16 June erosion of national sovereignty, the dilution of underlined at event celebrating 2016, shortly before the referendum on ‘British identity’, and the supposed complicity Britain’s membership of the European of certain politicians, principally on the left, in AJR’s 75th anniversary TUnion, was a shocking instance of political those processes. violence almost unique in recent British history. This is a pattern easily recognisable from Such instances of politically motivated violence Germany in the years of extreme turbulence in Britain are mercifully rare. that followed its defeat in To find an assassination of a the First World War. The serving prime minister one has suddenness of the German to go back to Spencer Perceval military collapse in autumn in 1812. Perceval’s assassin, John 1918 meant that German Bellingham, appears to have public opinion was unprepared been motivated by a personal for it and, on the right, t a reception in July at the Wiener grievance, not by political unwilling to accept the reality Library to celebrate the AJR’s 75th conviction. More recently, the of the Allied victory. Germany’s anniversary, a special plaque on attack on the Liberal Democrat wartime military leaders, Field Athe Library’s Wall of Honour dedicated to MP for Cheltenham, Nigel Murdered Labour MP Jo Cox Marshal Hindenburg and Hans Reichmann, AJR Chairman 1953-63, Jones, in January 2000, was also General Ludendorff, who had and his wife, Eva, the Library’s Director of carried out by a lone attacker with a private effectively been in control of Germany since Research from the end of the war until the grievance, exacerbated by mental problems. 1916, vacated the political scene as defeat 1960s, was unveiled. Politically motivated murders in Britain over loomed and, in an act of gross political In his welcoming address, Wiener recent decades can, almost without exception, cowardice, left the task of negotiating peace Library Chairman Anthony Spiro stressed be traced back to causes external to the day- terms with the victorious Allies to civilians who the bond between the AJR and the Wiener to-day run of domestic British politics. The had borne no responsibility for the policies that Library as being ‘strong and close’. ‘As most obvious case is the campaign of violence had led Germany to catastrophe. refugee numbers decline’, he added, ‘the mounted from the 1970s by militant Irish The German delegation that travelled to importance of our work remains – to ensure Republicans, which culminated in the bombing Compiègne in November 1918 to sign the that, through education and our archive of the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the harsh terms of the armistice dictated by the of documents and personal papers, the Conservative Party conference in October 1984, Allies was led by a civilian, Matthias Erzberger, events that created the refugee generation killing five people. The Irish National Liberation a leading politician of the Centre (Catholic) are never forgotten.’ Army murdered Airey Neave, Conservative Party. Responsibility for accepting the terms of Andrew Kaufman, Chairman of the MP for Abingdon, by blowing up his car in the armistice and, later, of the yet more onerous AJR, noted that ‘We are here to remember the Palace of Westminster car park in 1979. terms of the Treaty of Versailles (June 1919) Hans and Eva Reichmann, who did so Ian Gow, Conservative MP for Eastbourne, perforce rested with the civilian governments much to define the relationship between was murdered by the IRA in 1990, while that shouldered the heavy burden of governing our two great organisations.’ He also paid the IRA bomb intended for Sir Hugh Fraser, Germany in the wake of military defeat amidst tribute to Anthony Spiro’s late father, Conservative MP for Stafford and Stone, in extreme political instability. Many right-wing Ludwig, the AJR’s former Life President, 1975, succeeded only in killing the renowned Germans chose to ignore the historical realities ‘who as our Treasurer did so much to cancer specialist Professor Gordon Hamilton and believed the notorious Dolchstoßlegende, advance and develop the AJR and was Fairley. The attack on Stephen Timms, Labour according to which the German armies, the inspiration and driving force for the MP for East Ham, in 2010, was carried out by a undefeated, had in autumn 1918 been ‘stabbed creation of the AJR Centre.’ Anthony Muslim extremist in protest against the Iraq war. in the back’, Siegfried-like, by the treacherous Spiro too, Andrew declared, was ‘playing a The murder of Jo Cox, by contrast, was machinations of left-wing revolutionaries and leading role in setting and navigating the entirely a home-grown matter. Her alleged Jews operating on the home front. course for the AJR and the Wiener Library.’ attacker, Thomas Mair, is British, and his Germany, which before 1914 had known motives were apparently rooted in domestic little political violence, became fertile soil uprising, the Social Democrat-led government British concerns. As he launched a savage, for it after 1918. The unstable coalition that was forced to rely on the army and, in particular, cowardly attack on a defenceless woman, Mair attempted to govern Germany in November on irregular paramilitary units known as is reported to have shouted ‘Britain first!’ or 1918, consisting of the Social Democrats (SPD) Freikorps. These were composed largely of ‘Put Britain first!’; in court, he gave his name and the more militantly left-wing Independent aggressively nationalistic and anti-Semitic young as ‘Death to traitors, freedom for Britain.’ Mair Social Democrats (USPD), fell apart in late militants bitterly opposed to the parliamentary may well turn out to be a paranoid loner but December 1918 as radical left-wing elements institutions of the infant Weimar Republic, to he has a recognisable political agenda – that of in the newly founded Communist Party (KPD) any orientation of Germany towards the liberal the extreme nationalist (or even proto-fascist) sought to initiate a revolution on the lines of the democracies of Western Europe, and to any far right, heightened by concerns about the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. To put down this continued on page 2 journal SEPTEMBER 2016 Political murders continued fulfilment of the terms of the armistice and AJR Lunch the Treaty of Versailles. Many Freikorps men 75th Anniversary were involved in the brutal conflicts that took Visit to Air Transport of the AJR place after the armistice in the former German Auxiliary Museum territories in the east that had come under the Tour led by Paul Lang Sunday control of Poland and the Baltic states, where 5 September 2016 they conducted actions against both local Slav 25 SEPTEMBER 2016 FLY A SPITFIRE SIMULATOR nationalists and Bolshevik units. If you would like to attend, The fruits of such attitudes once they were let Join us for a visit to the Air Transport please complete the enclosed loose amidst the political turmoil of Germany in Auxiliary Exhibition. Listen to a forgotten story of courage, skill and sacrifice. 70 years form and return it to us ASAP 1918/19 rapidly became clear. The leaders of the on, it is difficult to believe that Britain was Communist Party, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl so desperate that the amateur pilots of Air Liebknecht, were murdered by Freikorps men in Transport Auxiliary (men and women) were January 1919 in the wake of the failed uprising employed to fly dozens of different types of war plane between factories and front-line in Berlin; the leader of the USPD, Hugo Haase, squadrons. was assassinated that autumn; and in Munich, NORTH WEST LONDON You will have the opportunity to fly a Spitfire LUNCH where a radical left-wing regime had assumed Simulator and we will have lunch in a local power, the left-wing leader Kurt Eisner, a Jew, restaurant before our return. Tuesday 27 September 2016 was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. That For an application form, please call 12-2.30 pm act of terror set in train a sequence of events Head Office on 020 8385 3070 at Alyth Gardens Synagogue that led to the ‘cleansing’ of the city in May or email [email protected] 1919 by right-wing paramilitaries led by men 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE like Franz Ritter von Epp. Later, Epp would ENTEBBE RAID – ‘OPERATION re-emerge to abolish the Bavarian government association with the ‘enemies of the German THUNDERBOLT’ in March 1933 and hand power to the Nazis. people’. The frightening mentality of these To mark the 40th anniversary of the Entebbe rescue mission, we welcome Professor Saul Among Epp’s men, who indulged in atrocities young right-wing extremists was the subject of Klaus Theweleit’s study Männerphantasien David, accomplished speaker, historian, like the savage killing of the pacifist anarchist broadcaster, and TV and radio presenter. Gustav Landauer, a Jew, was the future leader (Male Fantasies) (1977), which reveals the He will speak on his book Operation of the SA (Brownshirts), Ernst Röhm. There aggressive, proto-fascist attitudes, the virulent Thunderbolt, which had a 5-star review misogyny, and the glorification of ‘hardness’ in the Daily Telegraph in June: ‘a brilliant were numerous Freikorps units, including the account that reads like the plot of an action Freikorps Roßbach, which numbered the future that characterised them. movie’. Filming will start in November 2016. commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, TheOrganisation Consul came into its own Booking Essential among its members, and the Marinebrigade during the period of the great inflation in £8.00 pp to include Ehrhardt, under Captain Hermann Ehrhardt.