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84-608: The Nordic League (NL) originated in 1935 when agents of Alfred Rosenberg 's Nordische Gesellschaft arrived in Britain to establish a UK version of their movement. The main force behind this new group was Unionist MP Archibald Maule Ramsay who chaired the group's 14-man leadership council. The group's constitution described it as an "association of race conscious Britons" and sought to co-ordinate all far-right and fascist movements whilst giving particular emphasis to anti-Semitism . The League sought to unite leading figures from across

168-669: A Reichsleiter , the second highest political rank in the Nazi Party. In May 1933 Rosenberg visited Britain, to give the impression that the Nazis would not be a threat and to encourage links between the new regime and the British Empire . It was a notable failure. When Rosenberg laid a wreath bearing a swastika at the Cenotaph , a Labour Party candidate slashed it, later threw it in the Thames and

252-685: A buffer state to ease the pressure on the German eastern frontier, while agreeing with the notion that Russia could be exploited for the benefit of Germany. During the war, Rosenberg was in favour of collaboration with the East Slavs against Bolshevism and offering them national independence unlike other Nazis such as Hitler and Himmler who dismissed such ideas. Rosenberg criticised those who did not subscribe to his racial theories. For example, he attacked Fascist Italy for what he perceived as its incorrect and improper stance on race and Jewishness. Rosenberg

336-701: A hindrance to the expansion of the Nordic population. Rosenberg's attitude towards Slavs was flexible because it depended on the particular nation which he referred to. As a result of the ideology of " Drang nach Osten " ("Drive to the East"), Rosenberg saw his mission as the conquest and colonization of the Slavic East. In The Myth of the Twentieth Century , Rosenberg describes Russian Slavs as being overwhelmed by Bolshevism. Regarding Ukrainians , he favoured setting up

420-536: A medical and psychiatric report on him in prison to evaluate him as a suicide risk: He gave the impression of clinging to his own theories in a fanatical and unyielding fashion and to have been little influenced by the unfolding during the trial of the cruelty and crimes of the party. Summarizing the unresolved conflict between the personal views of Rosenberg and the pragmatism of the Nazi elite: The ruthless pursuit of Nazi aims turned out to mean not, as Rosenberg had hoped,

504-600: A mentor to Rosenberg and to his ideology. Arriving in Munich , he contributed to Dietrich Eckart 's publication, the Völkischer Beobachter ( Ethnic/Nationalist Observer ). By this time, he was both an antisemite – influenced by Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's book The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century , one of the key proto-Nazi books of racial theory – and an anti-Bolshevik . Rosenberg became one of

588-624: A partner in an engineering firm in London specialising in the manufacture of silver paper, a process that he had learned in Germany. During his studies in Germany, Thomson met and married Lisbeth, the daughter of the X-ray pioneer Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen . They would go on to have three children together; Lisbeth already had a daughter from a previous relationship, and Thomson also had a long-term mistress, Olive Burdett. Thomson's political career began by joining

672-634: A result of his open letter, Szell was deported by Lithuanian authorities on 15 September 1936. His claims were repeated in the 15 September 1937 issue of the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano . The young Rosenberg graduated from the Petri-Realschule (currently Tallinna Reaalkool ) and enrolled in architecture studies at the Riga Polytechnical Institute in the Autumn of 1910. In 1915, as

756-504: A speaking tour designed to present the fascist message, but most of his engagements were disrupted by communist hecklers, including one at Aberdeen in which an extended chorus of The Internationale from the crowd effectively silenced the BUF speakers. Thomson became a leading figure in the BUF and in 1937 represented the party in municipal elections in Bethnal Green (SW). He won 23.17% of

840-405: A strong anti-Semitism and was generally noted as an admirer of Nazi Germany . He was part of BUF delegation that attended the 1933 Nuremberg Rally . He made a total of five extended trips to Nazi Germany. Despite being one of the public faces of the BUF, he had actually been interviewed by The Jewish Chronicle in 1934 and had told the newspaper that the group had no specific enmity towards

924-666: The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce) developed for the purpose of looting art and cultural goods . The ERR were especially active in Paris in looting art stolen from famous Jewish families such as the Rothschilds and that of Paul Rosenberg . Hermann Göring used the ERR to collect art for his own personal gratification. He created a "Special Task Force for Music" ( Sonderstab Musik ) to collect

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1008-531: The Völkischer Beobachter became the Nazi party newspaper in December 1920, Rosenberg became its editor in 1923. Rosenberg was a leading member of Aufbau Vereinigung , Reconstruction Organisation, a conspiratorial organisation of White Russian émigrés which had a critical influence on early Nazi policy. Rosenberg sympathized and identified with Talaat Pasha and the Committee of Union and Progress that carried out

1092-707: The Armenian genocide , also claiming that there was "a deliberately Jewish policy which had always protected the Armenians" and that "during the world war, the Armenians have led the espionage against the Turks, similar to the Jews against Germany". In 1923, after the failed Beer Hall Putsch , Hitler, who had been imprisoned for treason , appointed Rosenberg as the leader of the Nazi movement. Hitler remarked privately in later years that his choice of Rosenberg, whom he regarded as weak and lazy,

1176-520: The British left had enforced "specifically Anglo-Saxon democratic methods of parliamentary governance" upon Ireland to which it was "entirely foreign and distasteful". Thomson also believed that a United Ireland would occur under fascism, an ideology that was less foreign to the " native Celtic culture ". After the outbreak of war, Thomson devised a plan to attack the Nordic League as "Nazi traitors" in

1260-507: The Communist Party of Great Britain , but his membership did not last long since he rejected notions of historical materialism and moved more towards corporatism . Thomson became a leading authority on the works of Oswald Spengler and in 1932 published the book Civilization as Divine Superman: A Superorganic Philosophy of History , which rejected Spengler's theories about the decline of civilisation and argued that it could be avoided by

1344-750: The German occupation of Estonia in 1918, Rosenberg served as a drawing teacher at the Gustav Adolf Gymnasium and Tallinna Reaalkool (current Tallinn Polytechnic School ). He gave his first speech on Jewish Marxism on 30 November, at the House of the Blackheads , after the 28 November 1918 outbreak of the Estonian War of Independence . He emigrated to Germany with the retreating Imperial German army , along with Max Scheubner-Richter , who served as something of

1428-633: The Nazi government . He was the head of the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs during the entire rule of Nazi Germany (1933–1945), and led Amt Rosenberg ("Rosenberg's bureau"), an official Nazi body for cultural policy and surveillance , between 1934 and 1945. During World War II , Rosenberg was the head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (1941–1945). After the war, he

1512-608: The New European Order , a group with which Mosley had no official contact with because of his support for the European Social Movement . Thomson's international reputation grew further in 1952 when he was appointed to the editorial board of the prestigious Nation Europa magazine. He also became known as the publisher of Frederick J. Veale's Advance to Barbarism , one of the early pieces of Second World War historical revisionism and contributed to The European ,

1596-561: The Volta Conference about Europe. British historian Sir Charles Petrie met him there and regarded him with great distaste; Petrie was a Catholic and strongly objected to Rosenberg's anti-Jewish and anti-Catholic sentiments. The following year, following the Nazi seizure of power , Rosenberg was named leader of the Nazi Party's Foreign Policy Office in April, and on 2 June 1933 he was named

1680-415: The immortality of the soul , saying, "indeed, absorbing Christianity enfeebled our people." Publicly, Rosenberg affected to deplore Christianity's degeneration owing to its Jewish influence. He took inspiration from Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's ideas and condemned what he called "Negative Christianity" (which was conventional Christianity preached by Protestantism and Catholicism ), instead Rosenberg

1764-557: The " Lebensraum " idea in Germany during the war; facilitating the persecution of Christian churches and the Jews in particular; and opposition to the Versailles Treaty . According to Joseph Kingsbury-Smith, who covered the executions for the International News Service , Rosenberg was the only condemned man who, when asked at the gallows if he had any last statement to make, replied with only one word: "No". Hitler

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1848-894: The 1850s, where he met Julie Elisabeth Stramm, born in Jörden (now Estonia) in 1835. The two married in the German St. Nicholas parish of Reval in 1856. His mother died two months after his birth. The Hungarian-Jewish journalist Franz Szell, who was apparently residing in Tilsit , Prussia , Germany , spent a year researching in Latvian and Estonian archives before publishing an open letter in 1936, with copies to Hermann Göring , Joseph Goebbels , Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath and others, accusing Rosenberg of having "no drop of German blood" flowing in his veins. Szell wrote that among Rosenberg's ancestors were only "Latvians, Jews, Mongols, and French." As

1932-605: The Christian denominations in favor of "positive Christianity". Hitler privately condemned mystical and pseudoreligious interests as "nonsense", and maintained that National Socialism was based on science and should avoid mystic and cultic practices. However, he and Joseph Goebbels agreed that after the Endsieg (Final Victory) the Reich Church should be pressed into evolving into a German social evolutionist organisation proclaiming

2016-614: The Duke of Wellington , the Duchess of Hamilton , Baron Brocket , and Michael O'Dwyer became involved in their movement. The NL came under increasing scrutiny after Kristallnacht , particularly for the violence of Ramsay, William Joyce and A. K. Chesterton in their anti-Semitic speeches. Others such as Elwin Wright, who until 1937 was secretary of the Anglo-German Fellowship , called for

2100-538: The German army was approaching Riga, the entire school evacuated to the Moscow Imperial Higher Technical School ( Russian : Императорское Московское техническое училище (ИМТУ) ), where he completed his PhD studies in 1917. During his stays at home in Reval, he attended the art studio of the famed painter Ants Laikmaa - though he showed promise, there are no records that he ever exhibited. During

2184-553: The Jewish people, the need for Lebensraum , abrogation of the Treaty of Versailles , and opposition to what was considered " degenerate " modern art. He was also known for his hatred and rejection of what he regarded as "negative" Christianity, however, he played an important role in the development of German nationalist Positive Christianity , which denied that Jesus is the Messiah and rejected

2268-433: The Jews. Thomson also had loose connections to hardline Revisionist Zionism activist Wolfgang von Weisl , but they were curtailed after von Weisl's superior, Ze'ev Jabotinsky , told him to break off relations. Mosley admired Thomson for his intellect and would later describe him as an "honest man and devoted patriot" but was also known to criticise him privately as something of a "yes-man". In 1937, Thomson wrote that

2352-507: The League as traitors in an attempt to present a more patriotic image, although Defence Regulation 18B came into force before this could be attempted. Alfred Rosenberg Alfred Ernst Rosenberg (12 January [ O.S. 31 December 1892] 1893 – 16 October 1946) was a Baltic German Nazi theorist and ideologue. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart and he held several important posts in

2436-661: The Lutheran chaplain who communed with some of the Nuremberg prisoners with Lutheran backgrounds, like Joachim von Ribbentrop and Wilhelm Keitel . Due to his criticism of Christianity, some polemical texts have called him a neo-pagan . In 1940 Rosenberg was made head of the Hohe Schule (literally "high school", but the German phrase refers to a college), the Centre of National Socialist Ideological and Educational Research, out of which

2520-539: The NL largely went into abeyance, with members joining other, more public, anti-war groups. The League had officially disbanded as soon as war was declared although it continued to meet secretly at Gilbert's house until his arrest in late September 1939. Two of its members, Joyce and Margaret Bothamley, left Britain for Nazi Germany after the outbreak of war. Given the association of the NL with Nazism, BUF organiser Alexander Raven Thomson even suggested that Mosley publicly denounce

2604-580: The Nazi Party is controversial. He was perceived as lacking the charisma and political skills of the other Nazi leaders, and was somewhat isolated. In some of his speeches Hitler appeared to be close to Rosenberg's views, rejecting traditional Christianity as a religion based on Jewish culture, preferring an ethnically and culturally pure "Race" whose destiny was supposed to be assigned to the German people by "Providence". But Hitler rejected Rosenberg's spiritual views on race but instead based his views on biology. After Hitler's assumption of power he moved to unify

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2688-482: The Nazi Party's chief racial theorist , Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's racial and ethnic policies . Rosenberg built on the works of Arthur de Gobineau , Houston Stewart Chamberlain , Madison Grant and the Klansman Lothrop Stoddard as well as on the beliefs of Hitler. Rosenberg placed Blacks and Jews at the very bottom of the ladder, while at

2772-592: The Old Testament as well as the notion of Christ as the Jewish Messiah) and the Manichaean-inspired, "Aryo-Iranian" Cathari , as being the more authentic interpreters of Christianity versus historically dominant Judaeo-Christianity; moreover these ancient, externally Christian metaphysical forms were more "organically compatible with the Nordic sense of the spiritual and the Nordic 'blood-soul'." For Rosenberg,

2856-652: The Old Testament. Rosenberg was born on 12 January 1893 in Reval (now Tallinn , Estonia), then in the Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire . His mother Elfriede (née Siré), who had French and German ancestry, was the daughter of Louise Rosalie (née Fabricius), born near Leal (modern Lihula , Estonia) in 1842, and of the railway official Friedrich August Siré, born in Saint Petersburg , Russia, in 1843. Born in

2940-691: The Reich. The Sanctum Officium in Rome recommended that Rosenberg's Myth of the Twentieth Century be put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (list of books forbidden by the Catholic Church) for scorning and rejecting "all dogmas of the Catholic Church, and the very fundamentals of the Christian religion". Rosenberg has been described as an atheist by some people, including Henry F. Gerecke ,

3024-505: The Twentieth Century ( Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts ) which deals with key issues in the Nazi ideology, such as the "Jewish question." Rosenberg intended his book as a sequel to Houston Stewart Chamberlain 's above-cited book. Despite selling more than a million copies by 1945, its influence within Nazism remains doubtful. It is often said to have been a book that was officially venerated within Nazism, but one that few had actually read beyond

3108-511: The UM domestically, Thomson was also a central figure in the party's international links. Thomson was sent to Spain in 1949 to try to build up support for Mosley in the country, but the trip was somewhat unsuccessful as he failed to impress the falangists and had to contend with the negative words of former BUF member Angus Macnab , who had grown to loathe Mosley. Later, Thomson was central in liaising with

3192-582: The anti-intellectual, religious doctrine was inseparable from serving the interests of the Nordic race, connecting the individual to his racial nature. Rosenberg stated that "The general ideas of the Roman and of the Protestant churches are negative Christianity and do not, therefore, accord with our (German) soul." His support for Luther as a great German figure was always ambivalent. In January 1934, Hitler appointed Rosenberg cultural and educational leader of

3276-461: The benefit of future Aryan generations, in accord with geopolitical " Lebensraum im Osten" plans. They would provide a buffer against Soviet expansion in preparation for the total eradication of Communism and Bolshevism by decisive pre-emptive military action. Following these plans, when Wehrmacht forces invaded Soviet-controlled territory, they immediately implemented the first of the proposed Reichskommissariats of Ostland and Ukraine , under

3360-570: The best musical instruments and scores for use in a university to be built in Hitler's home town of Linz , Austria . The orders given to the Sonderstab Musik were to loot all forms of Jewish property in Germany and of those found in any country taken over by the German army, and any musical instruments or scores were to be immediately shipped to Berlin . Following the invasion of the USSR , Rosenberg

3444-697: The churches into a national church which could be manipulated and controlled. He placed himself in the position of being the man to save Positive Christianity from utter destruction at the hands of the atheistic antitheist Communists of the Soviet Union . This was especially true immediately before and after the elections of 1932; Hitler wanted to appear non-threatening to major Christian faiths and consolidate his power. Some Nazi leaders, such as Martin Bormann , were anti-Christian and sympathetic to Rosenberg. Once in power, Hitler and most Nazi leaders sought to unify

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3528-503: The conquered Eastern territories, suggesting the establishment of new administrative districts, to replace the previously Soviet -controlled territories with new Reichskommissariats . These would be: Although Rosenberg believed that all of the peoples of the Soviet Union were subhumans because of their communist beliefs, such suggestions were intended to encourage certain non-Russian forms of nationalism and promote German interests for

3612-417: The creation of buffer satellite states made out of Greater Finland, Baltica, Ukraine, and Caucasus. During an 18 November 1941 press conference , he made the following statements about the Jewish question : Some six million Jews still live in the East, and this question can only be solved by a biological extermination of the whole of Jewry in Europe. The Jewish Question will only be solved for Germany when

3696-519: The cult of race, blood and battle, instead of Redemption and the Ten Commandments of Moses , which they deemed outdated and Jewish. Heinrich Himmler 's views were among the closest to Rosenberg's, and their estrangement was perhaps created by Himmler's abilities to put into action what Rosenberg had only written. Also, while Rosenberg thought Christianity should be allowed to die out, Himmler actively set out to create countering pagan rituals. Lieutenant Colonel William Harold Dunn (1898–1955) wrote

3780-429: The earliest members of the German Workers' Party – later renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party , better known as the Nazi Party – joining in January 1919, eight months before Adolf Hitler joined in September. According to some historians, Rosenberg had also been a member of the Thule Society , along with Eckart, although Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke contends that they were only guests. After

3864-400: The economy. The corporations would be further divided up to cover each individual industry and would also feed into a National Corporation, which would effectively form the government. Corporations would have equal representation for employers, workers and consumers, with elections to the corporations taking the place of existing political activity. In 1935, he was sent to his native Scotland on

3948-451: The effect of adding to their problems. Posters for "volunteer" labour, with inscriptions such as "Come work with us to shorten the war", hid the appalling realities faced by Russian workers in Germany . Rosenberg noted that many joined the partisans when volunteers for work details declined and the Germans resorted to force to acquire workers from the East. Rosenberg was captured by Allied troops on 19 May 1945 in Flensburg - Mürwik . He

4032-455: The far right, as demonstrated in April 1939 when a meeting addressed by Ramsay was chaired by a member of the British Union of Fascists who was supported by former British Fascists president R. B. D. Blakeney and Imperial Fascist League member E. H. Cole. Other leading members included J. F. C. Fuller , the United Empire Fascist Party leader and Nazi agent Serocold Skeels, Henry Hamilton Beamish , Arnold Leese and P. J. Ridout. The latter

4116-546: The first branch of a projected Advanced School of the NSDAP , dedicated to identifying and attacking supposed Jewish influence in German culture and to recording the history of Judaism from a radical nationalist perspective. He was elected as a Reichstag Deputy in 1930 and would continue to serve in this capacity until the end of the Nazi regime. First elected as a representative of the electoral list , from 1933 on he represented electoral constituency 33, Hesse. In 1930, he also published his book on racial theory The Myth of

4200-440: The first chapter or even found comprehensible. Hitler called it "stuff nobody can understand" and disapproved of its pseudo-religious tone. Rosenberg helped convince Hitler, whose early speeches focused on revenge against France and Britain, that communism was a serious threat to Germany. " Jewish-Bolshevism " became an ideological target for Nazism during the early 1920s. In Rome during November 1932 Rosenberg participated in

4284-439: The future of Mosleyite politics after the war. He also led the Union of British Freemen, a group he set up with the fellow ex-BUF member Victor Burgess in 1944 as an attempt to bring together former BUF members. After the war, Thomson travelled regularly to Ireland to meet Mosley and to discuss political development. Eager to expand the base of operations of fascism in Britain he also sought unsuccessfully to forge alliances with

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4368-415: The hope of establishing the BUF's patriotic credentials, but that came to nothing and actually ran alongside attempts by Francis Hawkins to establish BUF control over the League. Along with most of the other leading members of the BUF, Thomson was detained under Defence Regulation 18B in May 1940 and interned for much of the Second World War . He spent his entire jail spell in Brixton Prison , rather than

4452-409: The ideology of the UM, Thomson initially supported Europe a Nation enthusiastically, but soon tired of the esoteric policy and in 1950 organised a brief and even more unsuccessful return to prewar policy . He then came to advocate a "left-wing fascist" approach and argued that the UM should target the working class for support with anticapitalist rhetoric. As well as his important position within

4536-407: The invasion of the Soviet Union intended to impose the New Order , it was essentially a war of conquest. German propaganda efforts designed to win over Russian opinion were, at best, patchy and inconsistent. Alfred Rosenberg was one of the few in the Nazi hierarchy who advocated a policy designed to encourage anti-Communist opinion among the population of the occupied territories. His interest here

4620-475: The job he did. On 1 January 1924, Rosenberg founded the Greater German People's Community , a Nazi front organization . Headquartered in Munich , it was largely limited to Bavaria , the birthplace of National Socialism, had no substantial presence outside that State and became a haven for Nazi Party members from that area. Prominent members included Max Amann , Phillip Bouhler , Hermann Esser , Franz Xaver Schwarz and Julius Streicher . Rosenberg, one of

4704-428: The last Jew has left German territory, and it will only be solved for Europe when not a single Jew stands on the European continent as far as the Urals... And to this end, it is necessary to force them beyond the Urals or otherwise bring about their eradication. At the Nuremberg trials he said he was ignorant of the Holocaust , despite the fact that Leibbrandt and Meyer were present at the Wannsee conference . Since

4788-444: The leadership of Hinrich Lohse and Erich Koch , respectively. The organization of these administrative territories led to conflict between Rosenberg and the SS over the treatment of Slavs under German occupation. As Nazi Germany's chief racial theorist, Rosenberg considered Slavs, though lesser than Germans, to be Aryan. Rosenberg often complained to Hitler and Himmler about the treatment of non-Jewish occupied peoples. He proposed

4872-410: The leading ideological light in the party and a close associate of Oswald Mosley and Neil Francis Hawkins . In that position, he produced his seminal work The Corporate State (March 1935, republished as The Coming Corporate State in January 1937) in which he set out the vision of a BUF government in Britain. Thomson envisaged the formation of 20 corporations , each controlling a specific sector of

4956-408: The least charismatic of the Nazi leaders and lacking in leadership qualities, was soon pushed aside by Streicher, a far more ruthless and abrasive personality, who was elected Chairman on 9 July 1924 with Esser, also a coarse, bullying sort, as his Deputy Chairman. In 1929 Rosenberg founded the Militant League for German Culture . He later formed the " Institute for Research on the Jewish Question ",

5040-446: The occupied countries of Europe, as well as the brutal conditions in Eastern Europe. During his trial he wrote his memoirs, which were published posthumously and with analytical commentary by Serge Lang and Ernst von Schenck. He was sentenced to death and executed with other condemned co-defendants at Nuremberg Prison on the morning of 16 October 1946 . His body, like those of the other nine executed men and that of Hermann Göring ,

5124-449: The occupiers. But decollectivisation conflicted with the wider demands of wartime food production, and Hermann Göring demanded that the collective farms be retained, save for a change of name. Hitler himself denounced the redistribution of land as "stupid". There were numerous German armed forces ( Wehrmacht ) posters asking for assistance in the Bandenkrieg, the war against the Soviet partisans , though, once again, German policy had

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5208-409: The permeation of German life with the new ideology; it meant concentration of the combined resources of party and state on total war . Alexander Raven Thomson Alexander Raven Thomson (3 December 1899 – 30 October 1955), usually referred to as Raven , was a Scottish politician and philosopher. He joined the British Union of Fascists in 1933 and remained a follower of Oswald Mosley for

5292-473: The prison camp on the Isle of Man , which was generally more favourable, until his release in 1944. Thomson reacted badly to his spell in detention and suffered a nervous breakdown during his incarceration. He was released after he had been moved to a camp on the Isle of Man in September 1944. After his release Thomson set up a number of book clubs across Britain to ensure the continuing spread of Mosley's ideas. The book clubs served as planning meetings for

5376-410: The proto-environmentalist Rural Reconstruction Association through the leading member Jorian Jenks , a former BUF activist, as well as individuals on the fringes of Welsh nationalism . He joined the Union Movement on its foundation in 1948 and became a leading figure in the new party as both general secretary and the editor of the UM newspaper Union . Playing a leading role in the development of

5460-422: The rejection of capitalism and its replacement with collectivism . In that conviction he was influenced by Maurice Maeterlinck , who had written of "insect communities" in which a communal spirit was shared by all members of a "hive". The book also marked his drift towards a fascistic outlook. He joined the British Union of Fascists in 1933 and soon rose to the post of Director of Policy. There, he became

5544-501: The rest of his life. Thomson was considered to be the party's chief ideologue and has been described as the " Alfred Rosenberg of British fascism". Born in Edinburgh , Thomson came from a family long prominent in Scottish public life and was the grandson of the architect Alexander Thomson . Thomson was educated in universities in his homeland, the United States and briefly Heidelberg University in Germany and studied mechanical engineering, science and philosophy. In 1926, he became

5628-432: The same building as their headquarters. Another group, the Militant Christian Patriots , that was active after the Munich Crisis urging Neville Chamberlain not to become involved in a " Jewish war", was also closely connected to the NL and said by MI5 to be a front organisation. By using this group and another front organisation, the Liberty Restoration League, the NL was able to ensure that high-ranking figures such as

5712-447: The same city in 1868, Elfriede Siré received the Christian sacrament of Confirmation in Reval at 17 in 1885. She married Woldemar Wilhelm Rosenberg, a wealthy merchant from Reval, in the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (St-Petersburg) in 1886. His paternal grandfather, Martin Rosenberg, was a master shoemaker and elder of his guild . Born in Riga in 1820, and probably partly of Latvian descent, he had moved to Reval in

5796-433: The shooting of Jews, whilst Commander E. H. Cole condemned the House of Commons as being full of "bastardised Jewish swine". However, such extremist language worked against the NL because its speakers were seen by the public at large as quite mad and so their pro- appeasement arguments were ignored. Following the outbreak of the Second World War , two leading members, T. Victor-Rowe and Oliver Gilbert, were interned , and

5880-610: The title The Eternal Jew . Rosenberg got the racial term Untermensch from the title of Stoddard's 1922 book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-men , which had been adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925). Rosenberg reshaped the Nazi racial policy over the years, but it always consisted of Aryan supremacy , extreme German nationalism and rabid antisemitism . Rosenberg also outspokenly opposed homosexuality – notably in his pamphlet "Der Sumpf" ("The Swamp", 1927). He viewed homosexuality as

5964-487: The very top stood the " Aryan" race . Rosenberg promoted the Nordic theory which considered the Nordic race the " master race ", superior to all others, including to other Aryans (Indo-Europeans). He was also influenced by the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory promoted by the Catholic counter-revolutionary tradition, such as the book Le Juif, le judaïsme et la judaïsation des peuples chrétiens (1869) by Roger Gougenot des Mousseaux , which he translated into German under

6048-499: The votes and finished ahead of the Liberal candidates. Although he was not elected, the result marked a good total for the BUF. His status in the party now assured, Thomson became editor of the party weekly, Action , in 1939. An important figure in the BUF, he served for a time as Mosley's representative to Germany, a role in which he was closely watched by MI5 . He shared with the Nazis

6132-400: Was a leader oriented towards practical politics, whereas, for Rosenberg, religion and philosophy were key and he was the most culturally influential within the party. Several accounts of the time before the Nazi ascension to power speak of Hitler as being a mouthpiece for Rosenberg's views, and he clearly exerted a great deal of intellectual influence. The question of Rosenberg's influence in

6216-637: Was able to absorb the National Socialist Workers Party, a small group led by NL member Lieutenant-Colonel Graham Seton-Hutchison . The NL was closely linked to the White Knights of Britain , a secret society otherwise known as the Hooded Men with ritual initiation based on Freemasonry and compared to the Ku Klux Klan that was active from 1935 to 1937. The White Knights and the NL shared

6300-522: Was appointed head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories ( Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete ) on 17 July 1941. Alfred Meyer served as his deputy and represented him at the Wannsee Conference . Another official of the Ministry, Georg Leibbrandt , also attended the conference, at Rosenberg's request. Rosenberg had presented Hitler with his plan for the organization of

6384-423: Was arguing for a so-called "Positive" Christianity which was based on the argument that Jesus was not a Jew but a member of an Indo-European enclave which was resident in ancient Galilee who fought against Judaism . Significantly, in his work explicating the Nazi intellectual belief system, The Myth of the Twentieth Century , Rosenberg cryptically applauds the early Christian heretic Marcion (who rejected

6468-521: Was convicted of crimes against peace ; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression ; war crimes ; and crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials in 1946. He was sentenced to death by hanging and executed on 16 October 1946. The author of a seminal work of Nazi ideology , The Myth of the Twentieth Century (1930), Rosenberg is considered one of the main authors of key Nazi ideological creeds, including its racial theory and its hatred of

6552-401: Was credited with helping to popularise the NL's slogan "Perish Judah", which was frequently rendered "P.J." in public. BUF leader Oswald Mosley , fearful of being too closely associated with the League's extremist rhetoric, did not join but he permitted party members to do so which the likes of Fuller, Robert Gordon-Canning and Oliver C. Gilbert did readily. As a result of these links the BUF

6636-411: Was cremated at Ostfriedhof (Munich) and the ashes were scattered in the river Isar . Throughout the trial, it was agreed that Rosenberg had a decisive role in shaping Nazi philosophy and ideology. Examples include: his book The Myth of the Twentieth Century , which was published in 1930, where he incited hatred against " Liberal Imperialism " and "Bolshevik Marxism "; furthering the influence of

6720-568: Was fined 40 shillings for willful damage at Bow Street magistrate's court. In October 1933, Rosenberg was named as a member of Hans Frank 's Academy for German Law . Then on 27 January 1934, Hitler made Rosenberg the "Führer's Representative for the Supervision of Intellectual and Ideological Education of the NSDAP." This was the origin of the Amt Rosenberg . Final solution Parties As

6804-669: Was mainly in the non-Russian areas such as Ukraine and the Baltic States; however, supporters of the Russian Liberation Army were somewhat able to win him over. Amongst other things, Rosenberg issued a series of posters announcing the end of the Soviet collective farms ( kolkhoz ). He also issued an Agrarian Law in February 1942, annulling all Soviet legislation on farming and restoring family farms for those willing to collaborate with

6888-619: Was raised as a Lutheran , but he rejected what he called "negative" Christianity later in life. Instead, Rosenberg argued for a new "religion of the blood", which was based on the supposed innate promptings of the Nordic soul to defend its noble character against racial and cultural degeneration. In his 1920 book Immorality in the Talmud , Rosenberg identified Jews with the antichrist . He rejected Christianity because its universality, for its doctrine of original sin (as he believed that all ethnic Germans were born noble), and for its teachings on

6972-466: Was strategic; Hitler did not want the temporary leader of the Nazis to become too popular or hungry for power, because a person with either of those two qualities might not want to cede the party leadership after Hitler's release. However, at the time of the appointment Hitler had no reason to believe that he would soon be released, and Rosenberg had not appeared weak, so this may have been Hitler reading back into history his dissatisfaction with Rosenberg for

7056-410: Was tried at Nuremberg and found guilty of all four counts: conspiracy to commit crimes against peace ; planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression ; war crimes ; and crimes against humanity . The final judgment against him named him one of the principal planners of the invasion of Norway and the invasion of the Soviet Union. It also held him directly responsible for the systematic plunder of

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