Jun 15, 2024
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Anti-Jewish Conspiracies & Conspiracy of Love
by Doniphan Blair
Tonia Rotkopf Blair in front of Birkenau, Auschwitz’s death camp, where she was incarcerated for three weeks in 1944, 1980. photo: V. BlairTHE HOLOCAUST AROSE FROM A
collision of various political, social and psychological forces, a major one of which was conspiracies.
Although Hitler’s hatred of Jewish people was no secret, the Nazis attempted to conceal their extermination conspiracy. They used euphemisms and lies, like claims that the camps were just for labor. They concealed facilities in back woods and through threats of death, and they dolled one up, Terezin in the Czech Republic, with food, schools and cultural facilities. Then they forced the inmates to perform for visiting officials before shipping them to Auschwitz.
In fact, the Third Reich was the ultimate conspiracy kingdom, with almost everyone conspiring against each other.
In standard conspiratorial mirroring, Hitler accused the Jews of conspiring to control not just Germany but all of socialism and capitalism. The latter claim was often bolstered by references to a popular conspiracy theory of the 1930s, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a document which appeared to show that Jews ran international banking (it is still popular today among anti-Semites).
By 1922, however, journalists had proved “The Protocols” was a forgery by the Russian Tsar’s secret police in 1903. Although those supporting “The Protocols” claimed it was the journalists who were conspiring, the Tsar’s conspirators gave themselves away. Not being writers, nor very intelligent, they plagiarized “The Protocols” from a 30-year-old French political satire, inserting the words Jew, Jewish and Hebrew where appropriate.
“The Protocols” conspiracy theory was readily believed due to the long association of Jews with moneylending. While those accusations were not themselves a conspiracy theory, since a few Jews had started lending money in the 11th century and continued through the Middle Ages, as well as to today, what remains little known is the actual conspiracy perpetrated by Christian authorities against Jews.
Indeed, both the Christian clerics of the 11th century and the Nazis built their actual conspiracies against the Jews by using conspiracy theories about non-existent Jewish conspiracies.
Lending at interest has been central to almost all civilizations, and Europe was no exception. Although it has been abused as debt slavery, lending at interest more often incentivized the sharing of wealth, enabling poorer people to build businesses, buildings, ships, etc.
Tribes, on the other hand, encourage lending only through the provision of gifts and favors on top of repaying the principal. As a tribal people, the Jews outlawed lending at interest.
Although European Christians inherited that law from “The Bible”, in practice they were building a civilization and had to have moneylending, which was provided by the bishops, princes and merchants.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair, in addition to working as a nurse in Poland during the war, worked as one after (shown here) in Lansburg Am Lech, Germany, 1947. photo: unknownBut when Christ neglected to return for the millennia, Christian thinkers assumed it must be due to the sin of usury and conspired to foist moneylending on to the Jews. Since the Jews were condemned to Hell anyway, lending at interest to them would be no sin. In this way, a few Jews became retail lenders, while the wealthy Christians became their secret central bank, a conspiracy so successful, it remains little known to this day.
The Jews were also attacked with the “blood libel” conspiracy theory, which claimed they used the blood of Christian children to make their high holy days’ matzo, the Christ-killer accusations and other calumnies. (For more on this, see the cineSOURCE article, "Soros, Jewish Bankers and Interest Explained".)
With all these conspiracy theories rattling around the European brain, explicitly or through implicit bias, it was amazingly easy not just for Germany but most European countries to pass increasingly severe anti-Semitic laws. First they excluded Jewish people from society, then forced them into ghettos, finally deported them to death camps.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair was 13 when the Germans invaded her hometown of Lodz, Poland, and she turned 19 in Auschwitz, which means she spent the entirety of World War II as a teenager.
While the Nazis mounted the biggest killing machine in history, conspiring to kill as many as possible—leftists, Russians, Slavs, Roma and queers as well as Jews—she attempted to save as many as possible, both working as a nurse and through love, kindness and romance.
In fact, seven of the 37 stories in her book, “Love at the End of the World”, concern actual or aspirational romantic relationships. In reference to Gustav Freulich, whom she tended as he was dying of tuberculosis—therefore, although they held hands, they never kissed—she wrote, “Life had become meaningful again during those desperate times.”
Indeed, the first story she wrote, after enrolling in a writing class and dedicating herself to the task, was “Stefan” (read it here). She met Stefan at the deportation trains and they fell in love, reciting poetry and kissing while crammed in the back of a cattle car on route to Auschwitz.
Many people might say that such romanticism was misguided, given the existential threat. Perhaps she should have wriggled out the cattle car’s tiny window and leapt to freedom, albeit in the middle of Nazi territory, or foraged a piece of metal and stabbed a Nazi. But she was an undernourished teenager unschooled in those skills.
She had, however, learned about love from her adoring parents, and she had studied romanticism, like most teenage girls, which even a total war could not interrupt. Au contraire, it inspired her to rise to the occasion and fight to preserve love, to maintain romantic traditions, to appreciate poetry—even inside the greatest killing machine ever assembled.
In fact, my mother became brief friends with a decent German officer and was allowed a life-saving meal by another, suggesting that the Conspiracy of Love also lived on in their hearts, despite the decades of Nazi propaganda and brutality and the years of training and war.
Why didn’t she give into conspiracy thinking, that the world is run by an evil cabal of haters out to exploit, abuse or kill regular people—particularly since she was under the boot of Hitler for those five-and-a-half years? If anyone was entitled to conspiracism it was her.
Yes, humanity has produced horrors—genocides, conquests, enslavements and all manner of brutalities—but that has not been the majority of the human experience. And we are able to heal from it. While we have used religion, psychotherapy, art and volunteerism to regain our balance, perhaps the most powerful force of all is love, including romantic love and romanticism.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair handing out bread to the people of Plsen, Czech Republic, during the filming of 'Our Holocaust Vacation', to honor the war-time meal they gave her, 1997. photo: N. BlairAn advanced level of the latter would be the Conspiracy of Love, the actual conspiracy of humans doing the right thing, often after doing everything else but still eventually doing it.
Despite claims that might is right, that only the fittest will survive or that hate runs the world, in point of fact the Conspiracy of Love is the dominant force. Obviously, it conceived most of the people on the planet, since a majority are not the product of rapes, and most of the good we enjoy. Indeed, sexual selection begot mating dances, romantic rituals and romanticism, which powers a lot of art, faith and dreams.
Hence, if we are open, tolerant and loving, we can more easily join with like-minded—but not identical—people, communities and tribes, and foster a faster, easier and less violent evolution.
'Anti-Jewish Conspiracies and the Conspiracy of Love' has three companion pieces which together make up the full essay 'Our Golden Age of Conspiracies': 'A Brief Introduction to Conspiracies', 'The Anti-Conspiracy Manifesto', a rehabilitation regimen in 13 steps; and 'An Open Letter to My Dear Friend John Edmiston Milich', an attempt to reach one person by reminding him of his brilliant and loving former self.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached . Posted on Jul 08, 2020 - 01:41 AM
by Doniphan Blair
Tonia Rotkopf Blair in front of Birkenau, Auschwitz’s death camp, where she was incarcerated for three weeks in 1944, 1980. photo: V. Blaircollision of various political, social and psychological forces, a major one of which was conspiracies.
Although Hitler’s hatred of Jewish people was no secret, the Nazis attempted to conceal their extermination conspiracy. They used euphemisms and lies, like claims that the camps were just for labor. They concealed facilities in back woods and through threats of death, and they dolled one up, Terezin in the Czech Republic, with food, schools and cultural facilities. Then they forced the inmates to perform for visiting officials before shipping them to Auschwitz.
In fact, the Third Reich was the ultimate conspiracy kingdom, with almost everyone conspiring against each other.
In standard conspiratorial mirroring, Hitler accused the Jews of conspiring to control not just Germany but all of socialism and capitalism. The latter claim was often bolstered by references to a popular conspiracy theory of the 1930s, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, a document which appeared to show that Jews ran international banking (it is still popular today among anti-Semites).
By 1922, however, journalists had proved “The Protocols” was a forgery by the Russian Tsar’s secret police in 1903. Although those supporting “The Protocols” claimed it was the journalists who were conspiring, the Tsar’s conspirators gave themselves away. Not being writers, nor very intelligent, they plagiarized “The Protocols” from a 30-year-old French political satire, inserting the words Jew, Jewish and Hebrew where appropriate.
“The Protocols” conspiracy theory was readily believed due to the long association of Jews with moneylending. While those accusations were not themselves a conspiracy theory, since a few Jews had started lending money in the 11th century and continued through the Middle Ages, as well as to today, what remains little known is the actual conspiracy perpetrated by Christian authorities against Jews.
Indeed, both the Christian clerics of the 11th century and the Nazis built their actual conspiracies against the Jews by using conspiracy theories about non-existent Jewish conspiracies.
Lending at interest has been central to almost all civilizations, and Europe was no exception. Although it has been abused as debt slavery, lending at interest more often incentivized the sharing of wealth, enabling poorer people to build businesses, buildings, ships, etc.
Tribes, on the other hand, encourage lending only through the provision of gifts and favors on top of repaying the principal. As a tribal people, the Jews outlawed lending at interest.
Although European Christians inherited that law from “The Bible”, in practice they were building a civilization and had to have moneylending, which was provided by the bishops, princes and merchants.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair, in addition to working as a nurse in Poland during the war, worked as one after (shown here) in Lansburg Am Lech, Germany, 1947. photo: unknownThe Jews were also attacked with the “blood libel” conspiracy theory, which claimed they used the blood of Christian children to make their high holy days’ matzo, the Christ-killer accusations and other calumnies. (For more on this, see the cineSOURCE article, "Soros, Jewish Bankers and Interest Explained".)
With all these conspiracy theories rattling around the European brain, explicitly or through implicit bias, it was amazingly easy not just for Germany but most European countries to pass increasingly severe anti-Semitic laws. First they excluded Jewish people from society, then forced them into ghettos, finally deported them to death camps.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair was 13 when the Germans invaded her hometown of Lodz, Poland, and she turned 19 in Auschwitz, which means she spent the entirety of World War II as a teenager.
While the Nazis mounted the biggest killing machine in history, conspiring to kill as many as possible—leftists, Russians, Slavs, Roma and queers as well as Jews—she attempted to save as many as possible, both working as a nurse and through love, kindness and romance.
In fact, seven of the 37 stories in her book, “Love at the End of the World”, concern actual or aspirational romantic relationships. In reference to Gustav Freulich, whom she tended as he was dying of tuberculosis—therefore, although they held hands, they never kissed—she wrote, “Life had become meaningful again during those desperate times.”
Indeed, the first story she wrote, after enrolling in a writing class and dedicating herself to the task, was “Stefan” (read it here). She met Stefan at the deportation trains and they fell in love, reciting poetry and kissing while crammed in the back of a cattle car on route to Auschwitz.
Many people might say that such romanticism was misguided, given the existential threat. Perhaps she should have wriggled out the cattle car’s tiny window and leapt to freedom, albeit in the middle of Nazi territory, or foraged a piece of metal and stabbed a Nazi. But she was an undernourished teenager unschooled in those skills.
She had, however, learned about love from her adoring parents, and she had studied romanticism, like most teenage girls, which even a total war could not interrupt. Au contraire, it inspired her to rise to the occasion and fight to preserve love, to maintain romantic traditions, to appreciate poetry—even inside the greatest killing machine ever assembled.
In fact, my mother became brief friends with a decent German officer and was allowed a life-saving meal by another, suggesting that the Conspiracy of Love also lived on in their hearts, despite the decades of Nazi propaganda and brutality and the years of training and war.
Why didn’t she give into conspiracy thinking, that the world is run by an evil cabal of haters out to exploit, abuse or kill regular people—particularly since she was under the boot of Hitler for those five-and-a-half years? If anyone was entitled to conspiracism it was her.
Yes, humanity has produced horrors—genocides, conquests, enslavements and all manner of brutalities—but that has not been the majority of the human experience. And we are able to heal from it. While we have used religion, psychotherapy, art and volunteerism to regain our balance, perhaps the most powerful force of all is love, including romantic love and romanticism.
Tonia Rotkopf Blair handing out bread to the people of Plsen, Czech Republic, during the filming of 'Our Holocaust Vacation', to honor the war-time meal they gave her, 1997. photo: N. BlairDespite claims that might is right, that only the fittest will survive or that hate runs the world, in point of fact the Conspiracy of Love is the dominant force. Obviously, it conceived most of the people on the planet, since a majority are not the product of rapes, and most of the good we enjoy. Indeed, sexual selection begot mating dances, romantic rituals and romanticism, which powers a lot of art, faith and dreams.
Hence, if we are open, tolerant and loving, we can more easily join with like-minded—but not identical—people, communities and tribes, and foster a faster, easier and less violent evolution.
'Anti-Jewish Conspiracies and the Conspiracy of Love' has three companion pieces which together make up the full essay 'Our Golden Age of Conspiracies': 'A Brief Introduction to Conspiracies', 'The Anti-Conspiracy Manifesto', a rehabilitation regimen in 13 steps; and 'An Open Letter to My Dear Friend John Edmiston Milich', an attempt to reach one person by reminding him of his brilliant and loving former self.
Doniphan Blair is a writer, film magazine publisher, designer, musician and filmmaker ('Our Holocaust Vacation'), who can be reached . Posted on Jul 08, 2020 - 01:41 AM
