Stab in the back myth

In the Great War of 1914-1918, after over three years of trench warfare stalemate, the Imperial German Army made the decision to gamble everything on a major attack to the West. Having won victory on the Eastern Front, and in the hope of ending the war before the US were able to bolster Allied troops, the Spring Offensive began, resulting in German troops breaking through British lines and moving swiftly across western Europe. But the technically flawed plan collapsed, shocking the German population who believed their media’s claims of an imminent victory. Without enemy boots ever setting foot on German soil confusion reigned across the country as to why soldiers were suddenly returning home, defeated.

Rather than take responsibility for the defeat, General Paul von Hindenburg, Commander of the German Army, told a Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry the army had been betrayed, stabbed in the back, by Germany’s new civilian politicians. He and General Erich Ludendorff, who planned the Spring Offensive, began to circulate false stories that the war had been lost by the actions of communists, socialists and, especially, Jews, giving rise to the antisemitic myth of Jews stabbing people in the back.

At the time the narrative rang true in Germany as, in 1916, Germany’s Jews had been accused of working against the war effort. antisemitic prejudices within The War Ministry had led to the belief Jews were not patriotic or fighting for their country and a census was ordered to prove that, proportionally, fewer Jews were fighting on the front line. Despite using flawed methodology in attempts to prove this assertion, the result of the census proved the claims were totally unfounded. The findings, however, were never revealed to the German public.

The actual cause of Germany’s defeat were strikes in munitions and metal plants which created an ever deepening shortage of armaments and with the US joining the war the morale of exhausted German soldiers failed. As the German Navy planned one last battle, sailors mutinied effectively bringing an end to the war, but the false accusations saw antisemitic tales and illustrations circulate throughout Germany, stirring nationalism and helping The National Socialist Party rise to power.

Today the illustrations have changed but the antisemitic message remains the same. In the revised version Jews are pictured plotting to stab Arabs in the back while being offered a helping hand, as they arrive in their historic homeland after World War II. A claim which could not be further from the truth.