Bidspirit auction | “If you have no grasp

“If you have no grasp of the Jewish question, you have not begun to understand anything of what is happening before your eyes...” - An antisemitic leaflet issued by the “Imperial Fascist League” in Britain on the eve of the outbreak of World War II - Issue of the journal “The Fascist” - the organ of the extremist British organization Imperial Fascist League. One of the most extreme expressions of fascist and antisemitic ideology in Britain during the 1930s. Issue of September 1939, titled: “Are You Going to Stand For This Again? Jew-Control in Britain During the Last World War” -  At the top of the front page appears: “The Organ of Racial Fascism” - “The organ of racial fascism.” At the opening of the issue, an antisemitic editorial by the organization’s leader, Arnold Leese, promotes the conspiracy theory alleging Jewish influence over Britain’s leadership. Leese begins with a quotation from the words of Max Nordau at the 1903 Zionist Congress, in which he spoke of an impending world war. According to Leese, this was because Nordau knew with certainty that the Jews would deliberately cause it, and therefore spoke of it with confidence. He goes on to list a long series of names of Jews who held key positions and were close to the centers of power in Britain and beyond: “The agent Sir Ernest Cassel (a Jew) was the envoy used by the British Government for delicate negotiations at the critical moment; Ballin and Rathenau, both Jews, were the Kaiser’s principal advisers. Haldane received advice from Rothschild.” He continues by claiming that the Jews are now planning the next war: “Here are some of the wartime appointments that remind us very much of what is happening in 1939, when similar key appointments appear to be in the hands of Jews or politicians controlled by Jews. Private Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in France throughout Earl Haig’s tenure in that final post: the Jew, Sir Philip Sassoon, whose mother was a Rothschild...”, and so on. He concludes the full antisemitic article, throughout which he lists Jews and their senior positions, with the following sinister passage: “As Mr. Field says, ‘If you have no grasp of the Jewish question, you have not begun to understand anything of what is happening before your eyes.’ For publishing a similar, though shorter, list of Jewish appointments during the war, we were convicted of committing a public offense and imprisoned for six months among criminals. We defiantly challenge the authorities to proceed against us again for the same terrible offense, namely, enabling our countrymen to understand the truth about the Jews.’ Arnold Leese.” Further in the issue appear articles opposing British involvement in events in Eretz Israel, essays on alleged Jewish control in America, accusations against Jews quoted from the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” regarding supposed Jewish global financial control, and an article titled “More Jewish Evil” attacking a Jewish lawyer named Ivor Ambitz who attempted to prevent members of the Fascist League from spreading their antisemitic doctrine in public, and more. On the back page appears a call for the British to awaken, “Britons Awake” – the article details the principles of the “League”: “The aim of the League is to replace the present and outdated ‘democratic’ system of government by adopting a fascist constitution under the leadership of the monarchy, with a council of selected men of character and service, assisted and advised by an industrial House of Commons representing the organized productive forces of the nation, ” and among the listed principles appears, inter alia: “The elimination of harmful foreign influences, especially that of the Jews.” Additionally, this page includes a long list of books circulated by Jews from which one must “beware” and which should be boycotted. In contrast, it presents antisemitic publications of the Fascist League that the issue recommends purchasing – among them, within a large black frame, an advertisement for the book “Jewish Ritual Murder” by the newspaper’s editor, Arnold Leese. The Imperial Fascist League was one of the smaller yet most extreme fascist groups operating in Britain between the two World Wars. The movement was founded in 1929 by Arnold Leese, a veterinarian by profession who specialized in camels. Leese led the movement along a rigid and dogmatic line, and under his leadership the organization disseminated virulent antisemitic propaganda, unlike some other British fascist organizations that at times attempted to conceal this aspect. The newspaper was established in 1929 and served as the official organ of the organization, with Leese as its editor. The movement placed racial antisemitism at the center of its ideology. Leese coined the term “Racial Fascism” and combined pseudo-scientific conspiracy theories with extreme British nationalism. The organization adopted the swastika within the British flag as its official symbol,