Anti-Communist war

What if Hitler rallied an anti-communist movement instead of antisemitism. Would he have succeeded in conquering the USSR and expanding his empire eastward which was his original intent? Would other countries rally around Germany? I know the Spanish volunteers of the Blue Division did just that. Who else would have joined?

 

Several things must be explained here......

1. What year are you talking about?

2. The world really knew nothing of antisemitism until later...some knew about the deportations, but nothing of the faith which awaited the Jews.

3. I cant imagine that England or France would allign themselves with Germany ( which was an enemy less then 25 years earlier ) to go to war as an aggressor against a former ally. Who knows maybe im mistaken.

4. The world at this time knew very little of Soviet Russia or Stalin, why go to war with Russia to begin with?

5. Spain's contribution only amounted to about 45,000 men total which fought only against the Russians, cant imagine it declaring full blown war unless France or England do so.


The countries that I see joining Germany are the ones that historically did.

 

There was every possibility that Britain may have joined an anti-communist block as shown by the support given to Hitler by the many in the British establishment, based on a large part because of his anti-communist credentials.

The support for Hitler hung in the balance, in Britain, right upto 1940. If Hitler's intentions could have been shown to have been anti-communist rather than territorial (leaving aside ant-semitism because it was as rife in the upper classes in Britain), he may have had greater support. Even Churchill perceived Stalin to be a greater threat than Hitler until his wilderness years. He about-face on this issue, as far as I am concerned, was always more cynically political than conviction. His anti-Nazism didn't really start until post-Munich.

However, this is more debateable as regards France, where the communists had a greater power base in the French working classes, and the governments of the 1930s were to unstable to risk such a move.

 

1. Pre 1939. If Hitler wanted Austria, Czechoslavkia and Poland as a jump off point for his invasion of Russia.

2. The world did know about the antisemitism after 33' and definitely after 36. But in my what if, this would be nonexistent.

3. To an extent. There was the communist threat and there were pro-nazi factions in both countries. Facism was gaining popularity as a counterweight to communism. Had Hitler not promoted the master race, but instead focused on fighting communism, would Britain and France supported him?

4.They did know about communism and their advocacy for worldwide revolution. Each country had its own communist party and in some like Germany and Italy, fights were already erupting. A good example would be the Spanish civil war. You had three factions all battling each other.

5. I used the Spanish as an example of the reason behind joining Hitler in the war. The Spanish cared less about the aryan race or about the Jews being the reason behind everybody's woes. They did want to fight communism. Spain would have contributed more had the fight only been between facism and Communism. Franco Knew that fighting Britain and the US was suicide. But, had those same countries alligned themselves with Germany or even stood by, would other European countries join in the fight agains Communist Russia.

 

This is a better year.

I was referring to the extermination of the Jews. If this was not the case as you point out, it might have very well benefited the Germans.

Might have very well been the case, but then again support in which way? France and Britain would not have gone to war, in my opinion as they were simply not ready to do so. Please remember that France still considered Germany a threat as this was the reason for the Maginot line. Finanacial support along with political, sounds more likely rather then militarily.

Yes, however if we are talking about pre 1939, then Stalin has shown little agression. Communist might show a political threat, but a military one?

Yes, I agree

 

What kind of a what-if is this? Everyone who was not a communist in those higly poolarised days was an anti-communist. Rome called communism the Anti-Christ and they meant it!

So it was not difficult to Hitler to speak of a general crusade against communism, which is exactly how he mobilised a lot of foreign troops to go along the Wehrmacht and SS against Russia, such as the Spanish Blue Division, the Légion des Volontaires Français Contre le Communisme (Legion of French Volunteers Against Communism), later the Charlemagne SS Division, the SS-Viking division, the Dutch, the Balts, etc., etc.

Not a single mention of anti-semitism here. Anti-semitism was an internal German affair until later when Germany was taking over on other countries and started demanding Jews to be arrested and deported, it was not a movement.

 

I think there was also the antikomintern pact between Japan and Germany in 1936 (?). Not sure if Italy was in it later on. So some kinda crusade against the Communists was being launched although Hitler himself in Aug 1939 did quite the opposite.