From the Continent: Nazis and Other Socialists

Recently, I received a questionnaire from a well-known German historical research institute, which asked what I had done in World War II to “fight Fascism.” I replied bluntly that I had had relatively little interest in Fascism. The problems of Germany, Bohemia-Moravia, and Austria were nearer to my heart than those of Italy, so my concern in World War II had been with National and International Socialism.

The phrase “National Socialism” has a certain archaic ring to it nowadays, having been replaced almost entirely by the word “Nazism.” The full extent of this process became clear to me upon checking the current Encyclopedia Britannica, which, I found, lists neither “National Socialism” nor the “National Socialist Party,” but merely the “Nazi Party.” To be consistent, the Britannica would have had to list the “Communist Party” as the “Bolshie Party.”

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Recently, I received a questionnaire from a well-known German historical research institute, which asked what I had done in World War II to “fight Fascism.” I replied bluntly that I had had relatively little interest in Fascism. The problems of Germany, Bohemia-Moravia, and Austria were nearer to my heart than those of Italy, so my concern in World War II had been with National and International Socialism.

The phrase “National Socialism” has a certain archaic ring to it nowadays, having been replaced almost entirely by the word “Nazism.” The full extent of this process became clear to me upon checking the current Encyclopedia Britannica, which, I found, lists neither “National Socialism” nor the “National Socialist Party,” but merely the “Nazi Party.” To be consistent, the Britannica would have had to list the “Communist Party” as the “Bolshie Party.”