Some of the wandering stories, urban legends and conspiracy theories that wander around today, can be traced back to the propaganda of the German Nazi party.
The wandering story about “white slave trade” from “Der Stürmer”. The stories and images claim threats against women.
Traces back to back to the propaganda of Hitlers nazi party
The wandering story cited in chapter 3 from Klintberg about the “white slave trade” from France in the 60s, can be found in Nazi Party propaganda campaigns from the 20s and 30s. It was alleged here that “international Jewish leagues” were behind the “white slave trade”.
The Nazi-controlled weekly Der Stürmer printed this wandering story in nine different versions, from 1927 to 1938. Most of these were front page headlines. Some editions had the same wandering story as the main content. Der Stürmer tried to make these stories credible by referring to other alleged sources, such as newspapers. The stories were also “substantiated” with reference to alleged police actions in distant places like South America.
Unfortunately, there was, and still is, human trafficking. But there never was any genuine conspiracy of Jews selling women from Germany as the Nazis claimed relentlessly in their propaganda.
The so-called “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” is a classic conspiracy theory with antisemitic content that was exposed as a forgery as early as 1921. The conspiracy theory, centring on a Jewish elite allegedly wanting world domination, was a part of the core of Nazi ideology. The conspiracy theory, despite exposure as a fraud, nevertheless, continued to spread afterwards and has done so right up to the present day. Even though these wandering stories are shown to be false repeatedly, they still survive in the realm of public opinion.
Conspiracy theories with the so-called “blood libel”, where Jews were accused of using blood of christian children to bake matzahs, a flat bread that is used in the Passover festival. Their theme can also be found in Nazi antisemitic propaganda. The May 1939 edition of Der Stürmer was dedicated to the so-called “blood libel” in which Jews were accused of practicing ritual murder in order to secure the blood of Christians.
As chapter 4. Conspiracy theories in this blog shows, the “Pizza gate” conspiracy theory, an urban legend strikingly similar to the “blood libel” has circulated in USA today. The “pizza gate” conspiracy theory has among other motivated armed attack on a pizza restaurant.