Thursday, February 22, 2018 at 4:26PM

The international working class led by the Soviet Union crushed fascism during World War II, a great achievement. Capitalist rulers lie about it, hiding the key role of the workers and communist leadership in that victory. We reject those lies.

Lie No. 1: British, French and U.S. Capitalists (”Allies”) Always Opposed Hitler

Actually, they supported and aided Hitler until the last moment.

Starting with Hitler’s rule in 1933, U.S. and British leaders ignored Nazi murders of Jewish people.

Britain, France and the U.S. appeased Hitler, hoping he’d attack the USSR. They allowed Hitler to re-arm. They gave him Czechoslovakia in 1938. They routed Foreign money to Germany through the London Exchange. Right before the war in September, 1939, Germany bought twice its monthly requirement of rubber from the London Rubber Exchange.

Even after war started, Germany got oil via Italy and American cotton via Switzerland.

From 1935-1939, France and Britain rejected five Soviet proposals to ally against Hitler. Finally, the Soviets made a pact with the Nazis, hoping to gain time preparing for the Nazi attack.

In post-war testimony, Nazi General Jodl said, “the German Army...(won) the Polish campaign [September, 1939] because 110 French and British divisions facing 29 German divisions…did nothing.”

France’s pro-Nazi high command surrendered. As the Germans approached Paris, 20 French divisions remained in Syria, just to threaten Soviet Central Asia. French soldiers trying to bury arms for resistance were ordered to give them to the Nazis.

British, French and U.S. rulers supported fascism. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Britain, France and the U.S. helped fascist General Franco by blocking supplies for the anti-fascist Spanish government. Franco got oil from Texaco, 12,000 automobiles from Ford and GM, and military support from Germany and Italy.

While capitalists gave Spain to the fascists, the working class recruited volunteers to the International Brigades to fight Franco. Communists and leftists from 53 countries joined these Brigades. Many died for the cause.

After war was declared, the U.S. and UK lent money to Hitler’s allies Spain and Italy.

If the Nazis had merely terrorized workers and attacked the USSR, the British-French-U.S. capitalists would have left them alone. These capitalists, before, during, and after World War II, supported dozens of fascists and mass murderers, from Chile to Indonesia.

But Hitler grabbed Poland, Holland, Belgium and France. Then the capitalist Allies had to fight Hitler—but not because they opposed fascism. Britain fought for its colonial empire. The U.S. fought to control the Pacific and to become the largest capitalist power.

Lie No. 2: The U.S. And Britain Defeated Hitler, With Little Help from the USSR

Actually, it was the Soviet Red Army and communist-led partisans from France, Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia, China, Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines that defeated the German-Italian-Japanese Fascist Axis.

Hitler attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941 with 270 divisions—3,600,000 soldiers. (Hitler took France with only 50 divisions). Nazis overran one-third of Soviet land. But the Red Army fought heroically until victory.

In 1941, Nazis surrounded Leningrad. Hitler ordered the birthplace of Bolshevism utterly destroyed. Leningraders starved under a 900-day siege; but under communist leadership, they never surrendered.

By October 1941, the Nazis approached Moscow; they could see the Kremlin. When the Soviet leadership decided to stay in the city, the entire population rose in defense. Civilians joined militias. Women, men, young and old dug anti-tank ditches in freezing weather. After exhausting the Fascists, the Soviets counter-attacked, pushing the enemy back 100 miles--the Nazis’ first defeat.

At Stalingrad, outnumbered and outgunned, Soviets fought house-to-house. Workers defended their communist society, voluntarily remaining in their factories making tanks as bombs fell. If ever an example is needed of communist spirit, it is Stalingrad. The defenders’ courage, determination and camaraderie represents what’s best in humanity.

Stalingrad also showed the brilliant planning and strategy of the Soviet High Command headed by Stalin. The Soviets surrounded and destroyed three fascist armies, causing 1.5 million Nazi casualties.

The war raged for another three years, until the Red Army took Berlin on May 5, 1945. (See Alexander Werth’s books Russia at War and Memoirs of Marshal Zhukov).

In November, 1942, out of 256 German divisions, 172 fought the Red Army. Meanwhile the British engaged only four German divisions in North Africa. In the Normandy landing, the Allies faced only a few Nazi divisions, because 100 Nazi divisions were rushed to Byelorussia and the Ukraine where the Red Army was winning.

From 1941-1944, while the Red Army killed fascists, the U.S. and British waited until the Nazis weakened the USSR. They delayed the Second Front till 1944 when the Nazis were in full retreat from the Red Army. Without a Second Front, the Soviets could have liberated all Europe. The real purpose of the Second Front was to stop Communism in western Europe.

The Nazis concentrated their main forces against the USSR, knowing they’d be treated better by the U.S. than by the Soviets. They were correct. Except for a few top Nazis, all the Nazi officials, the fascist butchers, were kept in the German bureaucracy under U.S. and British control. And German capitalists, Krupp, Siemens, DeutscheBank, who profited by building armaments and selling gas chambers for concentration camps, were untouched during and after the war, and the U.S. quickly opened its markets to them.

Besides the Red Army, the other force which destroyed the fascists were partisans. Italian Communist partisans liberated Milan, Turin, Padua, Bologna and Genoa before the U.S. and British arrived. On April 27, 1945, they captured Mussolini and 18 top fascists, and executed them. Soviet partisans behind German lines destroyed a million fascist troops, more than were killed by all U.S. and British forces.

Communist partisans liberated Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia. In northern Italy, 23 German and four Italian divisions were fighting partisans; in Yugoslavia, partisans faced 24 German, nine Bulgarian and three Hungarian divisions; Greek partisans opposed 10 divisions. Communists and others organized strikes and sabotage in Italy, France and even Germany.



Join us next issue as we debunk eight more myths about World War II.



