This legend was widely believed and deliberately disseminated by the defeated German military leadership, seeking to avoid personal consequences for their policies. A stab-in-the-back legend attributed the German and Austrian defeat in World War I to internal traitors working for foreign interests, primarily Jews and communists. It seemed inexplicable except by insidious internal betrayal. Three trends that developed during and immediately after World War I brought antisemitism, including its racist variant, into the mainstream of European politics.įirst, for the nations that lost the war, the dreadful carnage on the battlefield-Europe's first experience with mass man-made death-seemed to be a sacrifice made for no gain. Nevertheless, enduring stereotypes of Jews and Jewish "behavior" continued to exist among non-Jews.
Before World War I, radical, racist antisemitism was confined to the fringe of right-wing politics throughout most of Europe and in the United States.
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