Political antisemitism in New Zealand during the Great Depression: a case study in the myth of the Jewish World Conspiracy

Abstract

This thesis examines the origins and beliefs of the antisemitic culture which developed in New Zealand during the Great Depression economic crisis. Antisemitism and the myth of the Jewish world conspiracy has been seen predominantly as a phenomenon which has been confined in its importance mainly to Europe. In particular the experience of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust has dominated the popular and academic understanding of antisemitism as an international ideology of the troubled inter-war years. While here on this side of the world the existence of any developed antisemitic culture has been totally overlooked by New Zealand's political historians and has remained one of the most interesting untold stories of this country's political life. This thesis will argue that New Zealand had in fact a well developed antisemitic culture which was widespread and well articulated by a number of movements and individuals. This thesis will also show that antisemitism and the myth of the Jewish world conspiracy was a dynamic and prominent component of New Zealand's political discourse during the 1930s which in some form reached into almost every household and farm, even into Parliament. This thesis will also argue that this antisemitic culture was no mere ideological import, but was instead a domestic response to the depression crisis and the apparent chaos of the international order. It will also be argued that New Zealand even gained a place on the map of the international antisemitic movement as an exporter of widely read and influential anti-Jewish material.