Freemasonry under Totalitarian Regimes

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Virtualy all totalitarian regimes have treated Freemasonry as a potential source of opposition due to its secret nature and international connections. It has been alleged by Masonic scholars that the language used by the totalitarian regimes is similar to that used by some modern critics of Freemasonry.^[1]

1 Papal State
2 Hungary
3 Eastern Europe
4 Iraq
5 Italy
6 Spain
7 Japan
8 Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe
9 Notes and references
10 See also
11 External links

[edit] Papal State

In 1736 the Florentine Inquisition investigated a Masonic Lodge in Florence, Italy,^[2] and the Lodge was condemned in June 1737. The lodge had originally been founded by English Masons, but accepted Italian members.

In 1738, Pope Clement XII issued Eminenti Apostolatus Specula, the first Papal prohibition on Freemasonry.

[edit] Hungary

In 1919, Béla Kun proclaimed the dictatorship of the proletariat in Hungary. This marked the start of raids by army officers on Masonic lodges[1] along with theft, and sometimes destruction, of Masonic libraries, records, archives, paraphernalia, and works of art. Several Masonic buildings were seized and used for anti-Masonic exhibitions. Masonry was outlawed by a decree in 1920.

In post war Hungary, lodges were described as "meeting places of the enemies of the people's democratic republic, of capitalistic elements, and of the adherents of Western imperialism."^[1]

[edit] Eastern Europe

Freemasonry was suppressed throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union during the Communist era.

[edit] Iraq

Under Saddam Hussein the death penalty was "prescribed" for those who "promote or acclaim Zionist principles, including freemasonry, or who associate [themselves] with Zionist organizations."^[3]

[edit] Italy

Benito Mussolini decreed in 1924 that every member of his Fascist Party who was a Mason must abandon either one or the other organization, and in 1925, he dissolved Freemasonry in Italy, claiming that it was a political organisation. It is worth noting that General Cappello, one of the most prominent Fascists, and who had also been Deputy Grand Master of the Grande Oriente, Italy's leading Grand Lodge, gave up his membership in the Fascist Party rather than in Masonry. He was later arrested on false charges and sentenced to 30 years in jail.^[4]

However as the membership list of the elite P2 Masonic Lodge revealed in 1981 many Italian Fascists and Black Shirt Members later became Freemasons. The Grand Master of P2, Lucio Gelli, was an intelligence officer with the Herman Goering Division and a fervent Mussolini supporter.^[5]

[edit] Spain

It is claimed that the dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera ordered the abolition of Freemasonry in Spain.^[6] In September 1928, one of the two Grand Lodges in Spain was closed and many Masons were included among those arrested for allegedly plotting against the government.^{[citation needed]}

Under the dictator General Francisco Franco, Freemasonry was outlawed in Spain on 2 March 1940.[2] Being a Mason was automatically punishable by a jail term: up to six years for those holding degrees up to the 18th, and more for Masons with higher degrees.[3] It was reported that Masons were shot, tortured and murdered in every town in Spain, although details are lacking.[4] The Republican Regime which Franco overthrew had a strong Masonic presence.^[7]

The suppression of Freemasons in Spain continued into the 1970's.^[1]

[edit] Japan

In 1938, a Japanese representative to the Weltdienst congress stated, on behalf of Japan, that "Judeo-Masonry is forcing the Chinese to turn China into a spearhead for an attack on Japan, and thereby forcing Japan to defend herself against this threat. Japan is at war not with China but with Freemasonry, represented by General Chiang-Kai-shek, the successor of his master, the Freemason Sun-Yat-Sen." ^[1]

[edit] Nazi Germany and Occupied Europe

See also: Holocaust, Freemasonry, and Liberté chérie (Freemasonry)

The Nazis claimed that high degree Masons were willing members of "the Jewish conspiracy" and that Freemasonry was one of the causes of Germany's loss of the First World War. The preserved records of the RSHA - Reichssicherheitshauptamt Office of the High Command of Security Service pursuing the racial objectives of the SS through Race and Resettlement Office, show the persecution of the Freemasons.^[8] The number of Freemasons from Nazi occupied countries who were killed is not accurately known,^[9] but it is estimated that between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were murdered under the Nazi regime.^[10]

In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler writes that Freemasonry has "succumbed" to the Jews and has become an "excellent instrument" to fight for their aims and to use their "strings" to pull the upper strata of society into their alleged designs. He continues, "The general pacifistic paralysis of the national instinct of self-preservation begun by Freemasonry" is then transmitted to the masses of society by the press.^[11]

In 1933 Hermann Goering; Reichstag President and one of the key figures in the process of Gleichschaltung, (literally synchronization), states "..in National Socialist Germany, there is no place for Freemasonry."^[12]

The Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz in German) was passed by Germany's parliament (the Reichstag) on March 23, 1933. Using the "Act", on January 8, 1934 the German Ministry of the Interior ordered the disbandment of Freemasonry, and confiscation of the property of all Lodges; stating that those who had been members of Lodges when Hitler came to power, in January 1933, were prohibited from holding office in the Nazi party or its paramilitary arms, and were ineligible for appointment in public service.^[13] Consistently considered an ideological foe of Nazism in their world perception (Weltauffassung), special sections of the Security Service (SD) and later the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA) were established to deal with the Freemasonry.^[14] Freemasonic Concentration Camp inmates were graded as “Political” prisoners, and wore an inverted (point down) red triangle.^[15]

In March 1935 According to Joseph Goebbels, the Soviet Union's recent inclusion in the League of Nations was engineered by 300 "members of the Jewish race and conspirators of Freemasonry."

On August 8, 1935, as Führer and Chancellor, Adolf Hitler announced in the Nazi Party newspaper, Voelkischer Beobachter, the final dissolution of all Masonic Lodges in Germany. The article accused a conspiracy of the Fraternity and “World Jewry” of seeking to create a “World Republic”.^[16]

In 1937 Joseph Goebbels inaugurated an "Anti-Masonic Exposition" to display objects seized by the state.^[12] The Ministry of Defence forbid officers from becoming Freemasons, with officers who remained as Masons being sidelined.^[1] Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus was denounced as a "High-grade Freemason" when he surrendered to the Soviet Union in 1943.^[17]

Freemasonry was banned by edict in all countries that were either allied with the Nazis or under Nazi control, including Norway and France. Anti-Masonic exhibitions were held in many occupied countries.

[edit] Notes and references

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 'Bigotry and the Murder of Freemasonry' Paul M. Bessel, November 1994, Retrieved 29 October 2005
^ Fom the biograpghy of Tommaso Crudeli on the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
^ Washington Times, Saddam to be formally charged, 1st July 2004
^ 'The Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction', Alphonse Cerza, published by the Masonic Service Association, September 1967
^ BBC, Italian Press, In God's Name, Yallop, Inside the Brotherhood, Short
^ "In 1925, Spain's first dictator of this generation, General Primo de Rivera, ordered the abolition of Freemasonry in his country." The Anhilation of Freemasonry by Sven G. Lunden by The American Mercury Newspaper, 1941. Hosted by the Grand Lodge of Antient Free and Accepted Masons of Scotland
^ "Following the election of the Socialist government in Spain, and the king's withdrawal from the country, there was an absolute avalanche of public officials who rushed to the Grand Orient Lodges to request entry. They thought they could thus be free of the persecution which had been practiced by the majority of Masons in the government. Their purpose was to give evidence of their republicanism and to prevent the certainty of having their careers ruined." General Mola, Chief of Spanish Internal Security, Tempestad Calma Intriga Y Crisis, quoted in Pawns In The Game by William G. Carr
^ Documented evidence from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum pertaining to the persecution of the Freemasons accessed 21 May 2006
^
^ Freemasons for Dummies, by Christopher Hodapp, Wiley Publishing Inc., Indianapolis, 2005, p.85, sec. Hitler and the Nazi
^ A. Hitler, Mein Kampf, pages 315 and 320.
^ ^a ^b The American Mercury , Volume LII, No. 206, published February 1941 accessed 21 May 2006
^ The Enabling Act Accessed February 23, 2006.
^ US Holocaust Memorial Museum pertaining to the persecution of the Freemasons Documented evidence accessed 21 May 2006
^ The Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, volume 2, page 531, citing Katz, Jews and Freemasons in Europe.
^ Bro. E Howe, Freemasonry in Germany, Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No 2076 (UGLE), 1984 Yearbook.
^ Denslow, Freemasonry in the Eastern Hemisphere, at page 111, citing a letter from Dr. Otto Arnemann in 1947, cited as Note 22 in Bigotry and the Murder of Freemasonry by Paul M. Bessel

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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