Port Elizabeth of Yore: Antisemitism and Nazi Acolytes

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

During the 1930s in South Africa, the right-wing politicians emulated their brethren in Germany and Italy by adopting the stance that all of the evils visited on their country were as a consequence of the Jews. They even adopted a similar form of attire except that it was grey in hue hence they adopted the nomenclature The Greyshirts. They embraced all the odious memes and rhetoric of their European counterparts accusing the Jews of all manner of perverted acts.

This blog covers their activities in the Port Elizabeth region.

Main picture: The Gryshemde – South Africa’s Nazi Party

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Port Elizabeth of Yore: Fascist Movements and Anti-Semitism

By Dean McCleland in Port Elizabeth of Yore 0 Comment

The seeds of the European Fascist movements of the 1930s were cast far and wide. In South Africa they fell on fertile ground. The burgeoning white nationalist movement harboured elements of these virile, virulent shoots in the form of the Ossewa Brandwag and the S.A. Greyshirts. As the ominous spectre of the Nazi contagion spread its tentacles into South Africa’s political discourse, South Africa’s versions of these thuggish movements arose in manifold forms, one manifestation being Robbie Leibrandt, who attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Jan Smuts.

Main picture: The Centenary of the Great Trek commemorated by ox-wagons going through the city en route to the Transvaal

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