ABSTRACT
Extending the concept of antifascism beyond the activities of the Comintern to non-communist antifascist ideas and practices, this chapter identifies three phases of antifascism in twentieth-century Europe. After pointing out the implications of the ambivalence of Soviet foreign policy before the rise of Hitler (1920–1933), Rabinbach argues that antifascist culture in the era of Hitler and Stalin (1934–1945) was characterized by social inclusivity, political flexibility, and ideological imprecision. In the postwar era (1946–1989), antifascism served as a “foundational myth” for the newly created “People’s Republics,” and, in the case of the GDR, resulted in an institutionalized form of memory that failed to properly recognize the mass extermination of the Jews. In this context, Rabinbach concludes that antifascism could not be disentangled from Communism and its crimes.
