Introduction

Anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic attacks have been printed for over two hundred years. “Jew” and “Freemason” were, and are used, inter-changeably. The article below was originally published in the monthly Masonic magazine The Builder over two issues in July and August 1929. Here, I have brought the two together. The author informs us that that he is both a Jew and a Freemason and is clearly proud of being both. His commentary on the published work of Erich von Ludendorff (1865 – 1937) is insightful and reveals that Freemasons and Jews were being blamed for a multitude of ills (domestic and international) before Adolph Hitler (1889 – 1945) came to power in Germany (1933). Ludendorff’s views, and similar ones held by others, were adopted by Hitler as evidenced by his references to both Jews and Freemasons (again inter-changeably) in Mein Kampf (My Struggle) (First pub. 1925).

Strauss’s 1929 plea to the ‘historians of the future’ is prophetic. [1]

Apparently many Masonic Lodges in German discriminated against Jews but, given that Freemasonry reflects the society and culture in which it is based (whilst attempting to promote tolerance towards all) this is hardly surprising.[2] The value of Strauss’s article lies in his ability to see that, regardless of the actual relationship between Freemasons and Jews, in Germany, both groups were being manipulated for political ends and that both were examples of the process used to create scapegoats. Making particular groups responsible for all the ills of a particular society continues to the present time and, worryingly, Freemasons are increasingly being portrayed in the media as society’s ‘bogymen’. Today, those of the Jewish faith are correctly regarded as having been victims of the Holocaust, because they were made scapegoats by the Nazis. Their joint victims, the Freemasons, are no longer seen in this way. Is that why they are considered ‘fair game’ today whereas Jews are not?[3]

Jews and Freemasons were victims of the same perverse attitudes which led to the Holocaust yet Freemasons continue to be abused as if they never suffered and were not victims.[4] One must ask why?, for what purpose and to what end? Why are Freemasons used as the international ‘whipping boy’ for all the ills of the world?

As sensational, and unfounded claims of murder, child sacrifice, paedophilia, and political assassination committed by Freemasons are aired in the press it is unsurprising that demands are made for public registers of all Freemasons. As politicians suggest  that it is not possible for one to be, for example,  a Judge and a Freemason, Freemasons in the UK recall similar demands in Nazi Germany.

With a conservative estimate of 80,000 Freemasons executed by the Nazis and Fascists, simply because they were Freemasons, it is no wonder that Freemasons in Great Britain shudder with every demand for them to be publicly named (and therefore by implication, ‘shamed’). Hitler, Mussolini and Franco used exactly the  same argument: that it was in the ‘public interest’ for innocent men to be forced to publicly declare their membership of a legal, legitimate, institution. They were then gassed for complying.

Ludendorff must be laughing his socks off to see that his paranoid fantasies, his venomous bile against Jews and Freemasons have been, today, taken up not in the Fatherland but in the very heart of his enemy – Great Britain.

I have added a few endnotes in the hope of clarifying certain points.

Robert L. D. Cooper
Curator
The Grand Lodge of Scotland Museum and Library
May 2004.

Freemasonry, Judaism and General Erich Ludendorff

By BRO. L. F. STRAUSS, Massachusetts, United Sates of America.[5]

THE future historian, the writer of history yet to be made, will be puzzled by one problem, one strange manifestation.

The phenomenon is named anti-Semitism. It is an agitation, a propaganda, of international scope, forming the substructure of political parties in some countries, and is directed towards the curtailment or complete denial of social, economic and political rights to the Jew; even towards "making it impossible for him to exist," to use Mussolini's phrase in regard to Italian Masons.

The psychologist will speculate and the historian will wonder in regard to this phenomenon, that the originators, the leaders, of the anti-Semitic movement were "good Christians," in many cases the officials and administrators of Christian Churches and denominations.

Historian and psychologist will comment on and seek to explain this strange phenomenon. Jewish converts were welcomed and generally received a fair, and even generous treatment in the Roman Catholic Church. Even in Great Britain we can point to Disraeli, and to many other Jews who have won high place and received honourable treatment. But in Protestant countries generally, welcome has been conspicuous by its absence, and anything like a fair economic or social treatment has usually been totally denied to anyone of Jewish race. The writer of these lines has had some strange experiences in this regard.           Once he was teaching philosophy in a Christian institution. He was meeting with marked success, there was a wonderful response on the part of the students-but there was a conference of the authorities, and a pious official said "What will the world say? What will people think? A Jew teaching philosophy in a Christian Institution!" In a like case we read

“The accusing angel flew up to Heaven's Chancery with the words, and blushed as he gave them in. The recording Angel dropped a tear as he wrote them down, and blotted it out forever.”

As illustration of anti-Semitism in Germany, the future historian and psychologist could mention the case and conduct of Stoecker, a Court preacher in the time of Bismarck's regime. More recent is the behaviour of Ludendorff, a German general.

Freemasonry and General Erich Ludendorff

"We do not take possession of our ideas; they take possession of us, they master us and force us into the arena and we are but gladiators fighting for our ideas," so said Heinrich Heine.

Let us, first of all, introduce the innocent reader to our subject-object, the main, the "heroic" figure of this article, whose name constitutes one-half of our title, Erich Ludendorff, the military genius, together with Hindenburg, now President of Germany, the chief commander in the Great War of 1914-19. Meyer's Encyclopaedia ascribes to him the glory, the initial success of the German army. "For all the achievements, the successes of the German army, its victories in the East and West, credit and honour is due to Ludendorff. His labour was gigantic and so were all his contributions in German military matters." In some future textbooks of History, the student will learn, will have to memorize

Ludendorff was the guiding "genius" in the German invasion of Belgium. His scientific strategy made possible the swift capture of Liege, the military occupation of a great part of Belgium and France, the near capture of Paris, the capital of France, whose occupation by German troops "might" have terminated the war, and for a time established the European, in a way the world hegemony of Germany. But Fata versunt aliter. Providence has decreed otherwise.

Let us return to our main, our renowned and excellent subject.

Erich Ludendorff was born April 9, 1865, in Druszewina, Posen, now a part, a province, of the Kingdom – empire – republic - "a name, what's in a name," etc. - of Poland. His father was an officer of the Prussian Army, a successful commander in the Prussian - Austrian conflict of 1866. Erich Ludendorff was a pupil of the cadet school in Plow; he was made a Lieutenant in 1882, at the age of seventeen; and naturally - "rationally" - became a military man. The English word military comes, is derived, from the Roman word miles, militis, which means soldier.

Now, for the understanding of the psychologically inclined reader: by race Ludendorff is, and proudly calls himself, a "Nordic." This word Nordic is intended to designate a Northman, that is, a Norman – Swedish - Norwegian - Danish - North - German member of the genus homo. Although born in Posen, a Polish-Slavic district, he traces his paternal ancestry to Sweden, from which country also his father had taken unto himself a wife.

Erich Ludendorff, after the war, became an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency of the German Republic. He is now a member of the German Reichstag. He has published a number of partly political, partly military publications or treatises, which have been translated into most Aryan languages, and might be found on the shelves of our Public Libraries. The latest, to readers of THE BUILDER the most interesting, achievement of Erich Ludendorff is the writing and publication of a learned, scientific, philosophic treatise on the subject of Freemasonry. This book, printed in 1927, has for its title, The Annihilation of Freemasonry Through the Revelation of Its Secrets.[6] For an understanding, an appreciation of this purpose, this good intention, this attack by General Ludendorff, we deem it expedient to give a few historical statistical facts concerning the "Fatherland" and of Freemasonry.

Germany is a country which, before the war, had a population of a little over 65 million, and now has a population of somewhat more than 60 million. The number of members of an Order called Freemasonry, on a planet called Earth, is about four million, in the U. S. membership is about three million, in Germany is about 60,000 (Ludendorff claims 80,000). In the U. S. three men in a hundred are Masons, in Germany there is one Mason in a thousand inhabitants.

The number of Jews now living on this Planet Earth is about fifteen million, of which number we have in the U. S. about three million or three per cent of U. S. population. In Germany are living today (official statistics) 600,000, or one per cent of the German population. Ludendorff, as usual, exaggerates a little and claims one million Jews as inhabitants of the Fatherland.

As stated, the number of Masons upon a planet called Earth is about four million, of which number this writer gives about one per cent, or 40,000, as Jews. Of these 40,000 about 30,000 are in the U. S., and most of these are in the "Jewish metropolis" called New York.

The Masonic "Situation" in Germany

In ancient times, that is, until very recently, unbaptised Jews were not admissible into German Masonry. At this hour in most lodges "unbaptised" Jews are not even nominally admissible, baptised Jews are nominally admissible. A few lodges welcome, nominally, all religious denominations, even Jews, as members of their Order. Now, if the number of Jews in Masonic lodges of Germany were in exact proportion to the percentage of their race to the whole population, there would be six hundred Jewish Masons; but actually we find in Germany, whose population is over sixty million, about two hundred Jews, two hundred sons of Israel, who are members of the Order of Freemasonry.

After the presentation of these facts, we will give a few excerpts from the latest book by General Ludendorff.

"The Secret of Freemasonry is the Jew. A man of any racial affinity, particularly a German, ought to recognize this fact." "To prove, to justify, to establish this declaration I [Ludendorff] will give the reader a glimpse of the dependence of German Freemasonry upon Judaism." "The Jews, of course, know but too well the secret or secrets of Freemasonry, for we read in a work by Dr. Isaac M. Wise [once upon a time a friend of this writer, L. F. Strauss, and the father-in-law of Mr. Ochs, owner of New York Times], 'Freemasonry is a Jewish institution whose history, degrees, symbols, passwords are Jewish from beginning to end.' "

"The dependence of Freemasons upon Jewry not only renders so difficult the liberation of the German people from the yoke of enemies, but it intensifies, aggravates the enslavement and makes of some Germans, workers in the establishment of Jewish domination and Jewish world dominion. The primary aim of Freemasonry is to impress the educated, the professional leaders in industry, into service for the establishment of Jewish dominion."

"The degradation of Germans of both sexes was made possible by making a German forget that he was an Aryan, a Teuton and above everything, a German."

"There is not sufficient space to give now the whole history of Masonry. We wish to state this only: Masonry came to Germany from England about the middle of the 18th century, with strongly Jewish constituent forms and formulas; it was favoured by Jewish 'Parvenus," such as Moses Mendelssohn, and was supported by the Order of Jesus." [Jesuits.]

"This World Freemasonry had made propaganda for the World War, and now prevents the establishment of truth about this war by means of Judaizing this our Universe."

"Membership in one of the highest Masonic degrees is not a test or proof of a higher initiation, of a knowledge of final designs of the Order. In one of the publications mentioned we can read to what awful, frightful things a member of the 30th Degree finds himself exposed."

"Count Hangwitz, one of our foremost statesmen, found himself in such a dilemma. He proposed the prohibition of the Order in the Congress at Verona in the year 1822."

"Rulers, Sovereigns were chosen Protectors, and then had to suffer." "Emperor William II and the Czar of Russia were not Freemasons, and for this reason both lost their throne." "Masonic members, not in Jewish Lodges, on the Planet Earth amount to several millions, first, U. S. with more than three million Masons, next England with several hundred thousands, Germany 80,000. This number 80,000 gives a good, a correct picture of German, Teuton blood. But hereby is strengthened the force of German Jews, who number about one million in Germany." [Exaggerated, official statistics say 600,000.]

"Freemasons are influential officials in the German government. Streseman is a Mason. Freemasonry is a sticky, glutinous, invisible substance penetrating everything."

"The flower called Acacia is the Sceptre of Judah. "I [Ludendorff] know the Acacia to be a thornbush. In the inner realm of Freemasonry Acacia is presented as the tree of life, is adorned with blossoms white and red and impersonates Truth and Justice." "The Germans, of course, know but too well this truth or justice promised to the World by the Sceptre of Judah."

"In all Masonic Lodges shines the Star of David." "In the lowest degree, in that of apprentice, we have in Germany, in place of the six-pointed, the five-pointed star, which today has become the Jewish Soviet star - a Kabbalistic symbol." "This five-pointed star represents Light, personified by the Jew priest standing in the inner shrine of the Temple of Israel when the High Priest [on the Day of Atonement] returns to the inner Sanctuary."

"G, so conspicuous in all Masonic presentations, represents Gematria. In reality this letter G takes the place, personifies, the letter of the initial letter of Jehovah."

"Kabbala. This Kabbala is a book of Jewish philosophy, Jewish magic, dark superstition… Gematria is vicious superstition-letter and number mysticism. The Hebraic word for World War calculated by, in Gematria, equals 1914."

"The six-pointed star of David is for the Jew the creation in six days and the geometric figure of Solomon's Seal, presented in the form of a triangle."

"This star of David we find in all lodges." "The Kabbala teaches Jewish ideas of Creation, mentions 10 concentric figures."

"The Kabbala teaches the idea, the doctrine of rein carnation."

"A tree is another Kabbalistic figure or picture for creation and is a highly venerated symbol in the realm of Freemasonry."

"The New Testament. So-called Christian humanitarian Freemasonry bases its mythology, not on Jesus of Nazareth, not on Petrus, not on Paulus, not on the four evangelists, but on the Evangelism of St. John. Here we find the first words of John: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, God was the Word, etc. This is in accord with fundamental Kabbalistic Doctrine of the Logos." [Correct, Strauss.]

"The highest doctrines of moral laws and ideas about Divinity are expressed in the Kabbala by the word 'Vernunft,' reason. In the bloody French Revolution at the end of the eighteenth century this goddess 'Vernunft,' or Reason, was carried through the streets of Paris and in her name the most noble and hochrassiger, most highly aristocratic, Nordic blood was shed just as now in Russia. The Jewish Vernunft demands these racial wars."

"The Jew has but one purpose, one aim in life: To make his ethical standard a religion, a faith for the whole Universe. Christianity, Mohammedanism, is for the Jew a first step, Freemasonry is a second step."

"The Order of Odd Fellows is another tool in the Jewish effort. Here appear Moses and Aaron as Chaplains, as ministers in Levitical dresses. We even hear the 'Our Father' and the customary blessings of the Christian Church."

WE will continue with some further extracts from the work of the German General, Erich Ludendorff, which we quoted last month, the work by which he expects to annihilate Freemasonry; in ignorance, it would seem, of the fact that he is far from being the first to make the same attempt by the same means, that others have attempted the same thing before him, even so long ago as the year 1747.[7]

Ludendorff then, seeks to show that Masonry has nothing in common with the Christian religion, which is not wholly without point in Germany, where the Prussian Grand Lodges will accept no candidates who do not profess to be Christians. Our German General says:

"The words of the Evangelist John, in the first chapter, have no connection with the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth."

"Masonic connection with Jesus is very loose." "Christian lodges call Him their Master and Instructor… represent Him as divinity approaching the human, as Adam Kadmon… include Him in their Fraternity, analogous to John the Baptist."

"Freemasonry teaches that Jesus had belonged to the Jewish sect of Essenes, and that he was actually a Freemason."

"The introduction of the personality of Jesus was a kind of afterthought, done for a purpose: To make Freemasonry acceptable by 'good' Christians."

"The enlightened, the really informed, the initiated, know that Christianity and the New Testament are used by, in, Freemasonry as a kind of decoy; but only as far as Christianity, as the New Testament, is in accord with Kabbalistic philosophy, Kabbalistic theology and Kabbalistic politics."

"In the mystical forms of Freemasonry the factor decisive in everything; Jewish Orthodoxy, Jewish standard, Jewish nationality, these three made into a terrific unity… This Jewish unification falls with terrific force upon unsuspecting innocent Germany."

"Food for thought, Freemasons call themselves Noachides, sons of Noah. The Patriarchs, of course, are also mentioned… Jehova - in accord with Bible texts, El Shaddai, etc."

"The Devil made an alliance with Abram, later Abraham, and promised him offspring - later called Isaac - the first member of the genus homo to be circumcised. This Abraham is an important figure with the Odd Fellows as a model for Love, for do we not read that he sold, for a good price of course, his wife as a harlot?"

The Talmud

"The Talmud is next to the Torah, the Jewish Law, and shows the hate and contempt of Jews for all people."

"It is evident that the Talmud has been the determining influence upon Masonic theories and practices." "We read: 'Moses our teacher enjoins that we should force all men to accept, follow and obey the laws given to the sons of Noah - to kill anyone who refuses.' "

It is Jewish policy, politics exemplified both in the minor and the higher Masonic degrees, to withdraw Noah and put into his place Solomon."

"The Kings of Sweden and Denmark are Masons."

"The head of Swedish Freemasonry is a man known as Vicar of Solomon, until he actually becomes ruler; his membership is to remain a secret till his actual reign."

"The Kings of England, Edward VII, George V, were high degree Masons. [King George is not a Mason.][8] These Masons undermine monarchical prestige, abuse people's confidence."

"In the shadow of its authorities, Freemasonry does its work, i. e., the establishment of Jewish domination and world-power. Oh, son of man, begin to think, then act and obtain your freedom."

"The training for the breeding of artificial Jewry. King Solomon and the Old Testament. In the constitution of natural Masonic lodges we read: 'The wise King Solomon is to be called the founder and first ruler of our Order.'"

"The position of the human foot at right angles presents the Kabbalistic symbol - straight walking - figure of speech for upright living." [Ludendorff is a student, and as such can and does make discoveries.]

"The numbers presented in Adoniram's fancies - illusions! Three, 32=9 ; 33=27. This institutes one of the Kabbala's strange figurations."

(The number) "3 as already stated represents the creative force of Jehovah." "In the Kabbalistic dominion we have 3 empires; 9 represents the basis of the magic square; 3x3=9.          Here the numbers are given in such a way as to make 15."

"Twenty-seven is the cube of 3. This cube represents a fully developed figure whose impersonation is the incorrupt and incorruptible Jew." [Put "Mason" in place of "Jew" and Ludendorff gives correct information.]

Jewish Creation of the World

"The Kabbala presents creation in 10 concentric figures."

"The tree with its highest branch forming a crown is another Kabbalistic figure of creation. And the crown is one of the sacred symbols of Freemasonry. The 'Master Mason' in the lodge represents, personifies, the power, the secret of this crown."

"Freemasonry, to which many Protestant ministers belong, has accepted but little of Christianity. Even the Bible is but a symbol."

"The teaching of Jesus, according to Masonic interpretation, represents religious morality."

"The Jew with conscious malice strives to make his words into the religion of the whole world through Freemasonry."

"Dr. Hieber writes; 'We ought not to introduce theological doctrines… we must remain mindful of this: that if Christ had not perfected His work, His life and work would have been in vain, but as things are, His work runs into millennia.' Next Hieber shows the unification of the human and divine as configuration approaches the figure of the cube, the symbolic presentation of the Son of God. The Jewish child in Bethlehem." [Ludendorff here comes close to a Kabbalistic and Masonic doctrine.][9] "All Masonic brothers form, constitute, but one lodge, and the central of the one lodge is in New York, the capital of Jewry."

"The Royal art is one of the names given to Masonic work… the overthrow of Kings in the honour and name of the Jew King Solomon."

"Three great Lights of Freemasonry, taken from the Kabbala, are Wisdom, Beauty and Strength." "Most German lodges do not accept unbaptized, but will accept baptized Jews. Now, do we not all know baptism cannot affect, or change, a Jew? A Jew always remains a Jew."

"Hieber, objecting to appellation of anti-Semite, rejects, refuses to accept a name of honour."

"Freemasonry makes the North the seat, the home, of Darkness; the rough and hard side of Life, the place of vice and barbarism. In the North are the rough stones representing the genus homo in primitive, uncivilized, state, to be worked upon with dagger and trowel to be made into a cube in the interest and glory of the Jew."

"The great lie, Ex oriente lux, is a Jewish claim and assertion. This lie is today upheld by Freemasonry." This Ludendorffian presentation of the case; Humanity - Civilization vs. Freemasonry; it makes but one charge, brings but one accusation, Freemasonry has been generated, elaborated by Semites, by a something called Jews. This charge, accusation, might be denied ; is at least debatable. Now, my dear Bro. Ludendorff, if a Semite, a member of the Jewish race, and likewise a member of the Order called Freemasonry, may be permitted to do so, I would ask: what about Christianity? - Whence comes Christianity? To what race belonged Jesus of Nazareth and all his apostles? Have not you, Erich Ludendorff, been born into, been baptized into, been "confirmed" into that religion called Christianity? Are you aware of this: The word Christian, Christ, Christos is the Greek form or word for "Anointed," which word gives the literal meaning of the Hebrew Meschia, usually spelled Messiah? Christian martyrs in Roman courts till the third century were recorded as Novi Judaei.

The descent, the source, the origin of Freemasonry, as stated, is at least debatable, but there is not, there cannot be, a mentally sane member of the genus homo, who will deny that what today is called Christianity is an offspring, a child of something called Judaism. Has not this religion called Christianity (this offspring of Judaism) been an important factor in civilizing your race, your "Nordic" race, of which you are so proud?

Another piece of information pleasing to Ludendorff. European civilization will reach its highest state in the North. Now everything which is, or exists, has a reason, a cause, an explanation. For this, a kind of "Nordic" ascendancy - I will not give a reason, but will give a cause and a kind of explanation. In accord with a certain Law of Nature, the longer anything takes to develop and mature the stronger does it become. This law is operative even in the vegetable Kingdom. Fruit which ripens the most quickly, decays the most rapidly. In the North physical, mental and moral life develops more slowly than in the South. The pre-Christian Northerners, the Roman historians relate, drank the life-blood of conquered enemies. Longevity today is greatest in the North. In aerial navigation the "Nordics" lead. The American Lindbergh is a "Nordic." In literature we have Ibsen, Boernson, Strindberg; in the spiritual world we have Swedenborg the mystic. Another piece of information: This "Nordic" ascendancy will not be eternal; change and progress is the Law of Life.

Another piece of information, displeasing at first, but highly gratifying later, after securing additional, real information and an after serious reflection: The Founder of what today is known as Freemasonry was not a Jew. He was a "Nordic" for many, many generations, both on his father's and on his mother's side. And this Nordic was the greatest, the noblest, the best "specimen" of the genus homo, produced by the so-called European world.

In addition to this: you are a Patriot, and Patriotism is a virtue. Have not German, as well as British, French or American Jews, done their duty in the so-called Great War?

A further item of information: this writer was a personal friend of Prof. Muensterberg, the well known psychologist and philosopher. This scholar was a friend and adviser of Count Bernsdorff, and at a time when many other Germans had, in a way, lost their patriotism, when Germans in Turnhalle were putting pictures of Bismarck in the cellar, and those of the Kaiser into another place, Muensterberg suffered and sacrificed, and finally died of a broken heart. The writer of these lines also suffered, sacrificed and lost.

And something further: a man is good to the degree that he is unselfish, and bad in the degree that he is selfish. Every man has a duty to the self, the ego, towards family, towards tribe, towards country, and finally, towards the race. No man should seek fortune at the expense of his family, or his family's fortune at the expense of tribe or country, or his country's welfare at the expense, the cost, of the human race. And here another item of information: a teaching in the Weltanschauung of the Founder of Freemasonry it is that the human stage is not the last, the highest, the final level of life on this planet called "Earth." There is another, a higher stage. What is this stage? A name! What's in a name? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

And as food for thought, the following verse from Goethe may be recalled

Des menschen Seele gleicht dem Wasser
Von Himmel kommt sie zur Erde steigt sie
Und muss hinwieder zur Erde nieder
Ewig wandered…

A recently published biography of Goethe, reviewed in THE BUILDER a few months ago, may be recommended. In this work we are informed that Goethe not only believed in the idea of re-incarnation, but that he actually remembered a previous life, in the time of the Roman emperor, Hadrian. And for meditation the utterance: "Before A'braham was, I am," ; and another idea found in that same book called the Bible, that a certain John, surnamed the Baptist, had once on a time been Elias.

And: "Why speakest thou unto them in parable ?" asked the disciples. ""

He answered and said unto them, "Because it is given , unto you to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."

Consider: Parables, and Masonic Symbolism.

We are told that once upon a time there was in "Heaven" a great celebration and that by angels there was a song, heard by you in childhood, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will." Now, ende gut alles gut.

Endnotes