Bruneteau, Bernard

Totalitarian fraternity - 2024.


89

Right beside the world of terror and detention camps, one in which the Stalinist and Nazi regimes denied all forms of human fraternity, there existed – at least for those from the right social and racial categories – a form of glee to be included in a truly united experience: it took on names such as Homo Sovieticus, or Volksgemeinschaft. Admittedly, this reality may have been a bit of a façade – which became abundantly clear in the galvanising displays of unfailing unanimity that were the Nuremberg ceremonies and Moscow’s May Day parades. Nevertheless, it wasn’t all an illusion.