Ossewabrandwag

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Ossewabrandwag
HeadquartersBloemfontein, Union of South Africa
Membership
350,000 (1941)
Leader
Johannes Van Rensburg

The Ossewabrandwag (OB) (Afrikaans pronunciation:

national socialism, founded in South Africa in Bloemfontein on 4 February 1939. The organization was strongly opposed to South African participation in World War II, and vocally supportive of Nazi Germany. OB carried out a campaign of sabotage against state infrastructure, resulting in a government crackdown. The unpopularity of that crackdown has been proposed as a contributing factor to the victory of the National Party in the 1948 South African general election and the rise of Apartheid
.

Background

During the Napoleonic Era, what had previously been the

concentration camps
.

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After the war, a degree of reconciliation developed between the

Boer Commandos such as Louis Botha and Jan Smuts. South African Union Defence Force troops, including thousands of Afrikaners, served in the British forces during World War I
.

Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the brutal tactics used by Britain in the Second Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even in the looser form of Dominion status.

1930s

The chief vehicle of

D. F. Malan, which broke away from the National Party when the latter merged with Smuts' South African Party in 1934. Another important element was the Afrikaner Broederbond, a quasi-secret society founded in 1918, and dedicated to the proposition that "the Afrikaner volk has been planted in this country by the Hand of God..."[2]

The Ossewabrandwag was officially established in 1938 to commemorate the centennial of the Great Trek. Most of the migrants travelled in ox-drawn wagons, hence the group's name. The group's leader was Johannes Van Rensburg, an attorney who had previously served as Minister of Justice in Smuts' cabinet and supported the Nazi government in Germany .[3][4]

During World War II

The Boer militants of the Ossebrandwag (OB) were hostile to the United Kingdom and sympathetic to Nazi Germany. Thus the OB opposed South African participation in the war, even after the Union declared war in support of Britain in September 1939. By 1941, the OB had approximately 350,000 members.[5]

Members of the OB refused to enlist in the UDF and sometimes harassed servicemen in uniform. This erupted into open rioting in Johannesburg on 1 February 1941; 140 soldiers were seriously hurt.[6]

More dangerous was the formation of the Stormjaers (Storm hunters), a paramilitary wing of the OB. The nature of the Stormjaers was evidenced by the oath sworn by new recruits: "If I retreat, shoot me. If I fall, avenge me. If I charge, follow me" (

Fascists
in the 1930s.

In August 1940, the OB offered to stage a Nazi uprising against Jan Smuts. The organization said they had 160,000 members 15,000 soldiers, who had not taken the "Africa oath" of willingness to fight against the Axis anywhere on the continent, ready to strike. They proposed that the Germans drop off weapons in Southern Rhodesia or South West Africa. The "West Plan" was far more well-planned.

"At an hour to be determined by the German High Command, Afrikaners would then blow up all rail and road bridges connecting the Transvaal with Natal. The railway personnel, the Police and 26,000 mine workers and employees have been penetrated as the rest of the State services with Ossewabrandwag members and would go on strike. The latter, viz. mine workers and employees, are already today urging for a strike. English newspapers are going to be blown up. Smuts and his followers are going to be asked kill themselves. Further dispositions are left to the German General Staff, particularly whether and which bridges are to be blown up."[8]

The plan was never carried out since the OB was unable to obtain sufficient weapons. Furthermore, the OB was reluctant to take up arms after Malan distanced the National Party from the organization at the end of 1941.[8] Nevertheless, individual members continued to carry out acts of sabotage against the Union government. The Stormjaers dynamited electrical power lines and railroads and cut telegraph and telephone lines.[6] These types of acts were going too far for most Afrikaners, and Malan ordered the National Party to break with the OB entirely in 1942.[3]

The Union government cracked down on the OB and the Stormjaers, placing thousands of them in

B. J. Vorster, became future leaders of the ruling National Party during apartheid. Moreover, the internment aroused Afrikaner opposition to the government and helped the NP win the 1948 general election.[9]

At the end of the war, the OB was absorbed into the National Party and ceased to exist as a separate body.

Ideology

A Nazi spy in South Africa who had frequent contact with van Rensberg in 1944 stated that the OB was "based on the

national socialism ranged from an "inclination",[10] to "wholehearted acceptance"[11] One author, van den Berghe, contended that, while there were parallels, neither Van Rensburg nor the OB were genuine fascists.[12]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-2-85802-140-6
    pp. 371f; in German: IKO Verlag, Frankfurt 1993. – From: Auswärtiges Amt (Foreign Office) Bonn, Archives StS Afrika (i.e.: Staatssekretär) 1939 – 1943, f. 24, 1102-S9
  1. ^ The “Ossewabrandwag” is founded, 30 September 2019
  2. ^ Schönteich, M; Boshoff, H (March 2003), 'Volk' Faith and Fatherland. The Security Threat Posed by the White Right, Institute of Security Studies Monographs
  3. ^ a b ""Ossewabrandwag" at About.com, Alistair Boddy-Evans". Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2010.
  4. ISBN 978-3-8258-9797-0
    .
  5. ^ "Ossewabrandwag -- Who were the Ossewabrandwag". 5 September 2016. Archived from the original on 5 September 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9780140410129
    .
  7. ^ Williams, Basil (1946). "Ch 10 Smuts and the War in Africa". Botha Smuts And South Africa. London: Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 161–178.
  8. ^
    ISSN 0041-5715
    .
  9. OCLC 883649263.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  10. ISSN 2309-8392
    .
  11. ^ Lawrence, John (1989). "CHAPTER IV Comparing Nationalist ideology and policy with fascism and Naziism". Influence of National Socialist ideology on the South African Nationalist party 1939-1945 (Master of Arts - MA thesis). University of British Columbia.
  12. ISBN 978-0-520-01294-3
    .
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