Dr. Lively draws upon his historical research for his book The Pink Swastika, co-authored by Kevin Abrams, to explain the roots of “Antifa” in the Soviet Communist infiltration of Germany just after WWI closely following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. He attributes the rise of German fascism (itself a Marxist faction) to the fear of Soviet Communist street violence by the Socialist leadership of the Weimar regime — a regime which attempted to counter the Communists by empowering the Fascists to fight them in the streets. Dr. Lively asserts that the Nazi Brownshirts learned their street tactics — and even the use of “concentration camps,” from the Communists. It was the perception around the world that the German Fascists represented the best answer to Communism that popularized Fascism (and Hitler personally) to such an alarming degree internationally in the 1920s and 30s.
