False: The First and Second World Wars were started by Jewish nationalists trying to create Israel.

Context

There has been a recent increase in TikTok videos promoting an antisemitic documentary called Europa: The Last Battle. These videos encourage users to watch the film and claim it reveals the world's true history. However, the documentary contains Nazi and antisemitic propaganda that spreads hate against Jewish people. One of the central claims in the documentary is that Jewish people started World War 1 and provoked the Nazis into beginning World War 2.

The highest traction videos promoting the documentary on TikTok have between 60,000 and 100,000 views. We found commenters promoting the documentary in the comment sections of other videos that do not mention the documentary.

In Fact

Jewish people did not start either of the World Wars. These claims are rooted in antisemitic propaganda and are used to present the idea that Nazi Germany was rightfully defending itself.

As mentioned in the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) glossary, Europa: The Last Battle is an antisemitic documentary popular with white supremacists and alt-right groups. It engages in historical revisionism to claim that Jews deliberately caused the world wars as a plot to establish Israel.  

The documentary claims that Hitler was fighting against a global Jewish plot and had been provoked by Jews. The concept of a wider global Jewish conspiracy is common in white supremacist and antisemitic rhetoric and is one of the many New World Order conspiracies. As mentioned in a different article by the ADL, this conspiracy and Nazi ideology were heavily inspired by the book, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion," published in the early 20th century. The book alleged to show evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy. However, all this "evidence" was fictitious and false but still fuelled the conspiracy and growing fear that Jews were trying to take over the world. The conspiracy gained wider traction and continues to spread fear that there is a nefarious scheme that Jews are behind. The use of rhetoric like "globalist" in these circles is common and a further indication of this conspiracy. 

As mentioned in the International Encyclopedia of the First World War, the belief that Jews were responsible for WW1 and Germany's loss, often called "The stab in the back myth," was a prominent myth that contributed to the rise of the Nazi party post-WW1. The myth was a propaganda tool that claimed socialists and Jews betrayed Germany. Claims that Jewish people started WWI and WW2 are entirely unfounded and based on conspiratorial antisemitic myths. Various economic and political problems in Europe created rising tensions, many of which stemmed from the Treaty of Versailles at the end of WW1, which led to unrest in Germany. The unrest eventually built to Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939, which is when WW2 formally began.

Further antisemitic rhetoric used to dehumanize Jews is evident in the TikTok videos' comments, on the documentary's website, and in positive reviews of the documentary. They make further remarks on a global conspiracy, assert that Jewish people are part of a malign plot, and directly refer to Jews as parasites in society. This is typical rhetoric in these circles and is used to spread further fear, hate, and distrust against Jewish people. 

The ADL also mentions that antisemites and white supremacists use the documentary to recruit individuals to their ideology. This is also evident on TikTok, where the videos directly promote and encourage the viewership of the documentary. In the comments of several videos, users promote discord servers and encourage others to join to discuss the film further. This is an additional recruitment strategy used by these groups to rope people into social circles where they can push their harmful ideology.

The Verdict

These claims are based on antisemitic myths and conspiracies. These claims have no factual basis; they exist to spread hate. Therefore we have marked this claim as false.