Sociologist Baer Links Vox Immigration Rhetoric to Mein Kampf

Baer Compares Vox Discourse With Mein Kampf

Sociologist Alejandro Baer, a CSIC researcher and former director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, argues that the "right to want to survive as a people" proclaimed by Vox deputy Rocío de Meer reproduces völkisch delusions of blood and soil, similar to those found in Mein Kampf, the book turning one hundred years old. This is not idle speculation: Baer has just published Antisemitism. The Eternal Return of the Jewish Question and has thoroughly studied the period. The trigger is Vox's promise to deport millions of people, including those with legal residence or even citizenship, if they come to power.

From Blood Purity to Racial Certificates

The article's thesis is that Vox's barely concealed racism has a long tradition in Spain, dating back to the Middle Ages: what was known for centuries as limpieza de sangre (blood purity). After the pogroms that devastated Jewish communities in Castile and Aragon at the end of the Middle Ages and the expulsion of 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs, which triggered mass conversions, a deep separation began between Old Christians and New Christians. Any sign of being a Judaizer was extremely dangerous. Conversion alone was not enough, just as being a Spanish citizen is not enough for Vox to deserve membership in the people.

The historical parallel drawn in the text is explicit: when Hitler came to power in 1933 after dismantling the Weimar Republic, he established a racial certificate required for public sector employment. The document had to confirm the family's racial pedigree back to 1800—1750 for SS members—and prove there were no ancestors of Jewish or colored blood. Millions of Germans had to resort to genealogists or private detectives, first to participate in society and, shortly after, to survive. The Nancy drew inspiration from Jim Crow laws in the southern United States, but also from Spanish blood purity laws.

What Is Required to Enter Israel

The discussion quickly turns to double standards. Some argue that Israel requires DNA proof for Aliyah, Jewish immigration to Israel, and does not accept everyone: the migration process is very restrictive. The lingering question is how many Syrian refugees Israel has accepted, despite being a border country. The most uncomfortable calculation for the article's narrative is that it is not only Vox demanding adaptation to customs.

The Argument About Hitler's Dog

Some messages reject the comparison as fallacious: if Hitler had a dog, having a dog would have sinister precedents; if he was vegetarian, vegetarians would be too. The underlying criticism is methodological: the article is accused of substituting logical arguments with emotional ones. The response from the other side is that the comparison is not a syllogism but a documented pattern: before violence comes words, stigmatization, and racism; the difference between them and us is marked, and the danger they represent to coexistence and to the immutable, eternal idea of the people is highlighted.

The Detail of Bacon and Customs

The material recovers an episode that sounds contemporary today. Joseph Pérez explains in The Jews in Spain that many conversos who had sincerely embraced Christianity retained customs whose origins they did not even know: they venerated saints named Rachel or Esther, and did not light fires on Saturdays due to old family traditions. In their fanaticism, several detractors of the conversos confused faith with customs. Changing a few words, the French Hispanist's account becomes very current. The irony of the detail is that Baer himself bears a typical surname, like the deputy he criticizes.

What Happens to Those With Eight Surnames

The unanswered operational question is this: if Vox demands adaptation to national customs, what document do they intend to request, and what will happen to those who, despite displaying eight Spanish surnames, do not adapt to their own customs? The party insists on deporting all legal immigrants who do not integrate, but says it does not know how many there are. That void—the lack of defined metrics—is the weak point of the proposal and, at the same time, its greatest political utility.

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With these elements, the comparison with the 1933 racial certificate will continue to generate headlines. And if the party ever specifies adaptation criteria, we will have to see who audits them.