page_title: Opposition to World War II
section_title: Fascism
hierarchical_section_title: Opposition to World War II / Fascism
caption_attribution_description: English: British Union of Fascists' advertisement in Action (1938), opposing Britain entering the Second World War.
context_page_description: Opposition to World War II by various groups and individuals occurred for various reasons before and during World War II.
context_section_description: In Britain, Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists were opposed to war, believing that another world war against Germany was not in Britain's national interest and that Britons should "fight for Britain alone". Editorials and cartoons in Action often asserted that the British Empire needed to prepare for a defensive war against Japan and that war with Germany would put Britain's interests in Asia in jeopardy. Mosley devoted all of the party's efforts to the "Peace Campaign", calling for a referendum on the continuation of the war and advocating a negotiated peace treaty with Germany. The campaign ended after Mosley and many other senior BUF members were interned under Defence Regulation 18B in May 1940.
  Numerous US anti-Semites and anti-communists during the 1930s, notably within the Mothers' movement led by Elizabeth Dilling, also opposed World War II on the basis that it would be preferable for Nazism rather than Communism to dominate Europe. These women also wished to keep their own sons out of the combat US involvement in the war would necessitate, and believed the war would destroy Christianity and further spread atheistic Communism across Europe.
  Henry Ford also opposed US participation in the war until the attack on Pearl Harbor and refused to manufacture airplanes and other war equipment for the British. Father Charles Coughlin urged the US to keep out of the war and permit Germany to conquer Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Asked Coughlin, "Must the entire world go to war for 600,000 Jews in Germany?"
caption: British Union of Fascists' advertisement in Action (1938), opposing Britain's entry into the Second World War.
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