Editing Esperanto (section)

=== Official repression ===
[[File:1911 Anvers Congrès Esperanto.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|7th Esperanto congress, [[Antwerp]], August 1911]]
Esperanto attracted the suspicion of many states. Repression was especially pronounced in [[Nazi Germany]], [[Francoist Spain]] up until the 1950s, and the [[Soviet Union under Stalin]], from 1937 to 1956.

In Nazi Germany, there was a motivation to ban Esperanto because Zamenhof was Jewish, and due to the internationalist nature of Esperanto, which was perceived as "Bolshevist". In his work ''[[Mein Kampf]]'', [[Adolf Hitler]] specifically mentions Esperanto as an example of a language that could be used by an international Jewish conspiracy once they achieved world domination.<ref name="conciseencyclopedia_nazi2">{{cite book|last=Sutton|first=Geoffrey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Z_8CG9g2jIC&pg=PA161|title=Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto, 1887–2007|publisher=Mondial|year=2008|isbn=978-1-59569-090-6|pages=161–162|quote=Hitler specifically attacked Esperanto as a threat in a speech in Munich (1922) and in ''Mein Kampf'' itself (1925). The Nazi Minister for Education banned the teaching of Esperanto on May 17, 1935. [...] all Esperantists were essentially enemies of the state – serving, through their language, Jewish-internationalist aims.|access-date=February 29, 2016|archive-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722235450/https://books.google.com/books?id=-Z_8CG9g2jIC&pg=PA161|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Esperantist]]s were killed during the [[Holocaust]], with Zamenhof's family in particular singled out to be killed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://esperantodc.org/esw6.html |title=About ESW and the Holocaust Museum |publisher=Esperantodc.org |date=December 5, 1995 |access-date=December 5, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125045310/http://esperantodc.org/esw6.html |archive-date=November 25, 2010 }}</ref> The efforts of a minority of German Esperantists to [[Aryanization|expel their Jewish colleagues]] and overtly align themselves with the Reich were futile, and Esperanto was legally forbidden in 1935. Esperantists in German concentration camps did, however, teach Esperanto to fellow prisoners, telling guards they were teaching Italian, the language of one of Germany's [[Axis allies]].{{sfn|Lins|2017}}

In [[Imperial Japan]], the left wing of the Japanese Esperanto movement was forbidden, but its leaders were careful enough not to give the impression to the government that the Esperantists were socialist revolutionaries, which proved a successful strategy.<ref name="Esperanto as language and idea in China and Japan">{{cite journal |last=Lins |first=Ulrich |year=2008 |title=Esperanto as language and idea in China and Japan |journal=Language Problems and Language Planning |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=47–60 |publisher=John Benjamins |issn=0272-2690 |doi=10.1075/lplp.32.1.05lin |access-date=July 2, 2012 |url=http://benjamins.com/series/lplp/32-1/art/05lin.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222105549/http://benjamins.com/series/lplp/32-1/art/05lin.pdf |archive-date=December 22, 2012 }}</ref>

After the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, Esperanto was given a measure of government support by the new communist states in the [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|former Russian Empire]] and later by the [[Soviet Union]] government, with the [[Soviet Esperantist Union]] being established as an organization that, temporarily, was officially recognized.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite web|url=http://literaturo.org/HARLOW-Don/Esperanto/EBook/chap07.html|title=Donald J. Harlow, The Esperanto Book, chapter 7|publisher=Literaturo.org|access-date=September 29, 2016|archive-date=October 2, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002141103/http://literaturo.org/HARLOW-Don/Esperanto/EBook/chap07.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In his biography on [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Leon Trotsky]] mentions that Stalin had studied Esperanto.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/stalin/ch04.htm|title=Chapter IV: The period of reaction: Leon Trotsky: Stalin – An appraisal of the man and his influence (1940)|author=Leon Trotsky|publisher=Marxists.org|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114015403/https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1940/xx/stalin/ch04.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> However, in 1937, at the height of the [[Great Purge]], Stalin completely reversed the Soviet government's policies on Esperanto; many Esperanto speakers were executed, exiled or held in captivity in the [[Gulag]] labour camps. Quite often the accusation was: "You are an active member of an international spy organization which hides itself under the name of 'Association of Soviet Esperantists' on the territory of the Soviet Union." Until the end of the Stalin era, it was dangerous to use Esperanto in the Soviet Union, even though it was never officially forbidden to speak Esperanto.{{sfn|Lins|2017}}

[[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] allowed the use of Esperanto, finding its phonology similar to that of Italian and publishing some tourist material in the language.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-05 |title=The History of Esperanto: A Modern Lingua Franca? |url=https://www.thecollector.com/esperanto-history/ |access-date=2024-04-21 |website=TheCollector |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Divjak |first=Alenka |date=June 2017 |title=Esperanto and tourism |url=https://www.quaestus.ro/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Alenka-DIVJAK.pdf |journal=Quaestus |volume=6 |issue=11 |pages=142–153 |issn=2285-424X |via=ProQuest}}</ref>

During and after the [[Spanish Civil War]], Francoist Spain suppressed [[Anarchism in Spain|anarchists]], socialists and [[Catalan nationalist]]s for many years, among whom the use of Esperanto was extensive,<ref name="Del Barrio">{{cite web|url=http://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/artik68es.htm|title=La utilización del esperanto durante la Guerra Civil Española|publisher=Nodo50.org|access-date=January 14, 2015|archive-date=January 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116083834/http://www.nodo50.org/esperanto/artik68es.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> but in the 1950s the Esperanto movement was again tolerated.{{sfn|Lins|2017}}