Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of MankindKnickerbocker, H. R. (Hubert Renfro)
History
Is Tomorrow Hitler's? 200 Questions on the Battle of Mankind
Knickerbocker, H. R. (Hubert Renfro)
Europe -- Politics and government -- 1918-1945; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945 -- United States
A. Yes, because they have learned to hate; the Germans have taught
them. I know it sounds most un-Christian to insist upon the necessity
of hatred, but the thoughtful will remember that Christ hated evil,
and when he scourged the money-changers from the Temple he did it with
fury. Who will dispute that Hitler is more evil than money-changers in
a Temple, and that all the forces of Christianity ought to be ranged
together to destroy his hateful power. You cannot win a battle, you
cannot win a war, you cannot win any kind of fight that involves
killing unless you have the spirit to kill. You cannot have that spirit
unless you are convinced of the justice of your cause, and you know
that God is on your side, and that God approves your killing your
enemies.
The French never had any such spirit during the war, except perhaps
at the very end, but they have it now. During the war they were all
the time debating in their hearts whether it would not be better to
quit and make friends with the Germans. They thought in terms of the
last war. They thought of the Germans as the same sort of human beings
as the Germans of 1870 or of 1914-1918. They simply failed to grasp
the most important fact in the world of international affairs today,
namely that the Nazi Germans under Hitler are a new species of creature
never seen before in modern times, a deliberately amoral species of
men who reject every tenet of Christianity or of any other religion
which enjoins kindness, truth, and justice, and who are possessed of
such unique talents for war that they could conceivably achieve their
ambition to conquer the world if they were not stopped by a coalition
of all the decent peoples on earth. The French above all failed to
take seriously Hitler’s cool, considered statement that he intended to
exterminate France as a nation.
Q. _How about the treatment Hitler has given France so far; he hasn’t
tried to exterminate them, has he?_
A. No, but Hitler is not through with the French; he has not even begun
to treat them the way he intends to ultimately. There are several
reasons why he has been comparatively lenient to France so far. First,
he wished to end French resistance immediately in order that the whole
force of the German Army might be thrown at England. Second, he wished
to lull the French into a belief that by collaborating with the Germans
they might obtain the “honorable peace” Pétain talks about. Third, he
wished to make it appear to the British and eventually to the Americans
that surrender to Hitler is not so bad. Finally, he wished to get from
the Vichy government several important things he either did not dare
demand or was refused at the Compiègne armistice, chiefly that the
French should go to war against Britain or at any rate turn over the
French fleet and naval bases to the Germans for use against the British.
Q. _Do you imply that later on Hitler’s treatment of France will be
different?_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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