Repository: UIHistories Project: Convocation - 1942 Winter-Spring [PAGE 35]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

I'ruin fui! Causes of the War in Europe

II

jrnmp "decided only to be undecided, resolved to b( irresolufc adamanl for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent." In despaii Churchill predicted retribution for all of this stupid smugness. "I hav<

watched this famous island descending ineonlently, fecklessly, th stairway which leads to a dark gulf. It is a fine broad stairway at the beginning, but after a bit the carpel ends. A little farther on there an only flag stones, and a little farther on still, these break beneath yon; feet . . . ." Soon all sides discovered what forcc.s had been let lor.se through the advent of Hitler. The Allies found a wild fanatic, intransigent, determined by every means to break through the crust of civilization. Hitler was no longer content merely to n tify the injustices of Verlilies. He meant to make a world revolution, to smash through tin confine of the old continental system, to take control of Europe, th< oceans, the colonial empires, the raw materials, and ultimately the world. The Germans discovered that their new master intended to do much more than build a strong, self respecting Germany again. Il« spoke of reorganizing completely men's way of life, of destroying democracy, liberalism, the rationalism of the western world. The shortsightedness of the Allies had raised up a new Atilla. The ineptitude and the lethargy of the German people had loosed forces of nihilism which were to sweep the nation into an endless nightmare. Hitler meant what he said. His most fantastic utteraiu 3 were n < longer campaign promises. He proposed to put into effect all the gibberish of Mein Kampf, all the mystic nonsense of Alfr 1 Rosenberg and to do it with all the cunning and the ruthlessness which Goebbels and Himmler 1 uld devise, to enforce it with all the Strength which C xing and his nerals could command. I)< locracy w; > stamped out, not merely IK IU dictatorship was more effective and speedier in a time of crisis. It was stamped out as a "filthy superstition." as the '"dirty invention of Jews and Marxians." A relentless war on the great religions began, not only b inse Protestantism and Catholicism both were indebted to Judaism,

| | I I

but b aus 1 Christianity taught the brotherhood of man. the divinity <

of the soul, the virtues of kindliness and humility and humaneiu >. qualities which were anathema to the Nazis. Their chief virtues were

implicit obedien<

to the will of the rulers and willing sacrifice

life

and limb for the glory of the state. Children were taught to worship

strength, to fa unflinchingl) the thought of the battlefield, At Christmas time 1935 a military Mother Goose volume was enthusi callv endorsed so thai babes could learn new nursen rhymes while

aibstitute foods. What puffs .in<l patters What clicks and clatters i I know what, oh, w hat Inn ! ^ ^ I H ^ ^ ^ I ^ ^ ^ ^ H ^ H ''' loveh f atlm^^mi ^ ^ ^ I ^ ^ ^ ^ H ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ I ey ate their