“The state of German armament in 1939 gives the decisive proof that Hitler was not contemplating general war, and probably not intending war at all.” (Prof. A.J.P. Taylor, The Origins of the Second World War, p.267), and “Even in 1939 the German army was not equipped for a prolonged war; and in 1940 the German land forces were inferior to the French in everything except leadership.” (ibid pp.104-5).
Although Hitler had written in his book “My Struggle,” in 1924, that Germany should gain “living space in the East” and settle it with German farmers, and he had acted to this end in 1941, during the conquest of Ukraine and White Russia, he had given up this intention over the last years of peace and did not pursue it anymore, even at the start of the war. A number of weighty facts support this thesis:
1. …
2. In the Polish-Czech discord in September 1938, over the Czech but largely German-populated town of Oderberg (south-west of Upper Silesia), which Poland claimed, Hitler had decided against the opinion of the German foreign ministry that Poland might annex Oderberg. His justification to the foreign ministry: “We can’t quarrel with Poland over every German town.” If Hitler had wished for war against Poland, in order to clear the way East, he would not have yielded here.
3. On March 14, 1939, the Prime Minister Woloschin of Carpathian-Ukraine, which had just become independent, wanted to place his country under the protection of the German Reich. Hitler had turned down the corresponding proposal. If Hitler in early 1939 still had the intention of conquering Ukraine one day as “living space in the East,” he would have assumed the protection of this part of the Ukraine and thus got his foot in the door of the Ukraine.
4. During the “Customs inspector quarrel” in August 1939, between the Free City of Danzig and Poland, war was imminent. Hitler pressed the presidents of the Danzig senate to defuse the situation and “not to poison the situation even more.” If Hitler had wanted a conflict with Poland so close to the actual war which broke out later, he would only have needed to let the Danzig customs inspector quarrel stew. Poland would then probably have started the war, as it had threatened to. If Hitler had at all costs wanted war with Poland, to gain “living space in the East,” he would surely have used this opportunity for it.
5. In August 1939, after he had the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union in his pocket, Hitler delayed the scheduled attack of the army three times; each time explaining got the army’s leaders that: “I need more time to negotiate.” If Hitler unconditionally wanted his war for “living space in the East,” he would have had the army fall in for the attack, after it had already been deployed and after Stalin had ensured him of freedom of action through the pact.
6. Hitler had no concept for the conquest of “living space in the East.” He did not yet know – this is revealed from records of discussions – during the Poland campaign what he would do after a victory against Poland. If Hitler had conceived Poland in 1939 as “living space in the East,” he would also have had a plan ready for a defeated Poland.
7. After the victorious Poland campaign, Hitler offered the British and French governments peace. The evacuation of the German army from Poland, with the exception of Danzig and the “corridor,” was part of the offer. If Hitler had wanted Poland as “living space in the East,” he would not have made such an offer.
8. By contractual agreement with Stalin in 1940, Hitler resettled the German farmers who had settled 200 years earlier in the Warthegau, on the borders of the German Reich. If he had the intention at that time of settling additional German farmers in the Ukraine –as written in “My Struggle” – he would not have done the opposite and fetched the German farmers “back into the Reich.”
9. After the victorious campaign against France, Hitler reduced the production of tanks and ammunition by one third. If, at that time, he had contemplated the continuation of war against the Soviet Union, in order to conquer “living space in the East,” he would certainly not have ordered this reduction in armament.
10. After the victorious campaign against France, Hitler dissolved or sent back to barracks 35 German army divisions. If he had contemplated a continuation of the war at that time, he would certainly not have induced that.
The grounds for the campaign against Poland arose from the concrete situation in autumn 1939 and the three unsolved German-Polish problems, rather than to an overall concept of Hitler’s. Thus, the question of who designed the German-Polish problems in 1918, and who intentionally aggravated them in 1938 and 1939, returns to the foreground. One must not identify the generator of the Second World War alone in the matter of who started it, who induced it; the generators are all those who previously had created the motives for this war. (deutsche-zukunft.net/hintergrundwissen. Author’s translation)
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I want peace—and I will do everything to achieve peace. It is not yet too late. I will go to the limits of the possible, as far as the sacrifice and the honour of the German nation will allow. I know better than to make war! Only to think of the loss of German blood—it is always the best that fall, the bravest and most ready to sacrifice themselves, those whose duty it should be to personify the nation, to lead. I do not need to make a name for myself through war, like Churchill. I want to make a name as the steward of the German people, to ensure its unity and living space, to carry through National Socialism, to shape the environment. (Hitler at the end of the campaign against France, in 1940, in a conversation with his architect Prof. Hermann Giesler, A Different Hitler, p. 395)
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I may again declare that firstly I did not wage any war, that secondly I have expressed my repulsion for a war and also indeed my repulsion for incitement to war, and thirdly that I would not know for what purpose I should ever wage a war. (Hitler speech before parliament, April 28, 1939)
Summary: The conditions of the Versailles Treaty made confrontation with Poland by a renascent Germany inevitable.
POLAND
Absurd Polish pride—both of its leaders and its misguided population-- encouraged Poland’s native aggressiveness. Poland’s government claimed its own innumerable provocations were Germany’s instead, which lies British diplomats professedly believed. The combination of ill will, over-estimation of its military prowess and the repeated reassurance of British and French support nullified all Germany’s attempts at compromise. So certain of its position was Poland on August 30, 1939, despite Germany’s mechanised divisions on its borders, that it did not even respond to Germany’s request to send a leading figure to Berlin to negotiate the points of Germany’s last peace proposal.
BRITAIN
Britain ostensibly played the goodwill ambassador, while not truly bringing its force as a major power to bear on Poland to commit to a serious, top-level discussion. Although some distinguished British and French diplomats seemed genuinely to hope for peace, their powers were limited, compared to those of the warmongers in the British cabinet. Moreover, German traitors played into the hands of these by misrepresenting to British leaders the mood of the German people and German generals, and begged Britain to declare war on Germany, so as to encourage a putsch against Hitler.
ITALY
On August 31, 1939 Mussolini tried to institute a conference, intended to revise the terms of the Versailles Treaty. On September 2, Lord Halifax responded to the Italian “assurances for a cessation to the hostilities based on the current positions and the start of a conference within the next 24 hours, as follows: ‘the Duce’s offer could only be contemplated if the German troops return behind the border and vacate Polish territory down to the last plot. That is my personal opinion, but I do not doubt that the British Cabinet shares it.’” (Sommerkrise und Kriegsausbruch 1939, Jacques Benoist-Méchin, p. 394)
There can be no doubt that it is England which has defeated the Italian proposal, a proposal which was not formulated without consulting Hitler first and which you, for your part, had fully supported. (André François-Poncet, French ambassador to Berlin, letter to George Bonn
et, French Foreign Minister, Vor der Katastrophe, 1951)
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At the same time, William C. Bullitt, United States ambassador to France and one of the principal implementers and architects of Roosevelt’s interventionist policy, was bringing the strongest pressure to bear on the French prime minister, Edouard Daladier and on his foreign minister, Georges Bonnet, to reject out-of-hand a last minute proposal by Benito Mussolini to organize another summit meeting of European heads of state to head off the impending war.
Bullitt — fully in concurrence with Roosevelt — wanted the war to begin, the sooner the better. Any concession to peace-making efforts would only raise the unwelcome possibility that the war could be staved off. Accordingly, Bullitt resisted any such efforts with all his powers of persuasion. In this he was aided greatly by Jules Lukasiewicz, the Polish ambassador, whose country had just been invaded and who was demanding French-and therefore also British- intervention. Bullitt and Lukasiewicz between them were able to dissuade the Daladier government from accepting Mussolini’s initiative and thus ensured the outbreak of a major European war right on schedule.
“Bullitt, from his vantage point in Paris, became one of the most virulent anti-German war-mongers in the Anglo-American camp. Possibly his partly Jewish ancestry (Hurwitz) blinded him from recognizing where the true interests of America lay. He was intelligent enough, if somewhat lacking in judgment. He should have known that the only winner in a war which eliminated Germany as a military power would be Soviet Russia.” (American patriot Tyler Kent, address at the Fourth IHR Conference (Chicago), September 1982. It was published in The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1983 (Vol. 4, No. 2), pages 173-203.)
GERMANY
After 18 protests at ministerial level against the treatment of the German minority in Poland; after countless meetings, memorandums of understanding, statements of intent and démarches since 1933, at which one proposal after another was presented to Poland, and in which Germany made concessions which no Weimar Republic government would have made, and renounced possessions to which it had had cultural ties in some cases since the 1st century (e.g. Silesia – “Germanic Lugii tribes were first recorded within Silesia in the 1st century” --Wikipedia), Germany still strove until the end of August for a solution which would preserve peace through compromise, and yet fulfil basic German requirements regarding majority German-populated territory and access to it, and put a stop to the homicidal abuse of the German minority. August 31, Berlin, 10.00: Swedish mediator Birger Dahlerus and Sir George Ogilvie -Forbes, Chargé-d’Affaires at the British Embassy, read the text of Hitler’s 16-point memorandum to Polish ambassador Lipski at the Polish Embassy. Lipski reacted with complete indifference:
Why should I show even the slightest interest in German notes or offers? I have no cause to negotiate with the German government. I have lived now for five years in this country and I know exactly what is happening here. If it should come to war between Germany and Poland, a revolution will break out in Germany and Polish troops will march on Berlin. (Birger Dahlerus, Der Letzte Versuch, München, 1948, p. 110)
So the outbreak of hostilities did not need any further incitement from those, in the background, who had been responsible for the impossible international conditions in the first place.
It’s a shame that one has to make war because of a drunken fellow (Churchill), instead of serving the enterprises of peace, like art. (Henry Picker, Hitlers Tischgespräche, March 21, 1942, p. 177)
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“…nothing is more certain that every trace of Hitler’s footsteps, every stain of his infected, corroding fingers will be sponged and purged and, if need be, blasted from the surface of the earth.” (Churchill speech to Allied delegates, June 12, 1941)
Compare with:
There never was a war in history easier to prevent by timely action than the one which has just desolated such great areas of the globe. It could have been prevented in my belief without the firing of a single shot, and Germany might be powerful, prosperous, and honoured today; but no one would listen and one by one we were all sucked into the awful whirlpool. (The Sinews of Peace, Churchill speech, March 5, 1946)
This breath-taking hypocrisy implies that a kind of passivity and powerlessness prevailed, which were uniquely responsible for the outbreak of war. In fact, as we know now, the principal voice for peace was Hitler’s, expressed in one peace offer after another, culminating in Rudolf Hess’s flight to Scotland on May 10, 1941. Hess was incarcerated in Spandau Prison from 1946 until 1987, when he was murdered by his jailers as a consequence of Gorbachev’s suggestion that he be released (Dr. Olaf Rose, Geheimakte Hess, 2004). Evidently, the danger was too great that Hess could reveal the truth behind his peace mission and his treatment at the hands of the Allies.
Germany will be perfectly ready to disband her entire military establishment and destroy the small amount of arms remaining to her, if the neighbouring countries will do the same thing with equal thoroughness. (Hitler speech before parliament, May 17, 1933)
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Even if Hitler at the last moment would want to avoid war which would destroy him he will, in spite of his wishes, be compelled to wage war. (Emil Ludwig Cohen, The New Holy Alliance, Strasburg, 1938)
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It is our task to organise the moral and cultural blockade of Germany and disperse this nation. It is up to us to start a merciless war. (Bernard Lecache, Ukrainian Jewish immigrant, member of the Communist Party and the Grand Orient of France, founder of LICRA-- Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l’Antisémitisme,1927--The Right to Live, December 1938)
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When the National Socialists and their friends cry or whisper that this [the war] is brought about by Jews, they are perfectly right. (Jewish magazine Sentinel, Chicago, October 8, 1940)
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There is only one power which really counts. The power of political pressure. We Jews are the most powerful people on earth, because we have this power, and we know how to apply it. (Vladimir Jabotinsky, Jewish Daily Bulletin, July 27, 1935)
The turning point in Churchill’s political career occurred in 1936, when he was delivered from “the wilderness” by a group which called itself “The Focus for the Defence of Freedom and Peace” -- originally the “British Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi Council to Champion Human Rights,” ostensibly a principled organization, it was, like so many others similarly named, just a propaganda and lobby cover for the opposite-- to become their champion and to foment anti-German feeling. This group was funded by Jews hostile to Germany, but also included a number of leftist English politicians. On the 29th of July, 1936, Robert Waley-Cohen, a prominent City figure and chairman of Shell, set up a slush fund of 50,000 pounds (about $1.2million today) for The Focus, the Churchill pressure group. Churchill forced Edward VIII to abdicate (December 1936) -- not because he proposed to marry a divorcée but because he was sympathetic to Germany -- and eventually assumed the leadership from ailing Chamberlain, who resigned on 10 May, 1940, as a result of the “Norway Debate” (failure of the British Norway expedition) and died November 9, 1940. (In fact, by marrying a commoner, Edward was setting an example to royal families everywhere, whose descendants were now not only free to engage in morganatic marriages but encouraged to do so, in order to dilute the quality of their heritage.)
The man most directly responsible for the demise of the British Empire and its replacement as a world power by the Soviet Empire is Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965). The policies which he advocated as a member of the British government in the period just before World War II and the policies which he followed as prime minister during that war were diametrically opposed to the interests of the British people and led ultimately to the sad plight in which Britain finds herself today. Churchill acted as he did, because he consciously and deliberately served alien interests from 1938, at the latest, until the end of the war.
Winston Churchill was the descendant of a noble family, the son of Lord Randolph Churchill, w
ho was the third son of the seventh duke of Marlborough. As a young man Winston was a dilettante who early developed a lifelong taste for expensive clothes, imported cigars, old brandy, and the other amenities of “the good life.” Churchill liked to think of himself as a great warlord, but he came across at the personal level as a petty gangster: theatrical, irresponsible, and immensely vain.
Although he enjoyed a brief and desultory stint as a newspaper correspondent in his early twenties, he soon decided that he could more readily support the style of life to which he wished to become accustomed by claiming a place for himself at the public trough. At the age of 26 he entered Parliament.
As a politician young Churchill continued his dilettante ways, serving in a number of minor posts and switching from one party to another whenever he thought such a move would further his career. Although he displayed only minimal qualities of statesmanship, his family connections and his sharp eye for the main chance led to his steady advancement, and in 1908 he was promoted to the cabinet. When World War I broke out Churchill became first lord of the admiralty, with the job of supervising the British Navy.
In the latter post Churchill’s lack of a mature sense of responsibility and his ineptness as a military strategist led to disaster. He directed the utterly bungled Gallipoli campaign against the Turks in 1915, which led to a total defeat for the British, with more than 100,000 casualties.
Forced to resign his admiralty post in disgrace, Churchill decided to concentrate his energies on developing his one talent: a gift for theatrical oratory. Spending as much as six weeks preparing for a single speech, he would carefully rehearse every intonation and dramatic pause, carefully practice every gesture and facial expression before a mirror. He became a demagogue of rare ability.
Neither his disgrace as a military bungler nor his subsequent success as a political spellbinder abated his taste for expensive living, however, and in the period between the first and second world wars Churchill habitually lived far beyond his means. Finally in 1938, when he was 64 years old, his creditors prepared to foreclose on him, and he was faced with the prospect of a forced sale of his luxurious country estate.
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