WITNESS TO HISTORY

By Michael Walsh

CHAPTER 1

FORMIDABLE TRANSFORMATIONS

     Winston Churchill described the tumultuous years between 1918 and 1933 as a period of 'formidable transformations'. Germany, defeated in a war not of its own making, was laid prostrate by defeat, revolution and anarchy. Communist revolutionaries eager to capitalise on their overthrow of the Russian state seized power.

     A British Government White Paper estimated that the Royal Navy's blockade on Germany "caused nearly 800,000 deaths, mainly women and children." Vast tracts of German territory were seized as booty and claims for reparations were so draconian that they effectively turned every German into a slave of the victors.

     With the Kaiser (king) in exile, the Workers and Soldiers' Soviets and the Social Democrats 'dismissed' the legitimate Ebert government and proclaimed a Soviet Republic. Armed bands of communists (Spartacists) led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebnecht, patrolled the streets.

     In Bavaria, another Jew, Kurt Eisner had declared the province a Soviet Republic. Soldiers returning from the front were massacred, revolutionaries seized state property and strikes designed to cause maximum damage to the staggering economy were organised. Barracks and naval dockyards were seized and street barricades divided Germany's cities and towns into politico-criminal fiefdoms.

     The French occupied the Rhineland and ruled with an iron fist. An ordinary German passer-by might be randomly picked out and smashed to the ground with a rifle butt or fist. The French attempt to separate Bavaria from Germany sparked Adolf Hitler's brave but futile November Putsch.

     The Saar and the Rhineland were occupied by French troops; inflation soared out of control until there were 136,000,000 Deutsch Marks to the dollar. Decadence erupted in sleaze. Art was debased as were the German people. Child prostitutes of both sexes could be bought openly on the streets. The world's debased were quick to take advantage of the German nation's descent into the economic chaos of defeat and revolutionaries fought like jackals for the territorial remains.

     The peace terms (Versailles Treaty); dictated by the victor nations and notorious for its monstrously unjust nature was heaped upon this volcanic social upheaval.

"The greater part of our troubles is the result of World War I and the bad treaties which ended it." (Alfonso of Bourbon and Orleans. Great Grandson of Queen Victoria)

"Germany suffered most as a consequence of this Peace Treaty and the general insecurity which was bound to arise from it. The unemployment figures rose to a third of the number usually employed in the nation, which means, however, that by counting the families of the unemployed as well there were 26 million people in Germany out of a population of 65 millions faced by an absolutely hopeless future." (Adolf Hitler)

     In Russia, the Bolsheviks had seized power. The geographical giant on Germany's eastern borders was locked into civil war, the brutality of which knew no bounds. The tentacles of the emerging internationalism of Communism were spreading like wildfire throughout Europe.

"Germany, with more than 6 million communists was on the verge of a catastrophe which none but those wanting in common sense can possibly ignore. If red terrorism was to have swept over Germany the western countries of Europe would probably also have realised that it is not a matter of indifference to them whether the outposts of a destructive Asian world power stand guard on the Rhine and on the North Sea, or whether the land is populated by peaceful German peasants and working men whose only wish is to make an honest living and to be on friendly terms with other nations.

"By averting this disaster which was threatening to ruin Germany, the National Socialist movement saved not only the German people, but also rendered the rest of Europe a service of historical merit. The National Socialist revolution has but one aim; To restore order in our own country, to provide work and bread for our starving masses and to lay down the ideas of honour, loyalty and decency as being the basis of our moral code, which, far from doing harm to other nations, can be for the benefit of all." (Adolf Hitler)

BRITISH TROOPS IN Köln.

     England also occupied defeated Germany and sucked the German economy dry. The blockade resulted in nearly a million German civilians dying through starvation and desease. Children were reduced to begging, even selling their bodies on the streets of Germany.

BRITISH WHITE PAPER:

     It was an open secret that the overthrow of the Russian Government and the seizure of power with incalculable consequences for the rest of the world, was largely organised by international Jewish revolutionaries. The world's greatest land mass was being hijacked. Mr. Oudendyke, the Representative of the Netherlands Government in St. Petersburg in charge of British interests after the liquidation of the British Embassy by the Bolsheviks sent in a report to Mr. Balfour.

"I consider that the immediate suppression of Bolshevism is the greatest issue now before the world, not even excluding the war which is still raging, and unless Bolshevism is nipped in the bud immediately it is bound to spread in one form or another over Europe, and the whole world, as it is organised and worked by Jews, who have no nationality, and whose one object is to destroy for their own ends the existing order of things. . ." (British Government White Paper, April, 1919 - Russia No.1)

"It may well be that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the actual process of providing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible. . .

"this movement among the Jews is not new. . .

"it has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the nineteenth century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their heads and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." (Winston Churchill. Illustrated Sunday Herald. Feb. 8th, 1920)

"As for anyone who does not know that the present revolutionary movement is Jewish in Russia, I can only say that he must be a man who is taken in by the suppression of our despicable Press." (Hilaire Belloc. G.K's Weekly, Feb., 4th, 1937)

"The conceptions of Bolshevism are in harmony in most points with the ideas of Judaism." (Jewish Chronicle, April, 4th, 1919)

     In the front line against the Bolshevik explosion stood defeated Germany, out of which maelstrom emerged Adolf Hitler, a highly decorated soldier of the front lines. Aware of the appalling consequences should the revolutionary communists overthrow Germany, he organised against it and addressed his first public meeting in October, 1919, at Munich's Hofbrauhaus.

     Of him, Winston Churchill had this to say.

"While all those formidable transformations were occurring in Europe, Corporal Hitler was fighting his long, wearing battle for the German heart. The story of that struggle cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled him to challenge, defy, conciliate, or overcome, all the authorities or resistance's which barred his path. He, and the ever increasing legions who worked with him, certainly showed at this time, in their patriotic ardour and love of country, that there was nothing that they would not dare, no sacrifice of life, limb or liberty that they would not make themselves or inflict upon their opponents." (Winston Churchill. Francis Nielson. ('Makers of War' p.101)

"There must not be lacking in our leadership something of that spirit of the Austrian corporal who, when all had fallen into ruins around him, and when Germany seemed to have fallen into chaos, did not hesitate to march forth against the vast army of victorious nations and has already turned the tables decisively against them.

"The German leader with the highest of praise for his accomplishments as no other foreign statesman ever received from an Englishman." (Winston Churchill, 4th, October, 1938)

Of contemporary Russia Winston Churchill said:

"In Russia, we have a vast, dumb people dwelling under the discipline of a conscripted army in war time; a people suffering in years of peace the rigours and privations of the worst campaigns; a people ruled by terror, fanaticism's and the Secret Police.

"Here we have a state whose subjects are so happy that they have to be forbidden to quit its bounds under the direst of penalties; where diplomatists and agents sent on foreign missions have often to leave their wives and children at home as hostages to ensure their eventual return.

"Here we have a system whose social achievements crowd 5 or 6 people in a single room; whose wages hardly compare in purchasing power with the British dole; whose life is unsafe, where liberty is unknown; where grace and culture are dying, and where armaments and preparations for war were rife.

"Here is a land where God is blasphemed, and man, plunged in this world's misery, is denied the hope of money on both sides of the grave.

"Here we have a power actively and ceaselessly engaged in trying to overturn existing civilisations by stealth and propaganda, and when it dares, by bloody force.

"Here we have a state, three million of whose subjects are languishing in foreign exile, whose intelligentsia have been methodically destroyed; a state nearly half a million of whose citizens reduced in servitude for their political opinions, are rotting and freezing through the Arctic night; toiling to death in the forests, mines and quarries, many for no more than indulging in that freedom of thought which has gradually raised man above the beast.

"Decent good-hearted British men and women ought not to be so airily detached from realities that they have no word of honest indignation for such wantonly, callously inflicted pain." (Winston Churchill. Great Contemporaries)

"The Soviet system is barbarism worse than the Stone Age." (Winston Churchill)

"No faith need be, indeed may be kept with non-communists. Every act of goodwill, of tolerance, of conciliation, of mercy, of magnanimity on the part of governments or statesmen is to be utilised for their ruin. Then, when the time is ripe and the moment opportune, every form of lethal violence, from revolution to private assassination, must be used without stint or compunction. The citadel will be stormed under the banners of Liberty and Democracy; and once the apparatus of power is in the hands of the Brotherhood all opposition, all contrary opinion, must be extinguished by death. Democracy is but a tool to be used and afterwards broken." (Winston Churchill 'Great Contemporaries' 1937, p.168)

"Many illusions about Soviet Russia have been dispelled in these fierce weeks of fighting in the Arctic Circle. Everyone can see how communism rots the soul of a nation; how it makes abject and hungry in peace and proves it base and abominable in war. . . if the light of freedom which burns so brightly in the frozen north should finally be quenched, it might well herald a return to the Dark Ages when every visage of human progress during 2,000 years would be engulfed." (Winston Churchill, 20th, January 1940)

CHURCHILL IN PRAISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM:

"Of Italian Fascism, Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the subversive forces which can rally the masses of the people, properly led, to value and wish to defend the honour and stability of civilised society. Hereafter no great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection against the cancerous growth of Bolshevism." (Winston Churchill, 11th, November 1938)

"We wish to state most clearly and emphatically that there exists here today nothing that can be justly termed either tyranny or suppression of personal freedom as guaranteed by constitutional law in any civilised land. We believe that Mussolini enjoys the enthusiastic support and admiration of. . . and who are contented, orderly and prosperous to a degree hitherto unknown in Italy, and probably without parallel at the present time among other great European nations still suffering from the war." (Committee of British Residents, Florence. 'Financial Times', 1926)

NOTE: In 1933, the Financial Times brought out a special eight-page supplement under the caption: 'The Renaissance of Italy: Fascism's Gift of Order and Progress.' This was published before Mussolini's Italy proceeded against undue Jewish control of its affairs.

LLOYD GEORGE:

Upon his return following a visit to Hitler, his daughter greeted Lloyd George, humorously with a "Heil Hitler!"

"Yes, Heil Hitler. I too, say that because he is truly a great man. I have never met a happier people than the Germans and Hitler is one of the greatest men among the distinctly great men that I have ever encountered."

STALIN:

"He (Stalin) did not share the view of the President that Hitler was unbalanced and emphasised that only a very able man could accomplish what Hitler had done in solidifying the German people whatever we thought of the methods."

THEODUR HEUSS:

"No one can deny recognising the indefatigability of this man who, after his sentence of confinement, cautiously undertook with understanding and precision, painstakingly and with great tenacity, to form a new vessel out of the fragments. Of course one would not be fully objective towards Hitler's accomplishments if one intended only to see him as the great, untiring organiser. He also moved souls, the will to sacrifice, and great devotion, enthralling and enthusiastically inspiring everyone by his appearance."

VISCOUNT ROTHERMERE:

"In England, many people imagine Hitler as a cannibal; but I would like to say how I have found him. He conveys good comradeship. He is unpretentious, naturally and apparently sincere. It is not true that he speaks to individuals as though he were speaking to an assembly.

"He has a supreme intellect. I have known only two other men to whom I could apply such distinction -- Lord Northcliffe and Lloyd George.

"If one puts a question to Hitler, he gives an immediate, brilliant clear answer. There is no human being living whose promise on important matters I would trust more readily. He believes that Germany has a divine calling and that the German people are destined to save Europe from the revolutionary attacks of Communism. He values family life very highly, whereas Communism is its worst enemy. He has thoroughly cleansed the moral, ethical life of Germany, forbidden publication of obscene books, and performance of questionable plays and films.

"I spoke with Hitler about one and a half years ago when he said, 'certain English circles speak of me as an adventurer. My reply to that is that adventurers have built the British Empire.

"No words can describe his politeness; he disarms men as well as women and can win both at any time with his conciliatory, pleasant smile. He is a man of rare culture. His knowledge of music, the arts and architecture is profound.

"Many evidently find it difficult to imagine a cultivated man in accord with a man of determined action. . .

"If a vote of general opinion was taken on who was the greatest politician that British history ever produced, the name of Cromwell would very likely head the list. But Cromwell was a man of the greatest determination, and used methods of reckless inconsideration." (Viscount Rothermere, 'Warnings and Predictions', p.180 - 183)

"Hitler's political aim and policy is directed towards attaining his goal without loss of blood. He succeeded in ascending to the highest power-position in Germany with very little spilling of blood or loss of human life in a land of 68 million inhabitants. Austria was annexed without one shot being fired. The unrest in Palestine cost more lives during the past five years than that in Germany and Austria since the inception and the establishment of the Hitler regime." (Daily Mail, 20th, May, 1938)

RUDOLF HESS:

"Jewish influence was one of the chief causes of the disintegration that took place in Germany. If at the decisive hour National Socialism had not stepped in and brought this process of disintegration to a standstill a condition of strife would have resulted, in which everybody would be against everybody else, and then we would have had that state of affairs which goes by the name of Bolshevism. Germany came much nearer to Bolshevism than the outside world believes or will even admit.

"When Germany was on the path to ruin a counter movement set in to save the country from a complete break up. One man alone proved himself able to bring this counter movement to a successful issue. This man was, as a matter of course, one of the soldiers who had fought in the trenches, and he had political gifts of an unusually high quality."

"He countered atheistic blasphemy with the idea of an Almighty Being.

"National Socialism is the ruling power in Germany. It has reinvigorated and guaranteed the life of the people. Germany would have fallen to pieces if the one man had not come forward and created National Socialism. That man is Adolf Hitler.

"Was it an accident that Hitler came? I do not think so. I believe that a Providence watches over the nations and that when a task is to be fulfilled in the world, this Providence sends the right man at the right time to fulfil and thus save the nation from downfall."

ADOLF HITLER:

"In five years we have transformed a people who were humiliated and powerless because of their internal disruption and uncertainty, into a national body, politically united, and imbued with the strongest self-confidence and proud assurance. If Providence had not guided us I would often have never found these dizzy paths. Thus it is that we National Socialists have in the depths of our hearts our faith. No man can fashion world history or the history of peoples unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessing of this Providence."

HANS GRIMM:

"I witness with awe and admiration, that he, as nearly the first in the world, caused multitudes without force or any personal benefits to follow him of their own free will and volition."

Describing in 1945 the conditions that gave rise to National Socialism:

"An unyielding predilection for an ethnic community towards national integrity, coupled with a passionate eagerness for Anglo-German co-operation. There was a general anxiety for reform in a changing world; this mass movement recognised new values -- both spiritual and physical, as was demonstrated by basing the currency upon production instead of upon gold. Furthermore, the claim that quality must be protected against quantity was also upheld and the whole of this great experiment set out to prove that the spirit of Versailles must be abolished for everybody's benefit.

"Between 1933 and 1939 more was done for public health, for the mother and child, as well as for the promotion of social welfare than before and, perhaps we might admit, than ever before."

HOUSTON STEWART CHAMBERLAIN:

"At one stroke you have transformed the state of my soul. That Germany in the greatest hour of its need can produce a Hitler testifies to its vitality."

JOSEPH GOEBBELS:

"This century will be named and shaped after Adolf Hitler."

ALFRED ROSENBERG:

"We National Socialists accept with our whole hearts the present epoch, for we feel ourselves as vital elements in the renaissance which is now shaping itself."

VON RIBBENTROP:

"I believe that I do not foresee wrongly when I say that a later, objective, historical writing must recognise the National Socialist struggle for power as nothing short of an exemplary model that only a nation of the highest cultural standards could achieve."

Next -- Chapter Two  --  The Enemy At The Gate