Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War
Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War is a book by the revisionist historian and academic Udo Walendy.
Content
- The building of political structures to ensure lasting peace will necessarily call for open and unbiased dialogue, itself dependent on historical objectivity. Those who falsify other nations' history, refusing to consider their past objectively and honestly, deserve no trust: they have nothing to contribute to the quest for peace and justice in the world. It is the historian's duty for the sake of the past and the future to search for, to find, to defend and to gain acceptance for those historical truths which will stand the test of time, irrespective of considerations of political expedience which today, with the support of the mass media and of the help of state-directed channeling, can be elevated to the status of universal dogma. The blind adherence to politically motivated conclusions and the concealment of essential historical documents" can never help attain that objectivity which is indispensable to the quest for peace and the continued existence of humanity. The world today cannot afford to tolerate historical lies. Both the present and the future demand an uncompromising examination of the question of war guilt. The proverb "Might is right" offers no solution. Moreover, the warring parties to any future conflict will hardly acknowledge it as a precept of international law. A judgment can be constructive only if accepted by both sides as being based on fundamental and inalienable truths, and on a selfsame interpretation of the law. Whoever does not also grant the principles of justice to Germany is clearly not amongst those who have truly perceived and understood what really happened in Europe and indeed in the world during the past decades and who are now determined on making understanding, verity, justness, honour - and consequently peace itself - politically effective.
- Those who place all blame for the Second World War automatically on Adolf Hitler have neither grasped nor sought to identify the causes of the First World War or of the various conflicts that arose between 1918 and 1939. Thus, no answer is given to the guilt question of previous wars, nor those that have been waged since 1945. Likewise, the prevailing tension between the world powers, between East and West, cannot be explained by placing guilt solely on Hitler and the German people. To try and ultimately establish Hitler's war guilt as a dogma for all times is to refuse those insights and connections which are fundamental not only for the war guilt question in general but which are of cardinal importance in laying the foundations for assuring the survival of present and future generations and nations. It is vital to discard political dogmas, prejudices, catchwords and slogans in order to achieve a fuller vision of history, of peoples and of individual destinies and to make unbiased judgment possible. To project guilt onto Germany alone is to lock humanity into a new mentality of hatred. The Allied war and atrocity propaganda of the First World War was developed in the succeeding years of peace by the same politicians and press magnates, still at their posts, into spiritual guidelines both for their own and for the vanquished peoples. The same methods are again applied, but in a perfected manner, during and after the Second World War. The claims of atrocity propaganda now become the "historical" basis of political opinion amongst civilized nations. Is it any wonder that our world finds itself in ever more dire political crises?
- The appalling events of the Second World War can be properly judged only by submitting the political and military behaviour of both camps to the same criteria, and by acknowledging that the actions both of decision makers and of peoples are not solely the product of their free will, of a plan and of a premeditated objective, or, respectively, of an individual's good or bad intentions. Only after seeking to resolve the question of responsibility for the war in an objective manner and without preconception can one hope to arrive at a just verdict of this period. To date no such effort has been undertaken by any official body. The present study is so designed as to draw insights and knowledge from history and to render them constructively useful both for the present and for the future. A thorough understanding of history will require awareness and acknowledgement of the fact that political authority is principally a matter of power, so that a political leader - may he be a German one - may he be an Adolf Hitler - often has no choice but to also employ the selfsame methods and means as are imposed upon him by the adversary: for without evenly matched armaments measures he would remain ineffective. It is, moreover, unjust to censure Hitler for having used such methods and means whilst leaving others who used them exempt from blame.
- Were the various measures taken by the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party) typical of National Socialism or were they symptomatic of the time? The bloody communist rebellions of the period, for their part, were the prelude to the formation of the Weimar Republic. 21 As early as January 1919, the leadership of the SPD (Social-Democratic Party of Germany) organized volunteer militias, which took up arms against the participants in the violent rebellions and strikes that had brought general disorder to the Reich. The following list may serve as a reminder of the general presence of uniformed contingents: "Red Front Fighting Unit", "Steel Helmet", "Reichsbanner Black, Red and Gold" (later known as the "Iron Front"), "Red Navy", "Volunteer Corps", "Werewolf, "Order of Young Germans"; and numerous other armed action units. It should also be remembered that neither authoritarian leadership, nor dictatorial autocracy, nor vigorous state propaganda, nor the banning of opposition political parties, nor concentration camps, nor the imprisonment of political dissenters, nor anti-Semitism, nor rearmament and universal compulsory military service, nor special laws in a state of emergency, nor "the politics of power", nor military strategy, -nor war crimes - were inventions of Hitler or of the NSDAP, or of the German people. Alas, it does not look as if these occurrences are now banished from the world scene along with the year 1945. When these practices are used by governments in many parts of the world today, they seem to cause just as little shock as they did when adopted by Germany's adversaries in the years from 1933 to 1945, or by any of the world powers before that time. That said, a one-sided morality will not help solve the political problems of today's world. In order to have done with the seemingly endless recurrence of injustice and suffering, a goal to which each one of us must devote all our efforts, it will be necessary to look beyond the confines of Germany.
- The sovereignty of a nation includes the right to revolution, legitimizing it in so far as it may enable the nation to put an end to internal chaos and effectively enhance the nation's prestige in the international arena. This is all the more legitimate when a political party has obtained power legally. Whatever reasoning might be applied forjudging this matter, it must not be coloured by the national interests of any particular state, but should rather adhere to ethical principles that are equally valid and binding for all nations. Nor can a just assessment be developed in the shadow of events arising from an all-out war of annihilation. Research in history obliges one to confront a myriad of dreadful facts. 31 Nevertheless, this does not exempt us from the obligation to find standard criteria for historical assessment, criteria that can be found only with a comprehensive, impartial, objective view of history, taking into account all essential aspects. The war guilt question stands at the centre of the debate. In this epoch of world wars, more than ever before, this problem has become a matter of might, of dogma and of world view. One cannot escape the impression that the emphasis is not so much a search for the truth of this question but rather an effort to interpret the war guilt in such a way as to serve certain interests. Is it any wonder, then, that national or "world proletarian" interests decide on the interpretation and appreciation of secondary historical factors?
- A declaration of war in the absence of any violation of national rights and interests, war policies designed to exacerbate hostilities and steer them towards another country, are deeds that would greatly influence any historical judgment. After all, these deeds are the motives and immediate causes which brought about the death of some 55 million human beings during the Second World War; all else are but consequences. On September 3 1939, England and France declared war on Germany. In so doing they transformed a limited territorial dispute between Poland and Germany into a world war over the city of Danzig, a matter that could easily have been resolved through negotiation. The real significance of these events can be revealed only by an analysis of the apparent muddle of causes and effects that induced the great European democracies to opt for war rather than to seek conciliation. Moreover, we cannot have a just idea of the situation if, for example, we ignore the main war crimes committed by Germany's opponents before or after September 3 1939 (see pp. 42-43, footnote 40), or, if we do not take any account of the fact that the Soviet Union decided to wage war against Germany (for the destruction of Fascism in order to extend the world revolution) in May-June 1940, i.e. a year before the start of Germany's Russian campaign (a decision which was publicly admitted by the Soviets 13 years after the end of the war - see p. 370 seq.).[1]
See also
External links
- Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War
- Truth for Germany: The Guilt Question of the Second World War
