aise j _ “In 1938, after Munich, Daladier said: ‘Hitler will be engaged in the Ukraine, and Russia is a colossus on feet of clay...’ In 1939 Daladier had the walls of France plastered with placards read- ing: ‘We will win because we are stronger.’ entered Paris .. . After that the Germans Recently, Daladier again asserted that Russia is a colossus on feet of clay... He is obviously drafting a new placard reading: ‘We will win because we are stronger’.” \ NE of the best-sellers that appeared in America between the two wars was a book entitled “Only Yesterday.” It told of the illusions which had been born after the surrender of the German Empire. Reading of the dreams that never came true and of pros- perity that had blown up like a bubble, the Americans asked them- selves: “Was it only yesterday?” A similar book could be: writ- ten today—a book reconstructing in the minds of forgetful people the remote history of a not so remote past. An ignorant German corporal preaches the defence of Christian civilization. The hangman Himm- ler declares that Europe is at ° one in the fight against Bolshe- vism. General Franco vows that he prizes liberty above all else and promises aid to Hitler. The Finnish Social-Democrat Tanner wushes, in union with SS men, to “defend human dignity.” Churchill exclaims with a show of feeling that his heart bleeds for Russia. The furnaces of Maj- danek and Oswiecim blaze away. The New York Times writes that the whole world is full of admir- ation for the unparalled heroism of the Russians. Hitler shouts: “The Red Army exists no more!” The Turks modestly confess that they, too, would not be averse to defending Western civilization. Two dozen captured German generals with hands raised above their heads creep out of a Stalin- grad cellar. : The New York Herald Tribune says that the courage of the Russians has saved the world. The governments of the. United States and Britain assure the world that they are firmly deter- mined to punish the war criminals and to exterminate Nazism in all its manifestations. Soviet treops advance westward. De Gaulle declares that he is deeply stirred by the greatness of Rus- sia, The governments of the Un- ited States and Britain assert that they will not permit the restoration of Germany’s war in- dustry. . General Eisenhower says that the French guerillas are worth fifteen regular army divisions. De Gaulle persuades the French Communists to join the govern- ment. Soviet troops move on westward. Churchill appeals to the Soviet command to help ease the situation of the Allies who are hard-pressed by the enemy in the Ardennes. And so on and so forth. If people in New York, Lon- don or Paris were reading such a book they would ask them- selves in amazement: “Was it only yesterday?” e Chapter One: On slogans and hors d’oeuvres. In 1942 Dr. Goebbels made the - following pronouncement: “We Germans have attained to such .a level of culture and have cre- ated such a state that all the nations of Europe must take us as an example.” This thought did not fall on barren soil. In 1948, the New York Herald Tribune writes that there is only one salvation for ° Europe, to-take the United States as an example, because the Am- erican way of life most fully fits the idea of human dignity, and Americans are today the cham- pions of freedom and exponents of Western civilization. The last part of this statement might be considered original, ex- cept that it too represents a variation of aphorisms previous- ly uttered; for exactly six years before that article appeared Hit- ler said, “Germany is the de- fender of Western civilization from Eastern chaos, and the champion of the. ideals of free- dom.” © Chapter Two: Passing to con- crete. matters, Paul Shafer, member of the Armed Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representa- tives, recently stated that a trial of arms with the Russians was inevitable sooner or later, and that it would be best if it came sooner. Others said the same thing be- fore Shafer. When the “Barbar- ossa plan” (that was the name the Hitlerites gave to the plan of their attack on the Soviet Union) was being drawn up, Kei- tel and other generals of the Wehrmacht insisted that it would be best “to speed up events.” Bombs are soon going to drop somewhere, Congressman Mundt says enigmatically. * “Soon important military op- erations will start somewhere,” Hitler told his generals in May, 1941, e Chapter. Three: and miscalculations. One of the atomists, Professor Oppenheimer, threatens that by pressing a button he can destroy ‘70 million human lives in 24 hours. : Admiral Zacharias seconds his prophecy: “We possess an ‘abso- lute weapon’,” he says, “with which we can destroy human, . Calculations Yesterday and today animal and vegetable life on any territory we choose.” But long before Admiral Zach- arias and Professor Oppenheim- er, Hans Fritzsche shamefacedly owned: “We possess a ‘secret weapon’ which will enable us to turn vast enemy territories into a desert.” A New York Daily News lead- er writer says that the Soviet Army is poorly armed and that all the propaganda about the “Reds” being giants will deceive no one — these giants will col- lapse at the first push. f Das Reich wrote in 1941: “The Bolsheviks have inefficient arma- ments, Soviet Russia is a colos- sus on feet of clay.” ‘ © Chapter Four: The abduction of Europa. The Paris L’Aurore recently wrote: “Only by rallying round our powerful friends can Europe deal a crushing blow to Eastern Communism.” It is quite clear whom L’Aur- ore designates as “powerful friends.’ The troughs change; but the constancy of the zeal of those fed from the troughs can only evoke admiration. For Paris- Soir, a predecessor of L/Aurore, wrote five years ago: “The new « Europe, supported by a healthy — and powerful Germany, will de- stroy Russian-Asiatic Marxism.” At the congress of “defenders of Western civilization’ which Hitler once convoked in Vienna there were streamers bearing the inscription: “Europa seigt!” _— “Europe victorious!” At the “Un- ited Europe” congress recently held in The Hague by Churchill’s friends, the speakers shouted again and again: “Europe vic- torious!” @ Chapter Five: On the proper- ties of blood: The Knoxville Journal writes that the “Reds” deny the dis- tinction of blood properties but as long as real Americans are alive they will not betray the spirit of Jim Crow, because they know that they must safeguard their race from mingling with other less developed and lower races. Tennesseeans fought in the War against racist Germany. And many of them probably did not know that they were fighting against people who shared their views, for the disquisitions of the Knoxville Journal read like a quotation from “Mein Kampf.” Recently a Negro -was_ sen- tenced by a United States court for marrying 2a white woman. The German racists imprisoned . Germans *who married Jewish women. Who is the author and who the plagiarist? Were the “Nuremberg laws” copied from the “Jim Crow laws” or have the Senators from Mississippi learned something from Streich- er? I leave it to the American delegates who recently drew up the Declaration on Human Rights to answer that question. © Chapter Six: Other properties of blood. ' The Journal of Commerce writes that in case of war Am- erican industry will experience unprecedented boom. ; In 1942 the National Zeitung By ILYA EHRENBERG remarked that “the extension of the theatre of hostilities has had a favorable effect on our indust- ry’s growth.” @ ; Chapter Seven: The soul. The Socialist Jules Moch, min- ister of the Fourth. Republic, re- ~cently gave his views on Com- munists and Communism. After announcing that he was proud of his twenty years of struggle against the Communists who, he says, are “not a French party,” Jules Moch rose to pinnacles of ethics and philosophy: ‘“Com- munism,” he said, “is the most gigantic undertaking that ever existed for the corruption of the human soul.” I shall make no researches into ; Jules Moch’s unimpeachable soul; I shall not bring up the bullets to which he so generously treats French workers, nor the “frater® nal assistance” which he so mod- estly accepts from hands that are far from French. I shall dwell on something else—on con- tinuity. According to the assertion of Ewers, an apologist of the Third Reich, the celebrated pimp Horst Wessel, long before Jules Moch, presented mankind with the fol- lowing saying: “I will fight Com- munism until death, because it is an infernal attempt to corrupt the German soul.” It only remains for me to add that. it was to the tune of the “Horst Wessel Song” that SS- men shot French Communists— the same whom Jules Moch now ealls “not French.” @ 7 x Chapter Eight: Kings and pawns, : The U.S. secretary of the arfny last year gave a fairly accurate description of the position of countries tied to America by all sorts of pacts, alliances and ag- sens “In 1948, the New York Herald Tribune writes that there is reements. He said that they . might be likened to chess pawns who serve as a cover for the king. The range of the pawns is very limited, but inasmuch as they stand in their proper places and cover the king, the king may feel safe. : Lovers of chess will note with satisfaction that even the busi- nesslike Yankees have some use for. the noble game. However, the admissions of the U.S. secre- tary of the army are hardly likely to make the British or the French feel happy, seeing that they are assigned the role of trivial pawns. There is only one thing we can say to.comfort them: Chess is a very ancient game, there were kings before Forrestal, and there were pawns before Bevin. Rather than go too far back into an- cient history, I shall recall a page from the recent past. In May, 1944, the Bremer Zeit- ung wrote: “It is only now that we can fully appreciate the ben- eficence of the Fuhrer’s foreign policy. The anti-Comintern pact has made it possible to shift hos- tilities to territories beyond the boundaries of Germany.” Indeed, in May, 1944, the war had shifted to-the northern fron- tier of Rumania, The pawns were still in their places, and-it was only five months later, in October, 1944, that the king found himself directly threaten- ed. f e@ Chapter chapter. In 1942 Premier Kallay of fas- cist Hungary, in an effort to ex- plain why Hungarian’ soldiers should be dying in the Russian steppes, said: “We are defending our frontiers there.” : Kallay held that the frontiers Nine: