What Is This War About? ~oint Progratn It: s-e ERMAN :. i eN t" d unon by 8 agree r 1t oOseve (EY CENTE :~~. · dent R prest: . "Minister Univer"iy. of To!edo U b ~:~j and prune h·l\ I I oicd lf-dPnfU ted in part from chure 1 "" 1\· qf,pterature Vtf nston . h nlans {or f, ~WutIf~!f t d Wit r by t e Wo'ft'it"€-itize . ation, Chicago Group, conlras e Or d er 86 East Randolph Street, Chicago, Ill_ . The Naz1· NeW 'Ike Eight Points The Nazi New Order The President of the United States of America and the FIRST -"A peace whid1 would not be based upon the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, representing his Majesty's - waving of olive branches and tearful misery­ Government in the United Kingdom, being met together, mongering of pacifist old women, but a peace that would be deem it right to make known certain common principles in the national policies of their respective countries on which guaranteed by the triumphant sword of a people 'endowed they base their hopes for a better future for the world. with a power to master the 'world, and to administer it in the services of a higher civilization." -Their countries seek no aggrandizement, territorial Adolf Hillel': "Mein Kampf." FIRST - or other. SECOND- "In this great struggle ... there can be no more -They desire to see no territorial changes that do - consideration of the claims of impotent un­ SECOND - not accord with the freely expressed wishes of qualified and arrogant representatives of other nations." the peoples concerned. Alfred R.osenberg: "Mylhlls des XX Jahrhunderts." THIRD- They respect the right of all peoples to choose the THIRD: :'Not one of t~ese sm,~l\ nations has a right to • form of government under which they will live; tndependent eXIstence. General Haushofer. and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them. FOURTH: "A maximum of economic security. for the Greater German ReIch, and 'a maxImum of FOURTH. T~e~ will e~de~vor, with due respect ~or their - eXlsttng obltgattons, to further the enjoyment consumption for the German people in' order to increase its by all States, great or small, victor or vanquished, of access, prosperity. This is the aim which ' European economy must on equal terms, to the tr_ade and to the raw materials of the set before it. " R.eichsminisler Fun~: July 26, 1940. world which are needed for their economic prosperity. FIFTH. "All soil and industrial property of inhabitants - They desir.e to bring about the fullest collabora­ • of non-German origin will be confiscated- without FIFTH• tion between all nations in the economic field- with exception and distributed primarily among worthy members the object of securing, for all, improved labor standards, economic advancement and social security. of the Party .. , thus a new aristocra~y of ,German masters (Herrenvolk) will be created. This aristocracy will have SIXTH - After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, slaves assigned to 'it, these slaves to be their property and - they hope to see established a peac(! which will to consist of landless German nations." afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that Reichsminisler Darre: May 1940. all the!' men in all the lands may live out their lives in free­ SIXTH- "It is necessary to think not only in terms of a dom from fear and want. , • National State, but of a World Empire. The posi­ tion of the Poles or the Negroes in the colonies must be SEVENTH -Such a peace should enable all men to traverse , - the high seas and Oceans without hindrance. considered, under criminal law, from the point of view of the supremacy of the German people." EIGHTH- They believe that all of' the nations of the Reichsminisler Frank: Munich, No.,vember 22, 1940. ,- world, ' for realistic as well as spiritual reasons must come to the abandonment of the use of force. Since no SEVENTH: "O.ur Fleet will be developed and enlarged to future peace can be maintained if land, seq or air armaments a sIze befitttng our world power. It will take continue to be employed by nations which threaten, or may the protection of German interests in the worI'd into its threaten, aggression outside of their frontiers, they believe, pending the establishment of-a widpr and permanent system strong hands and will carry the German Bag and the German of general security, that the disarmament of sud1 nations is name, together with the German merchant fleet over the space of the globe. " essential. They will likewise aid and encourage all other Admiral Raeder: January 28,1941. practicable measures which will lighten for peace-loving peoples the crushing burden of armaments. ' EIGHTH: "The pacifist-humanitarian idea may indeed ~e- come an excellent one wpen the most supenor FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. type of manhood will have succeeded in subjugating the WINSTON S. CHURCHILL. world to such an extent that this type is then sole master of th.e earth," August 14, 1941 Adolf Hiller: "Mein Kampf." FROM A FOLDER BY THE COMMITTEE TO DEFEND AMERICA WIN THE WAR wm THE PEACE that the Nazi leaders would becOlJ1e to a demonstration of how much they What Is This War About? rational. know about the details of carrying Harry Scherman Since he himself was behind the forward revolution. NEW conception of the war is scenes h e was quickly able to judge What could impel the responsible spreading in informed circles, how futile this hope of change was. leaders of eighty million people to ~ directly traceable to a single Soon all his instincts rebelled at what such an apparently fantastic adven­ book written by a German, "The Rev­ was personally required of him as a ture as "world revolution"? They are olution of Nihilism." leader of the Party, and he resigned driven by a sense of mission. "The es­ This new interpretation, briefly sum­ from it. This was in 1934. Since then, sence of the German mission today," marized, is that the present situation outside of Germany, he has ~atched, Herr Rauschning says, "is the con­ in Europe is the result of a deliber­ horrified, as his own deepest forebod­ sciousness of being the chosen people ate program for world revolution, ings about his land and people have with a permanent and universal task." Which unexpectedly to its megaloma­ one by one been verified. Finally, he What is this task? "The new German niac plotters, turned into war. wrote this book. will to world hegemony is the definite It is also well to keep in mind a few Two facts about it are well kept resolve to transform the world order facts about the author, in judging in mind as one reads it. First, that it under German leadership." coolly how much weight to give to was written more than a year before Precisely what "transforming the such extraordinary testimony as he the war; this is particularly pertinent world order" would involve, in the presents. What is known on this side in judging how much weight to give sense of attempted economic change, of the Atlantic about Rauschning? Rauschning's testimony, since many of is not certain ; but forcible govern­ his most important predictions coin­ He is a German in his early fifties, mental domina tion of the rest of the cide so remarkably with later events. formerly president of the Danzig Sen­ world by Germany is crystal-clear as Second, that (although it is called in a ate. part of the prograrr•. sub-title "A Warning to the West") it Descended from the German mili­ To any ordinary person this sense was primarily written as a warning to tary caste, and an officer in the Great of national mission is itself incom­ his own countrymen. It was plainly the War (when he was wounded), like prehensible. Herr Rauschning provides impassioned attempt of a patriot to most of his countrymen he was chief­ the key. It arises from the deep be­ awake Germans to a realization of ly preoccupied politically with the in­ lief of thE' Nazis, which seemingly what was going on amongst them. Of iquity of the Versailles Treaty. Noth­ they share with some economic astrol­ course, in this r espect it has been whol­ ing, he was convinced, could go right ogers nearer home, that the British ly futile; it has not been published in in Germany, and therefore in Europe, Empire is in the midst of a great de­ Germany, and certainly will not be until its unjust terms were corrected. cline and fall, like that of Rome. for many a year. Mere ownership of He believed, it appears, in a peaceful it wi,thin German boundaries would "Scarcely any other opinion," he pan-Germanism patterned along Bis­ unquestio.nably now mean death. writes, "is given currency by the Na­ marck's ideas; a sort of informal eco­ tional Socialists with such diligence nomic United States of Europe, in "TomOfWW \\' (" Own tIll' \ Vorld" as their bplief in the doom of the which all were equal as to sovereign­ The main burden of Rauschning's British Empire." This is not some­ ty and a ll were reasonably happy and testimony, as st.ated above, is that thing to come; the dissolution, they acquiescent, with Germany simply the the Nazi leaders, having successfully helieve, is in full process. natural I cad e r hecause of its geo­ gained control over eighty million The granting of full independence graphic position and its acknowledged Germans, are consciously embarked to the British Dominions in 1931 was industrial supremacy. on a world r evolution. The not, in the Nazi view, the With the successes of the Nazi Par­ objective is a "total re-or­ recognition of the freedom ty in 1933, he became convinced that dering and redistribution of rising new peoples, and his own ideals for the future of Ger­ of the world." For this pur­ the welding of them into a many could be attained through that pose "the sacrifice. of the British world confedera­ party. He therefore allied himself lives of another two mil­ tion; it is to be explained with it ardently, and because of his lion young men may yet ra,ther as abdication, the position as the principal personage in again become justifiable­ unnerved dropping of a Danzig- a crucial point in Europe, so the FUhrer has de­ scepter by a ruler. The as was later proved- he at once be­ clared." The purpose is passionate pacifism of the came one of the, leading figures of the summed up in stark pop­ English, resulting in what National Socialist Party. He attended ular fashion in the lines later proved a highly dan­ many important secret meetings of of a song of the marching gerous voluntary disarm­ its coterie of leaders and often dealt Hitler Youth : "Today we H"rmann Rau~('hning ament until 1937, was personally with Hitler. own Germany, Tomorrow taken as another unmis- Very quickly he became shocked by all the world." takable symptom that as world rul­ t.he excesses of the Nazi leaders in The immediate temptation is to re­ ers they are now decadent. Their every direction. He concluded, how­ gard this as nonsense of excited boys: devious diplomatic maneuvers of the ever, that these had to be regarded it is the one thing Herr Rauschning past six years w ere not appraised as the mere exuberance of a youthful warns most urgently against. The Na- as a manifest effort to maintain revolutionary group. Time and suc­ , tional Socialist leaders mean business. world peace by mistaken concessions cess itself, he believed, would temper The chid reason for . their internal to totalitarians, whose purposes were this reckless violence of the leaders. It ~llccess, hl' demonstrates, was this rather stupidly never comprehended was a fatal misjudgment, he confesses; very notion among their political op­ by the British. This was instead re­ and it was one made not only by many ponents that they did not mean busi- garded as the crowning corroboration conservatively-minded Germans like ness. Moreover, they are past-masters of the theory that. Britain, as an em­ himself, but also by foreign govern­ in this business of revolution. The pire, was on the toboggan, and that ments, which apparently also believed forepart of the book is devoted largely presumably its leaders knew it. France, too [Herr Rauschning are unfortunate enough to possess in Wars Not Expected reports, as part of this Nazi mental these days. picture] is a dying nation, both How can ambition magnified so in­ physically and politically... . A na­ sanely be taken seriously by normal tion with no purpose and therefore Leviathan Gennany of no importance ... a nation of This becomes manifest as the grand people? petty bourgeois [she] would be plan for the world's future emerges There are a few details, of course, much too clear-headed to fail to from Herr Rauschning's account. It about this vast picture which the hum­ see the uselessness of a renewed ble citizen would prefer to see, so to struggle with Germany. involves-but as a first phase only. you should be warned- the establish­ speak, in slower motion. What would The King Is Dead! ment of five great empires. All the all the other peoples of the world be doing while this "redistribution" at Long Live the King! present separate nations of the world would be swallowed in them. their expense proceeded? For the most The British were abdicating as part, being "undynamic," fearfully and world rulers, the French were dying The Final Global Empire meekly they would submit! No serious as a people: this is the fundamental This fivefold division of the world is war was apparently anticipa ted until belief explaining the sense of mission only a portico to the temple. the five great empires were fairly of the Nazi leaders. Presumably, in Can a dynamic revolution stop well-established. their political philosophy, there had to at a sharing of the world? Must not The strategy to be used was that be a world ruler. They are the elect the struggle continue until the final which was so successful first in Aus­ for this now empty throne. They ar~ world dominion of a single nation? tria, a swift overrunning and Gleich­ elect by mere reason of the fact The triumvirate sharing the world in the age of Caesarism [note again schaltung of a small country inca­ that they intend to be. They are the sophomoric historical analogy] pable of resistance. (The now common driven by the proper amount of is always no more than a prelimi­ word, Gleichschaltung, might be free­ what they call "dynamism." "There is nary to the decisive final struggle ly translated as "swallowing," in the a right to brutality," they say, in those for exclusive rule. Thus at the back of Germany's continental empire sense the Nazis use it.) This tech­ who are dedicated to the rule of all stands the will to absolute dominion nique was repeated triumphantly six the world. in the world, the technical means 0/ months later, with the Sudetenland. A corollary, of course, to this pre­ which are no longer lacking as hith­ Six months after that it was success­ erto. (Italics mine) sumption of the decadence of Britain ful with the balance of Czecho-Slo­ and France is that every small Euro­ All the past great empires of his­ vakia. Six months after that it was pean state was in the same status. tory have been partial empires. This to be attempted with Poland- but by However, the fate in store for these was to be the last, the greatest ever, that time the technique (although small nations goes somewhat beyond the greatest possible- a global em­ not the whole grand plan itself) had losing any colonial possessions they pire!, become all too clear.

The map show!!, roughly, the territorial division~ of the five empires envisaged by the Nazis as a result of their ideational "redistribution" of the world. The disposition of unmarked portions, shown as "doubtful," is not clearly indicated in the text of Rauschning's book.

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mm UNITED STATES _ GERMAN c:J JAPANESE

E3 BRITISH _ ITALIAN o DOUBTFUL Russia Last Not First ents of this sort because the day with Hitler, in the summer of 1933. might come when some formal The discussion turned on this very Soviet Russia was also expected agreement would have to be broken. to wait submissively for its extinction, Every pact sworn to was broken or matter of subterranean agitation in both as a nation and as an economic became out of date sooner or later. other countries. Anyone who was so fussy that he system. had to consult his conscience about Someone said that in every State However, the timing here is ex­ whether he could keep to a pact, discord should be stirred up to such tremely important t9 understand. whatever the pact and whatever an extent that the State could easily the situation, was a fool. Why not be brought down. Russia's subjugation was to come al­ please other people and ease one's ter, not before, the complete conquest Democracies, it was pointed out, own position by signing pacts, if were helpless against this sort of of Europe, and the emasculation of the other people thought that that attack: it was in the nature of Great Britain as a world power. got them anywhere or settled any­ things that they should be, for the thing? He could conclude any treaty only way to prevent it was to be­ "Ready to Sign Anything" in good faith, and yet be ready to come authoritarian. . . . A char­ So much for the grand program, as break it in cold blood the next acteristic conclusion was drawn: day, if that was in the interest of Herr Rauschning discloses it; no less our opponents would always be de­ the future of Germany. mocracies and democracies alone important to understand is the gen­ for the simple reason that they were eral line of tactics to be pursued. Universal Political Unsettlement vulnerable. We must always go in One of the most interesting passages search of weaker opponents and in the book is the account of a se­ The general policy laid down for make friends of the dangerous' ones. !his sounded rather like a cheap cret "leaders' conference" at which all international relations was "to be ready to put in an appearance, and Joke. The man who said it, in all Hitler spoke, before he took even the earnestness, was Hanfstaengl, next first steps in this program-that is, claim equality of rights, and force to whom I was sitting. Not until before his march into the Rhineland compliance with its claims, in every later did I discover that he had only problem in world politics. . . . With been trying to give in a simpler in 1934. form the views of the FUhrer. the revolutionary breaking-up of all (Italics mine) . .. The FUhrer's declaration showed elements of order in the world, the that he was prepared to go to any length. Never, he said, should Ger­ chances "increase of succeeding, if not The War from This Angle many return to the corrupt and in every enterprise, at all events in putrefying company of the democ­ some." When the Rauschning disclosures racies, doomed as they were to This breaking-up, with its opportu­ are put in this order, the inescapable death and destruction. nities for the conquistadors, was not conclusion- as stated above- is that Hitler had told me that morning to be awaited, it was to be facilitated the war started prematurely as part what was his view of the value of this grand Nazi revolutionary plan, by ev ~ ry means. of treaties. He was ready, he first to upset, and then to "reorder," said, to sign anything. He was ready to guarantee any frontier and Democracies the Enemy Always the present system of international to conclude a non-aggression pact relationships. with anyone. It was a simpleton's In this connection an enlightening idea not to avail oneself of expedi- incident is told of a leaders' lun~h

Reprints by the World Cit­ izens Association, not nec­ eEsarily representing the Association's point of view~ are pq.blished to as­ sist public consideration of possible means toward a just and stable post-war world.