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Vansittartism
GERMANY is considered now, and naturally with great reason, as the arch criminal among nations. Such megalomania, such lust for wanton cruelty, such wild sadism, such abnormal velleities no people, it is said, have ever evinced anywhere on the face of the earth: the manner and the extent of it all are appalling. Hitler is not the malady; removal of the Fuehrer will not cure Germany. The man is only a sign and a symbol. The whole nation is corrupt to the core: it has been inoculated with a virus that cannot be eradicated. The peculiar German character that confronts and bewilders us now, is not a thing of today or even of yesterday; it has been there since Tacitus remarked it. Even Germans themselves know it very well; the best among them have always repudiated their mother country. Certainly there were peoples and nations that acted at times most barbarously and inhumanly. The classical example of the Spanish Terror in America is there. But all pales into insignificance when compared to the German achievement and ideal in this respect. For here is a people violent and cruel, not simply because it is their character to be so and they delight in being so, but because it forms the bedrock of their philosophy of life, their weltanschauung.
This is the very core of the matter. Germany stands for
a philosophy of life, for a definite mode of human values. That
philosophy was slowly developed, elaborated by the German mind, in
various degrees and in various ways through various thinkers and
theorists and moralists and statesmen, sometimes consciously,
sometimes unconsciously. The conception of the State as propounded
even by her great philosophers as something self-existent, sacrosanct
and almost divine – august and grim, one has to add – is
profoundly significant of the type Page – 87 of the subconscient dynamic in the nation: it strangely reminds one of the state organised by the bee, the ant or the termite. Hitler has only precipitated the idea, given it a concrete, physical and dynamic form. That philosophy in its outlook has been culturally anti-Latin, religiously anti-Christian. Germany cherishes always in her heart the memory of the day when her hero Arminius routed the Roman legions of Varus. Germany stands for a mode of human consciousness that is not in line with the major current of its evolutionary growth: she harks back to something primeval, infra-rational, infra-human.
Such is the position taken up by Lord Vansittart who has given his name to the new ideology of anti-Germanism. Vansittartism (at least in its extreme variety) has very little hope for the mending of Germany, it practically asks for its ending.
A son of the soil, an eminent erstwhile collaborator of Hitler, who has paid for his apostasy, offered a compromise solution. He says, Germany, as a matter of fact, is not one but two: there is the Eastern Germany (the Northern and the Eastern portion) and there is the Western Germany (the South and the West) and the two are distinct and different – even antagonistic-in temperament and character and outlook. The Western Germany is the true Germany, the Germany of light and culture, the Germany that produced the great musicians, poets and idealists, Goethe and Heine and Wagner and Beethoven. The other Germany represents the dark shadow. It is Prussia and Prussianised Germany. This Germany originally belonged to the bleak, wild, savage, barbarous East Europe and was never thoroughly reclaimed and its union with the Western half was more political than psychological. So this ex-lieutenant of Hitler proposed to divide and separate the two altogether and form two countries or nations and thus eliminate the evil influence of Prussianism and unkerism.
The more democratic and liberal elements among the
Allies do not also consider that Germany as a whole is smitten with
an original sin and is beyond redemption. They say Germany too has
men and groups of men who are totally against Hitler and Hitlerism;
they may have fallen on evil days, but yet they can be made the
nucleus of a new and regenerated Germany. Page – 88 Furthermore, they say if Germany has come to be what she is, considerable portion of the responsibility must be shared by the unprogressive and old-world elements among the Allies themselves who helped or pitied or feared the dark Germany.
Hence it is suggested that for the postwar
reconstruction of Germany what is required is the re-education of its
people. For, only a psychological change can bring about a durable
and radical change. But certain proposals towards this end raise
serious misgivings, since they mean iron regimentation under foreign
control. Even if such a thing were possible and feasible, it is
doubtful if the purpose could be best served in this way. Measures
have to be taken, no doubt, to uproot Prussianism and unkerism
and prevent their revival, no false mercy or sympathy should be
extended to the enemies of God and man. But this is only a negative
step, and cannot be sufficient by itself. A more positive and more
important work lies ahead. The re-education of Germany must come from
within, if it is to be permanent and effective. What others can do is
to help her in this new orientation. As we have said, there are the
progressive elements in Germany too, although submerged for the
moment. The task of reconstruction will precisely consist in
calling up and organising and marshalling these forces that are for
the Light. The Allied organisation, it may be noted, itself has grown
up in this way. When one remembers how Britain stood alone at one
time against the all-sweeping victorious march of the Titan, how
slowly and gradually America was persuaded to join hands, at first in
a lukewarm way, finally with all its heart and soul and might and
main, how a new France is being built up out of a mass of ruins, we
can hope that the same process will be adopted in the work that lies
ahead even after victory, with regard to Italy and with regard to
Germany. In the second case the task is difficult but it has got to
be done. Page – 89
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