Labels: Adolph Hitler, appeasement, Neville Chamberlain
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:40 PM
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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2 Comments:
Just for what it's worth, there is a view of this history that says Chamberlain was not actually fooled by Hitler. He went along with the charade in order to buy time, as Britain was woefully unprepared for war.
I was told this by man who was a Canadian spy during WWII. He was dying at the time so I had no chance to go back and learn more. Since then I have seen the information elsewhere.
Given what we've seen with events in the past decade - reality vs. public perception - it's not really far fetched.
I'm not sure if I agree with that. Churchill wrote about this in his 6 volume narrative of WW2. There's also a 1 volume condensation, which I read.
Churchill believed that had Britain, France and Czechoslovakia called Hitler's bluff and stood up to him, Germany at that point still didn't have the strength to invade intact Czechoslovakia, it's large for it's size well trained division army, behind it's built-up network of defenses, with at least some forces from France, which had a far larger army that Germany, counting their ready-to-mobilize reserves. And of course Britain mobilizing the fleet, ready to begin a blockade of Germany.
Czechoslovakia no doubt would have fought like hell All that was lacking from Britain and France was the will.
Churchill felt that had the West stood up to Hitler at this time, it would have caused a major crisis in Germany "that almost certainly would have cost Hitler his life", or words to that effect.
The businesspeople who didn't want war, the government bureaucracy that didn't want war, the generals and the other professional officer corps that didn't want war-at this point, Churchill believed it was still possible at that time for these people with power in Germany to overthrow Hitler and the Nazis. No doubt, Hitler would have been killed in the process.
If Britain, France and Czechoslovakia had the will, stood up and acted in concert, Churchill believed this was the last point at which WW2 could have been peacefully prevented. At any rate, he made a forceful, articulate presentation of this in his book.
There's a historical lesson in all that which applies directly to the Iran situation today. Does the civilized world -or at least the major Western powers- want to stand with Israel to stop Mullah Iran now, before it has nuclear weapons, or try to stop a nuclear-armed Mullah Iran later?
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