Witness To History - Michael Walsh.pdf

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Books online
Michael Walsh
Witness to History
INTRODUCTION
For whom was Witness to History written? For anyone who has ever offered an
opinion on the 2nd World War, its causes and its aftermath. Or for those who are
likely to. Why? Because the writing of it was motivated by those who did so and got it
wrong. Including myself.
Witness to History
There can be few historical dramas the embroidery of which comes near to matching
that which has been woven about Hitler's Germany. Of this epic tens of thousands of
books have been written, television and radio programmes made, and films produced.
Yet who can deny that the truth is even more distant today than it has ever been. So
much so that very little of what is written today is other than fanciful notion.
Witness to History is not an opinion unless it is that of the main players whose part
created, shaped and finally pulled the shroud over the Third Reich. Their
contribution then is clearly a relevant one. It is their war, without the embroidery. It
is the story of a nation that broke free from the old order, soared to heights
undreamed of, but not beyond the range of the gun. It is an epic written by the men
who made it so.
I am the spectator. The man who sat on the hill and watched it happen. My only
contribution is to string the quotations together. I am if you like painting pictures
with quotations. I am putting together a jigsaw that when completed should provide
you with a picture that will allow a more balanced view of the period.
How you colour the picture in afterwards is entirely up to yourself; your prejudices,
your ethics and your cultural leanings. You are welcome to them, but please, do not
let us have a war about it. We have had enough of those already. More than enough.
DEDICATION
I have written this book for all the innocent victims of war, of all nations and creeds.
Not the least the children for in this, the 2nd World War; they were the true
innocents without vote of influence. A lost generation; the children who were
betrayed and lost to our world by a generation to whom they were entrusted. They
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the children reaped the wind they did not sow.
I hope that this book provides some of the answers and makes their brutal and
untimely deaths less than a mere statistic and more of a lesson for the future.
Books online
Michael Walsh
Witness to History
CHAPTER 1
FORMIDABLE TRANSFORMATIONS
Winston Churchill described the tumultuous years between 1918 and 1933 as a period
of 'formidable transformations'. Germany, defeated in a war not of its own making,
was laid prostrate by defeat, revolution and anarchy. Communist revolutionaries
eager to capitalise on their overthrow of the Russian state seized power. A British
Government White Paper estimated that the Royal Navy's blockade on Germany
"caused nearly 800,000 deaths, mainly women and children." Vast tracts of German
territory were seized as booty and claims for reparations were so draconian that they
effectively turned every German into a slave of the victors.
With the Kaiser (king) in exile, the Workers and Soldiers' Soviets and the Social
Democrats 'dismissed' the legitimate Ebert government and proclaimed a Soviet
Republic. Armed bands of communists (Spartacists) led by Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebnecht, patrolled the streets. In Bavaria, another Jew, Kurt Eisner had
declared the province a Soviet Republic. Soldiers returning from the front were
massacred, revolutionaries seized state property and strikes designed to cause
maximum damage to the staggering economy were organised. Barracks and naval
dockyards were seized and street barricades divided Germany's cities and towns into
politico-criminal fiefdoms.
The Saar and the Rhineland were occupied
by French troops; inflation soared out of
control until there were 136,000,000 Deutsch
Marks to the dollar. Decadence erupted in
sleaze. Art was debased as were the German
people. Child prostitutes of both sexes could
be bought openly on the streets. The world's
debased were quick to take advantage of the
German nation's descent into the economic
chaos of defeat and revolutionaries fought
like jackals for the territorial remains.
The French occupied the Rhine-land and
ruled with an iron fist. An ordinary German
passer-by might be randomly picked out
and smashed to the ground with a rifle butt
or fist. The French attempt to separate
Bavaria from Germany sparked Adolf
Hitler's brave but futile November Putsch.
The peace terms (Versailles Treaty); dictated
by the victor nations and notorious for its
monstrously unjust nature was heaped upon
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