Germany Rises Again?
As many as 85 million people died in World War II as fascist Germany sought to rule the world. In the end, it was defeated by the USSR, the US, the UK, France and a host of other countries.
Did Germany Learn Its Lesson?
That’s hard to say. There’s the little matter of World War I. Germany may not have been wholly responsible for that war, in which 16 million people died. However, most of the German people were anxious to participate, at least in the beginning.
Flash forward to the present day. It’s been 80 years since the final victory of the Allies left Germany a smoking ruin. Some of the top Nazis either ran away to South America or vanished into Germany under assumed names. Many of the evilest Nazis, including Herman Goering, Heinrich Himmler and Paul Joseph Goebbels, and many more, were tried by an International Court of Justice in Nuremberg.
Unfortunately, the “Men in the Shadows,” who financed the Nazi Party and were the owners of the biggest industrial enterprises in Germany were not touched by the Allies after the war.
Germany After World War II
German scientists were rounded up by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union, and taken to their respective countries to engage in rocket science and other cutting edge technology.
Ordinary SS soldiers left Germany by means of the “rat line,” which took them to Argentina, Brazil and other faraway countries. It was funded by prominent Nazis, like Martin Bormann, who used the spoils of war to set up a pleasant afterlife for killer Nazis. On their journey to safety, they were hiden away in Catholic monasteries with the approval of Nazi friend, Pope Pius XII.
The “Captains of Industry in Germany” stayed where they were. They had nothing to fear from the Allies due to their close ties with their opposite numbers in the United States. In fact, after the outbreak of hostilities between the U.S. and Germany, trade continued as if nothing had happened. That cozy relationship continued for the entire post-war period.
The German Post-War period was characterized by an avoidance of the issue of World War II and the continuation of fascism in everyday life. The first chancellor of West Germany was Konrad Adenauer, who had a mixed relationship with the Nazi Party in World War II. Adolf Hitler, on at least one occasion praised Adenauer for his accomplishments as Mayor of Cologne. On the other hand, he was jailed for brief periods by the Gestapo. He became the first Chancellor of West Germany in 1949 and founded the Christian Democratic Party (CDU), which is still one of the leading parties in Germany. He ruled as Chancellor for 14 years in a manner not unlike Donald Trump’s. He ended denazification, stating he wanted an "end to this sniffing out of Nazis." His amnesty cleared 792,176 former Nazis of any retribution. In addition, free speech under Adenauer was severely restricted during his tenure.
Adenauer would not accept the eastern border of Germany, which had been promulgated at the Potsdam Conference by the Allied leaders. They set the border at the Oder-Neisse line, well within the pre-war territory of Germany. Germans were forced to vacate the lost lands, which became western Poland. Eastern Prussia was split between the Soviet Union in the north and Poland in the south. What had been called the Sudetenland in western Czechoslovakia was taken over by the Czechs and the Germans were expelled. Poland not only gained land to the west but had to relinquish more land in the east, along with more land on uts eastern border and in western Ukraine.
Do Germans Want to Regain the Lost Lands?
At the present time, Germans have more important things to worry about, such as heating their homes in the winter and paying large utility bills. In addition, the issue of German borders can be a touchy subject. All the mainstream political parties, since Adenauer’s day, consider the subject verboten. However, it is a topic that the far right is willing to talk about. If the surging Alternative for Germany (AFD) a right-wing party should be elected to government, it may well become a topic of discussion, and perhaps government action.
What will happen when Ukraine is defeated in their battle with Russia? Prime Minister Putin has stated that Russia will conquer the entire country. In the beginning, the Russians had more limited goals of protecting, and liberating, the predominately Russian-speaking parts of Ukraine. After nearly four years of urban warfare, the Russian dealth toll has risen, and with it, pressure on the government to conquer the entire country.
The western part of Ukraine is ethnically different than the eastern section. In the west, there are large numbers of Poles, who used to be part of Poland. This is in spite of a campaign of ethnic cleansing carried out by Ukrainians in the 1940s.
While it is not known if the Russians would cede western Ukraine to Poland, they might if Poland pledged neutrality and left NATO. Such a gain in size by Poland would give an opening to Germans who want Lebensraum (German lands to the east of the current borders). In addition, as German leaders become more militaristic, they might believe they could regain eastern Prussia, which is now called Kaliningrad and is part of the Russian Federation.
Border changes in Europe never turn out well. Neighboring countries are invariably unsettled by an changes in their part of the world. One thing can lead to another, and in the worst case, World War III. Many powerful countries in the West contain fascist-oriented people who are in seats of power. They all have in common a hatred of Russia that will never go away. The propaganda machines are still roaring at full speed. As a result, peace in Europe is not possible, as we have seen in the past few months as the war in Ukraine draws to a close.
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• Broken Promises
• The Future
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