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Voices in Britain and the United States against War

Many in Great Britain were looking back upon the horrors of World War I. The novel by the German author, Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front, had been published in 1929, and it was a sensation in Britain. There were other widely read books on the horrors of World War I, including Vera Brittain's memoirs of nursing during the war, Testament of Youth. The British were also reading about Gandhi, who was frequently in the news in Britain concerning his non-violent, civil disobedience campaigns in India. And, in response to the horrors of war, some in Britain saw hope in Gandhi's pacifism preventing their nation from again going to war. And they hoped for Gandhi's pacifism being adopted in all nations.

Albert Einstein also saw some hope in Gandhi's civil disobedience. In a much-quoted speech that he gave in New York in September 1930, he declared that pacifists should stop talking and replace their words with deeds. He said that if only two percent of those assigned to perform military service refused to fight, governments would be powerless. They would not, he declared, send such a large number to jail.

The peace movement in Britain grew, joined by various professionals: teachers, doctors, psychologists, lawyers, prominent people of faith, trade unionists, socialists, followers of Tolstoy, novelists and some who were seen as philosophers. A peace enthusiast from California sent to London a book sixteen feet wide which he wished to have driven around Europe on a flatbed truck, hoping that the book would be filled with declarations for peace from every prominent man and woman in Europe.

In September 1931, when Japan's Kwantung army went on the offensive within Manchuria, a pacifist leader in England, Maude Royden, stated to her Christian congregation her intent to enroll people to put their bodies between the Japanese and Chinese armies.This required a speed and mobility that some armies lacked, and, before Royden could organize her move, the Japanese army had stopped fighting, and Royden had no way of knowing whether the fighting would resume, or where exactly it would resume. In January 1932, when Japanese troops were sent to Shanghai, a group of eight hundred British pacifists enrolled to put their bodies between the Japanese army and the Chinese. But the Japanese took control of Shanghai within a month, accomplishing their aims again before the pacifists could deploy their force.

In January 1933, Hitler came to power, and in Britain people became more concerned about the likelihood of war. The question of war was debated on university campuses in both the Britain and the United States. In the U.S. in 1933, Brown University conducted a poll of 21,725 students from sixty-five U.S. colleges, and the poll found 8,415 who declared themselves pacifists, 7,221 who believed that the only justification for their nation bearing arms would be its having been invaded, and only 6,089 who declared that they would fight another war if the government ordered them to do so. [note]  In February 1933, students at Oxford University debated the question that "this House will in no circumstance fight for king and country." At the conclusion of the debate, 275 undergraduates voted against fighting for king and country, and 153 voted for fighting for king and country. Newspapers described the debate, and many in Britain were dismayed. The controversy over the debate inspired another, larger, noisier debate at Oxford, with Winston Churchill's son, Randolph, leading the debate against the pacifists. And the pacifists won by a larger margin: 750 to 138. Similar debates at the London School of Economics resulted in a pacifist resolution that was supported unanimously. Aberystwyth University in Wales voted 186 to 99 for pacifism. Manchester University voted for pacifism 371 to 196. And students in Canada and New Zealand voted with the Oxford pacifists.

Hitler was watching, and, contemptuous of pacifism, he was encouraged. Winston Churchill was outraged.

Germany and Austria through 1934

In Germany, books, motion pictures, radio broadcasts and the theater were subject to state censorship, but the economy was improving and the public's support for Hitler was holding.  Germany's rural and religious conservatives were pleased by what they believed was the weeding out of corruption. Many, including intellectuals, believed the National Socialist propaganda that they read in their newspapers and heard on the radio. Hitler spoke of Germans being an exceptional and  superior people, and Germans were inclined to believe it - as did other people in judging themselves through the ages, including many Americans when Richard Nixon told them they were a superior people.

Of Germany's 17,000 Protestant pastors, 3000 were fervent enough in the support of Hitler to join the German Faith movement. Those supporting National Socialism talked of German science as opposed to Jewish science - Einstein, of course, belonging with the latter. There was also talk of German mathematics rising from the superiority of the German spirit. Textbooks were being rewritten. Teachers were conforming, and only a few of them were being dismissed. University professors, who had long lectured with enthusiasm about German grandeur and had supported rightwing and nationalist politicians, now found it easy to support National Socialism.

Appealing to the spirit of conformity, in January 1934, Hitler's Minister of the Interior, Hermann Goering (Göring), was in a forgiving mood, asking prisoners released from the concentration camp at Dachau to rejoin their places in their communities rather than consider themselves outlaws. Meanwhile,  Germany's court system was upholding Nazi law. In February it became illegal to advocate monarchy. Later in the year it became illegal for a Jew to be a member of Germany's stock exchanges.

An Attempted Coup in Austria

In Austria in April 1934, following the government's military victory against the left, Austria's National Assembly endorsed a new constitution that made Chancellor Dollfuss a virtual dictator.  Austria's National Socialists envied Dollfuss' position. There is speculation too concerning Dollfuss having an investigation done on Hitler's family history - Hitler originally an Austrian. Hitler was adamantly opposed to family history disclosures. In July, 1934, Austrian Nazis, backed perhaps by Hitler, attempted a coup against Dollfuss and his government. The Nazis captured a radio station in the capital, Vienna , and they wounded Dollfuss. Dollfuss died of his wounds. German troops were massed on the German-Austrian border. But Yugoslavia and Italy were adamantly opposed to Germany taking over Austria. Mussolini, who had been a friend of Dollfuss, rushed army divisions to the Brenner Pass (at the Austro-Italian border). Hitler chose not to attack Austria. He was in no position to justify warring against Mussolini, and he left the National Socialists in Austria to their fate, while the Austrian army crushed the Nazi rebellion.

Hitler Kills and becomes Supreme Leader

In May in Germany treason trials were allowed to be held in secret. Then in June came a showdown with the anti-capitalist elements in Hitler's National Socialist Party who were clamoring for Hitler to extend his revolution. Ernst Roehm (Röhm), leader of the Brown Shirts and the revolution's chief protagonist was feeling powerful - his Brown Shirts now numbering 2.5 million. Hitler proposed at a cabinet meeting that the Brown Shirts be made the foundation of a new people's army. Army leaders protested and appealed to President Hindenburg. At cabinet meetings, Roehm and the head of the army, von Blomberg, argued. Unexpressed in these debates was the disgust that Army leaders had for the homosexuality of Roehm and the clique that surrounded him. More important to the Army was its position of leadership and its need for officers who were highly trained. Now that Hitler was in power he too wanted professional soldiers more than he did street rowdies. He sided with the Army, and, in exchange, Army leadership endorsed Hitler as successor to Hindenburg.

There were also calls from capitalists and the landed aristocracy for the law and order necessary for a well functioning economy. They asked Hitler for an end to arbitrary arrests, an end to the persecution of Jews and attacks on churches and an end to the antics of the Brown Shirts. The vice chancellor, von Papen, joined the call for law and order. Addressing the University of Marburg on June 17, he called for an end of National Socialist terror, for the restoration of normal decencies and the return of a measure of freedom, including freedom of the press. Only weaklings, he said, suffer no criticism. Great men, he said are not created by propaganda. And he called for respect being extended to "all our fellow countrymen."

Hitler's propaganda minister, Dr. Josef Goebbels, moved to repress any distribution of von Papen's  speech on radio or in the press. Hitler was furious with von Papen, and von Papen was furious over the suppression of his speech by Goebbels. Von Papen told Hitler that he could tolerate no such ban by a junior minister. He submitted his resignation and said he would advise Hindenburg immediately. Hitler felt his power threatened, and he met with the leader of the Army: von Blomberg. Blomberg told Hitler that Hindenburg had stated that he would declare martial law and turn the government over to the Army if Hitler did not bring a quick end to the tensions that had arisen. Hitler caved-in and decided that the way out was to move against Roehm and the Brown Shirt leadership as the Army wished.

Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, an organization within the Brown Shirts, saw advantage in the demise of Roehm. And the Minister of the Interior, Hermann Goering, believed that it was time that Hitler eliminated opponents such as Roehm. Hitler used them and their faction of the Nazi Party against Roehm's faction. Rohm's made it easier for Hitler by making veiled threats of a Brown Shirt rising in response to his fears that his Brown Shirts were about to be reduced in size. On the night of June 30, Goering and Himmler's SS led raids against Roehm and others across Germany. Roehm, his lieutenants and some other Brown Shirts were executed. And the opportunity was taken to eliminate some who had crossed the National Socialist movement, including von Kahr, whose body was hacked to pieces and thrown into a swamp. Brüning escaped death by having fled the country sometime before. The leftist Nazi, Gregor Strasser was executed, as was Kurt von Schleicher and the leader of Catholic Action in Berlin, Erich Klausener, whose staff was hauled off to a concentration camp. About 116 died. There were incidents of mistaken identity, and the bodies of those killed by mistake were returned to their wives with apologies.

On July 1, Hindenburg publicly thanked Hitler for his ‘determined action and gallant personal intervention," which, he said had "nipped treason in the bud and rescued the German people from great danger." The following day, von Blomberg gave Hitler the congratulations of the cabinet. In a speech before parliament justifying his purge, Hitler accused the Brown Shirts of preparing to seize Berlin and arresting him. He announced that 67 had died, 61 of them shot, including nineteen Brown Shirt leaders - thirteen, he said, for resisting arrest. Three, he claimed, had committed suicide. Said Hitler:

If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: in this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the state then certain death is his lot. [note]

On August 2, Hindenburg died of old age.  A plebiscite was held on August 19 that overwhelmingly endorsed  Hitler as Hindenburg's successor as President. Hitler did not care for the title of President - a left over from the Republic. Nor did he care for the title of Chancellor.  He preferred Führer (Leader), and that is what he would be called. His cabinet passed a law declaring the presidency dormant. Hitler no longer had someone above him to worry about. He was the supreme authority.

To appease criticism of his rule, he announced amnesty  for 27,000 camp inmates. Germans believed the period of arrests was at an end, and they felt comfort in the realization that only a small fraction of the population had been arrested. Membership in Germany's National Socialist party continued to grow, as people wished to identify with Hitler's regime, to express their patriotism or to advance their position.

Hitler, a Broken Treaty and Question of Preventive War

The year 1935 began with the question of Germany getting back its coal producing Saar region - a region just south of Luxembourg, and about as big. The Peace Treaty that had ended World War I, signed at Versailles, had entrusted the Saar to the League of Nations and occupation by France, and a plebiscite was to decide the region's future. A little over two thousand people (0.4 percent) in the Saar voted to join France; nine percent voted to remain under the League of Nations; and ninety percent voted to join Germany. Hitler responded by saying he was proud of the German people. He announced that Germany had no more territorial claims against France (in other words no claim on Alsace and Lorraine) and he spoke of hope that the decision regarding the Saar was a decisive step on the road to gradual reconciliation with First World War's Allied powers.

Instead of moving closer to reconciliation, Europe moved closer to war. In 1935 Great Britain announced an increase in armaments, and the French increased conscripted military service from one to two years because of a shortage of young men of draft age. Hitler said he was responding to the failure of other European powers to disarm and to the Soviet Union having enlarged its military forces. He announced to the world that Germany was rearming, that he was establishing military conscription, enlarging Germany's army to thirty-six divisions and increasing Germany's airforce. Germany's rearmament was in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, which Hitler included in his denunciations. What Germany wanted, he said, was for Germany to be treated as an equal among the leading powers and for Germany to be "able to respect itself."

The French and British governments protested. Hitler responded by speaking of his good intentions and of his word being better than any treaty.  If his word could not be taken in trust, he asked, what good was an agreement on paper? To some in Europe who longed for peace and stability, Hitler's disdain for the treaty signed at Versailles appeared reckless and threatening. They would have preferred that Hitler pursue changes in his international standing through amendments to treaties reached through agreements. But in Britain, public opinion against Hitler's police state methods and anti-Semitism had recently subsided, and there had been a swing toward some sympathy for Germany's treatment at Versailles.

Germany appeared to have a hostile combination of neighbors against it: France, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania and the Soviet Union. Britain's National Coalition government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, did not want to appear to be a part of this. It wished to demonstrate a peaceful disposition and announced its intentions to settle differences with Germany.

The National Council of Jewish Women in New York City saw Hitler as more of a threat than did Britain's government. In March, 1935, they described Hitler as a "world menace." In Germany, National Socialists were describing hostility toward Hitler as Jewish inspired, and they threatened to retaliate against Jews should an attempt be made on Hitler's life. In Germany, Julius Streicher was comparing Hitler to Jesus Christ.  A professor Hauser made the news by declaring that God had revealed himself to Germany through Hitler, and Dr. Reinhardt Krause declared that Hitler alone had "God's order" for the German nation.

Great Britain, France and Italy wished to maintain close ties, and on April 11 they met at the village of Stresa in Italy, where they agreed to maintain their 1925 Locarno Treaty obligations and agreed that Germany should not be allowed to absorb Austria. France already had a defensive treaty with Czechoslovakia, and, on May 2, France moved to enhance its security by signing  a mutual assistance treaty with the Soviet Union. On May 16, the Soviet Union promised that if France fulfilled its defensive obligations to Czechoslovakia it too would support  Czechoslovakia.

Hitler denounced these combinations as hostile towards Germany. He spoke of Germany not wanting another war, of the absurdity of war and of the "follies" of the past. Wars of revenge, he said, were out of date. "A deliberate maker of war may have been a patriot in the old days," he said, "but today such a person would be a traitor." "We are not imperialist," he added, and he held to his position that the German people wanted only "equal rights for all" and its honor restored.

Since 1933 Churchill had been speaking of Germany secretly rearming, and now, at the end of May, 1935, from his seat in the House of Commons, he was still speaking of a danger emanating from Germany. He spoke of arms manufacturing having "first claim" in German industry, of Germany's "war power" being built "with ever-increasing momentum" and of Britain's slow pace of research concerning military aircraft. The British government considered Churchill an alarmist and went about making what agreements with Hitler that it could. And Hitler wished to keep the British friendly, or at least passive. He was anxious to avoid alarming Britain as Germany had before World War I with the naval arms race. In mid-June, 1935, Germany and Britain signed a naval accord, Germany accepting a ratio of 35 ships to 100 for Britain. Hitler was pleased and the British were pleased, but the French were alarmed. They feared that Britain's friendliness was encouraging Hitler.

On June 6, Britain's leading cleric, the Archbishop of Canterbury, expressed sympathy for Germany's position among nations, declaring that Germany "must be recognized as a nation entitled to an equal place among other nations." Also in June, the results of a "peace ballot" in Britain were announced. This poll gave overwhelming endorsement to the pursuit of peace through armament reductions. Britain's pacifists approved, but they had reason for concern: Mussolini was talking about expanding into Ethiopia.

Mussolini had been preparing to expand into Ethiopia since 1933, and at the Stresa Conference in 1935 Britain had not voiced opposition to it. Mussolini was under the impression that Britain would not stand in his way. Now, however, British public opinion was voicing their opposition, and Britain's peace movement was becoming  energized. New peace groups gathered together around the country and struggled with the question of what they could do to maintain world peace.

Ethiopia and Italy were members of the League of Nations, and aggression against Ethiopia was a violation of the League of Nations Charter. In general, people in Britain wanted to see the League of Nations maintained as an instrument of peace. So too did the British government. But the British government also wanted to maintain its friendship with Mussolini, and rather than take a firm stand against Italy's plan against Ethiopia, the British government tried to talk Mussolini into accepting just a portion of Ethiopia. Mussolini refused, wishing to have a great military victory to impress his nation and signify fascism's success. He wanted Italy to appear to be a great power.

The debate as to what caused wars had intensified. Some claimed that military alliances caused wars. Marxist-Leninists were still claiming that it was capitalism that caused wars, including World War I. Those most opposed to war in Britain were still talking of non-violent resistance. They discussed Einstein's idea that if only two percent refused to be drafted there would be no war. Richard Gregg, who had recently spent four years with Mahatma Gandhi in India, advocated the training of a corps of war resisters who could stop soldiers from fighting. He distributed a manual called Training for Peace in which he recommended meditation, group singing and folk dancing, spinning cloth or knitting clothes. A Quaker named Humphrey Moore started a paper called Peace News which frequently displayed a photo of Gandhi. Members of Moore's congregation distributed the paper on street corners, and soon about a thousand anti-war persons were distributing the paper across the country. Some pacifists took action in the form of sitting down and singing in front of a march by British fascists. An anti-war leader, Dick Sheppard, was in great demand as a speaker, and Sheppard came up with the idea of writing to Hitler, suggesting that Hitler allow him to go to Germany to preach peace. But Hitler never replied.

German law continued toward greater repression. The Prussian Supreme Court ruled that the orders and actions of Hitler's police, the Gestapo, were not subject to judicial review. And by now Germany's defense lawyers had to have the approval from a National Socialist official to represent a client. A few lawyers were sent to concentration camps after trying to represent someone out of favor with Hitler's regime. Among them was the lawyer who had represented the widow of Dr. Klausener, the Catholic Action Leader who had been murdered during the purge of 1934.

In Germany, jazz was described as having Negro or Jewish origin and was banned. Tensions had been developing between Hitler's regime and some people of faith, and, in July 1935, political activities by Catholics were outlawed. Some Catholics and Protestants expressed their discomfort with "the paganism" among the National Socialists, and Hitler tried to appease opinion by repudiating paganism and holding to his claim that he would lead the German nation along the path of positive Christianity. But soon his propaganda minister, Dr. Goebbels, came to the defense of the National Socialists and denied that Hitler had made any repudiation.

In September, 1935, came the Nuremberg Laws that denied the rights of citizenship to Jews and  reduced them to the status of "subjects."  These laws forbade marriage and extramarital relations between Jews and "Aryans." Jews were forbidden from employing an Aryan female under the age of thirty-five as a servant. Other edicts forbade Jews to shop in gentile stores, or gentiles to shop in Jewish stores. Jews could not attend movies, theaters or stroll in public parks. The majority of the Germans felt unaffected by all this and let it pass. And Hitler promised that signs suggesting hostility to Jews in Germany would be removed in time for the Olympic games - which were to be held in 1936 in Berlin.

On October 2, 1935, Mussolini invaded Ethiopia, and on October 7 the League of Nations declared Italy to be in violation of its position on aggression. League members began discussing sanctions against their fellow League member, Italy - as they had against Japan. Mussolini threatened war against France in retaliation for its support of League sanctions against his regime.

Some anti-war activists in Britain opposed sanctions against Italy, claiming that sanctions might spread the war beyond Ethiopia. Other anti-war activists were concerned that if the League did nothing to stop Mussolini the League would be destroyed. Britain's Labour Party remained a strong supporter of sanctions and was labeled by some conservatives as the "war party." Britain's National Coalition government was standing for elections while calling for sanctions short of war, which was what the majority in Britain supported, and the National Coalition won the elections by a comfortable margin.

On November 18 the League voted for only light sanctions against Italy, leaving Italy with the oil that it needed for its war effort.  The British public got its way: sanctions would not lead to war. Italy was on its way to conquering all of Ethiopia, and the League was exposed as impotent.

Hitler Marches His Military to the Rhine River

Pierre Laval had been France's premier and minister of foreign affairs since June, 1935. Having lost confidence with Britain when Britain signed the naval agreement with Germany, Laval had moved toward accommodation with Germany. Laval attempted to keep France on friendly terms with Italy, and he allowed Italy to have its way in Ethiopia.  But Laval's diplomacy was not appreciated enough in France that it could keep him in office. In  January, 1936, Laval's government fell, and a caretaker government took office.

Hitler watched Mussolini's move into Ethiopia and the failure of the League of Nations. He was not a believer in the League of Nations and had taken Germany out of the League in 1933. And now, on March 7, 1936, while France was having one of its political crises and had only a caretaker government, Hitler defied the international treaties again. According to the Versailles and Locarno treaties the Rhineland was to remain demilitarized. Hitler moved troops into Rhineland. The German people liked it. For them it was an issue of national sovereignty, the Rhineland being a part of Germany. But Hitler's generals were concerned. Germany's army was still not ready for combat. Hitler assured his generals that they could withdraw at the first sign of a counter move by France's army, but he had taken measure of the pacifism in France and Britain and was confident that France and Britain would do nothing. His move into the Rhineland caused a sensation, and the world waited to see what France and Britain would do. The French military command, in the person of General Gamelin, insisted that counteraction against Germany could not be undertaken without France calling up troops in a general mobilization, and he complained that France should make no such move without support from Great Britain. If  France acted alone, he said, France might be accused of aggression.

In response to the move into the Rhineland, the British, French, and Belgian governments, and even the Italian government, denounced Germany for violations of the Versailles and Locarno treaties. But nothing more was done. Britain made it clear that it did not want to live up to the obligations of Locarno. Italy did not want to go further and more seriously offend the only supporter of its move into Ethiopia. In the League of Nations, only the Soviet Union's foreign minister, Litvinov, called for sanctions against Germany, while Hitler was giving the world an old excuse for his move: the communists. Hitler complained that his move was defensive in nature, that it was made necessary by France having signed a treaty with the Russians, a treaty that he claimed threatened Germany.

Belgium's government watched the passivity toward Hitler's action and, not wanting their country to be in the same position that it had been at the beginning of World War I, the government declared Belgium neutral.

Churchill, in the House of Commons, declared the remilitarization of the Rhineland a triumph for Hitler. He spoke of the danger to parliamentary nations from heavily armed dictatorships. He complained that Britain was confronting dictators "without weapons or military force" and that the spirit of British people was being tamed and cowed "with peace films, anti-recruiting propaganda and resistance to defense measures."

Fear of the Left in France

In May, 1936, elections in France brought to power a new coalition government, called the "Popular Front" - a coalition that included Communists - who were responding to the Soviet Union's new policy of allowing alliances with anti-fascists. After only a few days in office, France's new government announced its intentions to improve working conditions - which, along with wages in France, lagged behind other advanced industrialized nations. Labor leaders were emboldened by the Popular Front's victory. They were impatient and wanted to demonstrate their power, so they sent their workers out on strike, aggravating everyone but labor and the Left.

The head of the new government was Leon Blum, the leader of France's Socialist Party. Rightists in France wondered whether Hitler conquering France would be any worse than the Left in power in France, Rightists knowing that Hitler would suppress the Left. The expressions "better Hitler than Blum" and "better Hitler than Stalin" were heard.  Industrialists on the other hand, ever practical, signed an agreement with the Popular Front government, creating what was called the Magna Carta for French labor. Passed into law was the forty-hour week and paid holidays. Wages were fixed. National control over war industries and state control over the Bank of France was established. It was the beginning of a new era in the relations between management and labor in France. And France's workers, back on the job and proud of their victory, turned to the pleasant task of deciding how to spend the paid holidays that they, for the first time, were to enjoy.

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