Aids For Discussion Leaders
A short five to ten-minute introductory talk by the discussion leader is recommended. Suggested points:
A. We're at war because of "fascism."
B. Many Americans are vague about the meaning of "fascism;" many doubt the horrible things we hear about places like Dachau and Maidanek.
C. What is fascism?
D. Fascism is a dictatorship—the opposite of democracy.
E. Fascism is an authoritarian government by the few.
F. Fascists stay in power by force; by propaganda based on ideas of "blood" and "race" and the glories of war; and by false promises of security.
Because of the importance of Supplementary Material, the Outline For Discussion is omitted this week.
Supplementary Material
I. Are the stories of German fascist cruelties true?
"Genocide" Death Camps. One of the most diabolical weapons used by the Nazi fascists is technically referred to as "genocide" (from the Greek genos for "race" and the Latin cide for "killing") in "Axis Rule In Occupied Countries" by Raphael Lemkin, published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944. It means simply war against whole peoples, including innocent non-combatants and women and children. The idea behind it is to wipe out or cripple for generations entire racial groups and nations. It aims to disintegrate political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and economic existence as well as at wholesale murder of individuals. By weakening enemies, it is designed to win the peace even if the war is lost. (See ARMY TALK No. 49.)
Maidanek. "I have just seen the most terrible place on the face of the earth—the German concentration camp at Maidanek, which was a veritable River Rouge for the production of death, in which it was estimated by Soviet and Polish authorities that as many as 1,500,000 persons from nearly every country in Europe were killed in the last three years. . . . This is the place that must be seen to be believed. I have been present at numerous atrocity investigations in the Soviet Union, but never have I been confronted with such complete evidence, clearly establishing every allegation made by those investigating German crimes. After inspection of Maidanek, I am now prepared to believe any story of German atrocities, no matter how savage, cruel and depraved."
II. Are democracy and fascism diametrically opposed?
"The proposed new order is the very opposite of a United States of Europe or a United States of Asia. It is not a government based on the consent of the governed. It is not a union of ordinary, self-respecting men and women to protect themselves and their freedom and their dignity from oppression. It is an unholy alliance of power and pelf to dominate and enslave the human race."
". . . to sum up, I see two diametrically opposed principles: the principle of democracy, which, wherever it is allowed practical effect is the principle of destruction; and the principle of authority of personality which I would call the principle of achievement. . . ."—Adolph Hitler, 27 January 1942.
III. Is it true that powerful financial and military interests supported the German and Italian fascists?
Fritz Thyssen, the wealthiest of the German industrialists, admitted giving the Nazis funds as early as 1928. In his book, I Paid Hitler, written after leaving Germany, he wrote: "It was during the last years preceding the Nazi seizure of power that the big industrial corporations began to make their contributions. . . . All in all, the amounts given by heavy industry to the Nazis may be estimated at two million marks a year. It must be understood, however, that this includes only the voluntary gifts. . . ."
Of Italy, Sumner Welles, former Under Secretary of State, writes that "especially the reactionary elements and the larger banking and industrial interests, welcomed the dictatorship of Mussolini. . . ."
"Fascism . . . believes neither in the possibility nor in the utility of perpetual peace. . . . War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to meet it. For Fascism the tendency to Empire, that is to say, to the expansion of
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