Mein Kampf
enemy?
Truly, these heroes too deserved a stone:
“Stranger, tell in Germany that we lie here, faithful to the Fatherland and obedient to duty.”
And Germany—?
But was the supreme sacrifice all we must consider? Was the Germany of the past worthless? Had we no obligations to our own history? Were we still worthy to take unto ourselves the glory of the past? And how could this deed be offered for justification to the future?
Depraved and miserable criminals! The more I tried to come to a clear realization of the monstrous event, the more the flush of indignation and shame burned in my cheek. What was the agony of my eyes compared to this wretchedness?
There followed awful days and worse nights—I knew that all was lost. Only fools could hope for the mercy of the enemy—or liars and criminals. During those nights hatred grew up in me, hatred for the perpetrators of this deed.
In the next few days I became conscious of my own fate. I had to laugh when I thought of my personal future, which had caused me such grievous worry so short a time before. Was it not laughable to think of building houses on such ground? Finally I realized that the thing had merely happened which I had so often dreaded, but which emotionally I had never been able to believe.
Emperor William II had been the first German Emperor to offer the hand of reconciliation to the leaders of Marxism, not dreaming that scoundrels have no honor. While they still grasped the Imperial hand, with the other they were feeling for the dagger.
With the Jew there can be no coming to terms, but only the implacable “either—or.”
And I resolved to become a politician.
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