“HITLER WILL ATTACK RUSSIA”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20587, 28 November 1936, Page 12 (Supplement)

“HITLER WILL ATTACK RUSSIA”

SOCIALIST WRITER’S FORECAST NAZIS’ CLEANSING MANIA In view of the tense diplomatic situation that has developed in RussoGerman relations, Ernst Henri’s “Hitler over Russia?" makes interesting reading. Hitler's Ambition Ernst Henri is of the opinion that Hitler will shortly attack Russia with the idea of entering Moscow on a white charger, but that he will be defeated by the Soviet and shot by his own troops. He develops this theory at some length and with startling powers of strategical prescience. It appears that Roehm and the others, who were the unfortunate subjects of the “cleansing” of the 30th June, 1934, were disposed of because they were representatives of the middle classes; somehow one had not thought of them before in that light. This first step being accomplished, the author plunges, heavily clad in italics, into the subject of the crusade against Austria. By this time his true thesis has become apparent; it is that Hitler is only the tool of capitalism in the person of Thyssen, and that the NationalSocialist movement in Germany (referred to throughout the book somewhat erroneously as Fascism) is in reality nothing but a vast secret capitalist movement. The steps by which this conclusion is reached seem to show some gaps, inadequately filled by violent assertion. However, groaning a little in spirit at the appearance of this familiar bogey, the reader pushes on to find that the equally capitalist organisation of Italy is neatly side-tracked in the argument by the author, who proceeds to deal with the steps being taken by Germany to drive a “Fascist” scissors into the northern and southern flanks of Russia. Spread of Nazism The growth of the Nazi societies and power in Austria, Hungary, and Rumania on the south and Poland and the Baltic States on the north are fairly correctly portrayed; it does not, however, seem to have occurred to the author that these movements may be more Nationalist than capitalist. Finally, he exposes the plans of the German command for driving through the south and the north simultaneously towards Kiev and Leningrad and eventually to Moscow, sums up the economic and military power of the two forces and foresees the triumph of the Soviet. False Deduction The facts may be all true, but the book is not. One is growing rather irritated by the flood of such works appearing at the moment. Sometimes they come from the Right wing; just now it is the Left wing, which is most tiresome. They all suffer from that fundamental fallacy, the materialistic doctrine of history. Enough for the moment to say that according to the followers of this creed economics is the only motive power behind political forces, fear, hatred, pride, and nationalism being mere surface indications of the powers below. M. Henri is at least honest about it. “We do not,” he says, “attach much weight to psychology as an independent factor in the play of big forces." He is forced, therefore, to postulate the gigantic conspiracies of capitalism and to Indulge in hints and assertions of international ramifications which would leave Mr Phillips Oppenheim green with envy.

Weakness of Logic Revealed

It is, as was said, a tiresome business. The reviewer proposes to adopt for a moment M. Henri’s method of unsupported assertion and to declare that the Nazi movement is not economic, is not a creation of Thyssen and the barons of the Ruhr, is fundamentally racial and nationalist and rests on purely psychological characteristics of the German people; further, that such matters as pride or fright or even the accidental factors of personal likes and dislikes in a leader are more powerful in world politics than any capitalist conspiracy; finally, that Herr Hitler may attack Russia, but that will have nothing to do with the reasons advanced by M. Henri. Feeling relieved by this outburst, the reviewer would point out to M. Henri that he should devote more time to the study of the philosophical bases of his theory and justify Marxian determinism before proceeding to apply its thesis to European affairs with such reckless abandon. The philosophy of the Left wing (as well as that of the Right) is its weakest point. In comparison, democracy is comparatively enlightened.

(“Hitler over Russia?” by Ernst Henri, London, Dent.)