Writes: Vuk Draskovic
History, indeed, repeats itself both as a tragedy and as a farce, a joke, but also a farce, inevitably, ends as a tragedy.
We remember. In the 1930s, Adolf Hitler's National Socialism also began as a farce, and the then democratic states – above all, Britain, France and the United States – played the role of clowns in Hitler's circus.
After winning the elections in 1933, he thundered at large rallies of supporters brought from all German provinces, with marches of party raiders:
We did not want the war of 1914, we did not provoke or blame it, nor were we defeated in that war. Only the Thessaloniki front was breached. We were superior on all other fronts, but we were stabbed in the back, a rebellion of domestic traitors of the homeland. In Versailles, we are cruelly and unjustly punished and humiliated. Despite that, let peace live, we will not take revenge or a new war. We are committed to a Europe of peace and stability, eternal peace for our children…
He is showered with praise and congratulations from London, Paris and Washington. English commentators called Hitler a myrrh-bearer!
In secret, he told his generals: We must arm ourselves quickly. The current circumstances force me to talk about peace. It is a mask, the only way to provide our nation with weapons for real intentions and future steps!
He created a party of monsters, an army of Hitler's, Führer's, patrons of the Nazi religion of blood and soil, without a public program, party statute, procedure or rulebook on anything. The program, the statute, the procedure, the constitution of the state, the party decision-making bodies… everything was – the Führer. His orders were a red letter for sub-Führers and small Führers in German provinces, cities, villages, streets, alleys, at universities, in schools, in courts, in scientific institutions, everywhere.
On a small plane, he flew from rally to rally, flaunting his successes, announcing new victories and feats.
I overcame the chaos in the country, restored order, ignited hope in Germany as a European and world giant. I have returned the pride of the nation, increased production in all areas of the economy, I am building highways, thousands of kilometers of highways. I provide more and more jobs for the unemployed, whose troubles pierce my heart…
He possessed the souls and brains of millions of Germans, and the terrible Nazi propaganda glorified him as the superman that Friedrich Nietzsche dreamed of. The leader of the SA assault detachments, Ernest Rem, addressed Hitler with “you” and it was speculated that the Führer would leave the party to him. Suddenly, in agony, Hitler ordered Remo's execution and pogrom against his supporters. In the country, once the capital of the famous German law school, there were no protests, nor was there condemnation of crimes in the democratic world. Vodka was drunk in Moscow. The Führer, with the favor of the blinded and cowardly West, threw off the anathema from Stalin's comrades because of the terrible crimes in his country.
Remus and his assault detachments were paramilitaries, adventurers and bandits eager for a new war, who were preparing my assassination – Hitler explained to Western leaders. And he seduced them, hypnotized them with his peacemaking and noble intentions.
I don't even think about the war in my dreams – the Führer told them. I just want to unite, today divided, the German world. Peacefully, just peacefully. I want to create a German political nation loyal to European peace and prosperity, without changing the existing borders and without a drop of bloodshed, both German and foreign…
They believed him. And when he marched to both the Ruhr and the Saar, and overthrew the Treaty of Versailles, the leaders of the West bowed to him. They said that it was a necessary and just concession, because Germany, indeed, was severely punished in Versailles.
The idea of a “German world” spread to Central Europe as an epidemic. Red flags with a swastika fluttered all over Austria, in the Czech Sudetenland, in Tyrol… Hitler, openly, enters the war against the Spanish Republic. Britain and France declare military neutrality, and Washington secretly helps the fascists on whose side Hitler showed the strength of his weapons…
Where are you from? – the Führer asked at the big rallies the inflamed saint arrived from the “German world”. They answered: From the Rhine, from the Danube, from the Main, from the Sudetenland, from Tyrol… They shouted, in a trance: One people, one leader!?
The West encouraged Hitler to deliver harsh demands to the West. Still swearing allegiance to European peace, he embarks on pogroms against Jews, and he reshapes the program of unification of the “German world” into a demand for German state expansion.
The Austrians are Germans, says the Führer to the prime ministers of Britain and France. The stability of Europe and lasting peace in Europe threatens the existence of two German states. There is only one Britain and only one France. There must be only one Germany!
Hitler's army occupies Austria and the Czech Sudetenland, and Chamberlain and Dalady go to Munich, to certify the Anschluss of Austria and the Sudetenland in front of Hitler, with their signatures! That betrayal and shame was, both in London and in Paris, celebrated as “a lasting victory of peace in Europe.”
Only ten months later, in Moscow, Stalin and Hitler will agree on the division of the spoils: Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania… The great farce exploded into the greatest tragedy in the history of the world so far.
***
It is as if the modern world is a repeat of the world from a hundred years ago.
The West is moving and retreating everywhere. And, more and more often, the West, with its technology, capital, greed for profit, empowers both big and small dictators.
It is as if it is no longer known what or where the “democratic West” is.
The European Union is a colossus, both democratically, economically and technologically, but there is no institution or mechanism that can defend the Union from either external or internal diversions.
The Alternative for Germany broke into the Bundestag. The party has three fathers: the Gestapo, the KGB and the Stasi. Britain left the European Union. Clouds are forming on the alliance of the USA and France.
There are more and more voices for the EU to get rid of America. The truth is ignored that America and NATO are the only defense of Europe.
It is boiling in the Balkans. The tragic wars of the 1990s do not seem to be over. BiH is a blocked state. Bulgaria does not allow Northern Macedonia, a NATO member, to move towards the European Union. Kosovo is the “heart of Serbia”, not in Serbia. Montenegro, a member of the NATO alliance and a country that was before EU membership, is being pushed towards the abyss, towards civil war, by internal and external aggression. Serbia is also dramatically, internally, divided and in quarrel, and shouts about the unification of the “Serbian world” are shaking the entire region.
Around the world, everything is farcical everywhere and before the shooting. Before the war. As after Munich in 1938.