one oddity I noticed here and had never known before was that the Czechs were willing to help save Austria if Britain and France had had some stones to do the same...and what pray tell was Czechoslovakia’s reward for wanting to come to their neighbor’s aid?
On the whole - and I’m sure there will be flaming for saying this - it likely worked out for the best that Germany was successful here and in Czechoslovakia.
Yes, they created much suffering for these peoples and others. I myself have walked under the gate at Auscwitz that says “Arbeit Macht Frei.” I saw the gas chambers and crematoriums that were preserved there along with the barracks for the prisoners. I saw also the number of buildings at this one camp that were not preserved. I am capable of multiplying to draw the full conclusion of the evil.
Here, though, is why I believe that it was better on the whole that Germany was able to do what he did. One of the effects of Germany’s actions was a severly weakened Soviet Union. Many people do not realize that Stalin actually killed more of his subjects than Hitler did. He was even in the process of eliminating his Jewish population in 1953 when he suddenly died. (Thank God!) Had Germany not grown in power to the point of nearly kicking down the rotten mess as Hitler called them, the fate of not only the Jews, but also the rest of the world would have been far worse. Had Germany remained weak, I believe that communism would have eventually taken over all of Europe. All of this while the USA remained isolationist because we weren’t dragged kicking and screaming into world affairs.
Just my thoughts on how WW2 can actually be looked at as a blessing from today’s point of view.
I really enjoy reading these blasts from the NYT’s past when I catch them here. Do you have some sort of ping list for them?
Yeah, that's a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. But who is to say you are wrong? One of my reasons for these posts is see what past events have to teach us about the present. Another is to play the "what if" game. What Stalin would have done had Hitler been squashed early on is one of the big "what ifs."
There is, indeed, a Real Time + 70 Years ping list, and you are now on it.
The Czech’s knew that if Austria fell that they would be bordered by the Nazi on 3 fronts. They wanted to help, but they just didn’t have the resources to go it alone. With France and England taking no action and Italy really siding with the Germans they were stuck.
Then came the final betrayal by the Chamberlain gang with the Sudetanland.