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Neville Chamberlain's letter to the Hitler Youth
Neville Chamberlain

Posted on 03/12/2013 9:18:10 AM PDT by ProgressingAmerica

Glenn Beck just talked about this on his show, I managed to find it online. Here is the full text:

I welcome the intention of the German Youth Movement to devote a special issue of their Magazine to the subject of England, and I gladly accept the invitation to contribute to a project which I regard as a sign of the growing desire for mutual understanding between our two countries.

In writing to you, the young manhood and young womanhood of Germany, I need to remind you that you are, in the words of the poet Shakespeare, "The expectancy and rose of the fair State". A great responsibility lies upon you - the responsibility for your country's future. All the hopes of Germany are set upon you; to your care is committed your national heritage and traditions, your national honour and your national prosperity. All this is entrusted to you for safe keeping, and I am confident that you will prove worthy of the trust.

But your responsibility does not end there. You have a responsibility for the future of your country: But you have also, in common with the youth of other nations, a joint responsibility for the future of the world. It is already and in the future will be still more the happy fortune of the organisations of youth now flourishing in many lands to foster - by means of mutual interchange of visits and otherwise - that understanding between nations which is so essential to the settlement of differences and the appeasement of the world. The admirable motto "The Year of Understanding", which you have chosen for the year 1938, shows the part that you are playing in this work.

(Signature) Neville Chamberlain

I'm actually a little surprised I was able to find this, but I'm glad I did. It took a few minutes to go digging through some of the auction sites to find it, but here is the listing.

This is something that has never been on the internet before these auction sites posting the images, and now, my blog posting which transcribes it. It is my suggestion that you make a copy of these images for yourself, copy the transcript, I don't mind if you don't reference my blog either. Just get it out there. There is a whole lot of information out there which is not yet on the internet, and we need to change that whenever the opportunity arises. Now is one of those opportunities. Especially if you have your own blog. I hope you will post this on your own so it can't be removed from the internet.

(Click for larger)



TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: chamberlain; hitler; hitleryouth; neville; nevillechamberlain; tories; youth
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To: little jeremiah
also shows that Chamberlain actually liked what Hitler was doing

I would disagree with that statement. I don't think he approved at all, but like most Brits of the era, they were still very leery of going to war again....I don't think Americans totally appreciate how devastating the first World War was on the British.

21 posted on 03/12/2013 2:15:18 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: ProgressingAmerica

... and fools continue to judge history by the standards of their own day.


22 posted on 03/12/2013 2:17:58 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Bad things are wrong! Ice cream is delicious!)
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To: little jeremiah
I don't believe it's fake, but meaningless to Chamberlain, yes. He probably had a subordinate write it, whether or not he actually signed it. It's fluff.

BTW, don't buy the original of the “Peace in our time” document that Chamberlain waved around after handing the “Sudetenland” to Hitler. The “document” that Chamberlain was waving was a BOAC in-flight menu.

"Sudetenland" in quotes, because only the Nazis ever called it that.

23 posted on 03/12/2013 2:23:18 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: dfwgator

How could the Brits/Chamberlain (or anyone) not know the anti-Jewish laws that had been and were being passed?


24 posted on 03/12/2013 2:23:23 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: little jeremiah

Be fair, most European states at the time had some kind of anti-Jewish laws, albeit not as stringent as the Nazis, but up until Krystallnacht it didn’t arouse a lot of disdain.


25 posted on 03/12/2013 2:31:21 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator; little jeremiah

I suspect that Chamberlain thought the Hitlerjudend were more or less the equivalent of the Boy Scouts. Only instead of

A Scout is:

•Trustworthy,
•Loyal,
•Helpful,
•Friendly,
•Courteous,
•Kind,
•Obedient,
•Cheerful,
•Thrifty,
•Brave,
•Clean,
•and Reverent.

A Hitlerjugend is

•Ruthless,
•Fanatically loyal to the Fuhrer,
•Helpful to the Party,
•Friendly to Arayans,
•Courts confrontation,
•Kind of Creepy,
•Obedient to the State,
•Cheerfully cutthroat,
•Thrifty with Zyklon B,
•Bravely beats up Jews when it’s ten on one,
•Jew-Clean (judenrein),
•and Reverently studies Mein Kampf.


26 posted on 03/12/2013 2:35:03 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: little jeremiah

The Holocaust came later. Most of the victims were Eastern Jews, most German Jews managed to get out. England was not willing to go to war in 1938 to keep Germany from mistreating its Jews. Neither was America, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Cuba, ....


27 posted on 03/12/2013 2:37:57 PM PDT by Lonesome in Massachussets (What word begins with "O" and ends in economic collapse?)
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To: Lonesome in Massachussets

THere were a whole lot of very bad people then; as now. Unwilling to stand up to evil.


28 posted on 03/12/2013 3:17:35 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: dfwgator

My comment above...

The history of the last few thousand years is the history of bad people and weak people.


29 posted on 03/12/2013 3:18:24 PM PDT by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. CSLewis)
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To: cripplecreek
I always save this sort of thing

As do I. However, why would a signed letter not be dated?

30 posted on 03/12/2013 3:44:44 PM PDT by MosesKnows
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