John Rhys-Davies, who plays Gimli the dwarf, told writers that “the older I get, the more certain I am of the presence of evil” in the world. Such a declaration by itself sets Rhys-Davies apart from many in the entertainment industry. But the British actor didn’t stop there. He said that Tolkien was “basically saying” that there are “times when a generation may be challenged. And if that generation does not rise to meet that challenge, you could lose an entire civilization.”
Kinda puts things in perspective, doesn't it?
As a fervent Catholic, a veteran of the Somme, and a genuine scholar of Nordic cultures, Tolkien was not blind to these events. In 1938, Tolkien denounced the Nazis’ "wholly pernicious and unscientific race-doctrine." When German publishers Rütten and Loening wished to translate The Hobbit from English, they wrote him, inquiring whether his name was of "Aryan" origin. Tolkien’s reply dripped scorn:
I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is, Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people.
As he would write his son, Michael, in 1941 (then a cadet training for the British army):
...I have in this War a burning private grudge—which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler... Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble, northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light. Nowhere, incidentally, was it nobler than in England, nor ever more early sanctified and Christianized.