Drive on Nazi Reich Makes Him ‘sick to Death,’ Broun Writes

Heywood Broun, columnist, writing yesterday in the World-Telegram, declared he was “sick to death of the drive which is being made” upon Nazi Germany.

“I hate Hitler with as fervent a hatred as anybody can muster,” Broun wrote.

“But I don’t hate Hitler because he is a German, and, as a matter of fact, he is not. It is the system he represents which marshals me upon the other side.”

Broun said that he had no faith in “Nordic nonsense.”

“Even if there were such a thing as a Nordic he would not be superior to the rest of mankind. But in his desperate straits I am moved to come to his rescue. He is just as good.”

The column follows in part:

‘NOW IT MUST BE TOLD’

“Naturally most of us who had German ancestors said very little about the fact during the war. The agents of the Department of Justice visited the sins of the grandfathers onto the children unto the third and fourth generations. To be frank, my German ties are rather closer than the single thread of a lone grandfather. My mother is American born, but she was educated abroad and as a child she invariably spoke German to my brother and sister and me. Her intent was that we should grow up bi-lingual. Unfortunately, after the manner of American kids, we always answered back in English. But when I was 7 years old I could readily have passed the entrance examination in elementary German, which I almost flunked ten years later.

“Every Christmas I was trained to recite a little poem in German, and all the customs which were observed during the holiday season were Germanic in their mood and tone. After all, the Germans have done more with Christmas than any other nation. They seem almost to have a special right to that festival.

“I am boasting today of my German blood because I am sick to death of the drive which is being made upon a great people and a great nation. I hate Hitler with as fervent a hatred as anybody can muster. Many columns of mine have drawn the most punishing sort of replies from Germans, but I don’t hate Hitler because he is a German, and, as a matter of fact, he is not. It is the system he represents which marshals me upon the other side.

‘THE LEADER AND THE LED’

“Of course, it may be said that Hitler is Germany, that the last election showed that an overwhelming majority of all persons in the Reich were devoted to his cause. It is a strange fever, and it will pass.

“We have had our own maladies. For a time the Ku Klux Klan seemed to be the ideal of millions of Americans, and that didn’t mean that in the national character itself flaws existed which would persist for all time.

“I am aroused by the effort to attack all Germans because of the crime and the guilt of one. Obviously no nation has a monopoly on crime. If each people entered into a competition as to the greatest villain it would be a standoff all around. There is an accidental quality in the individual. I distrust epigrams which begin:— ‘All Frenchmen,’ or ‘Every Englishman,’ or ‘It is a universal trait of the Italians.’ Such things are obviously generalizations having no weight in authenticity.

‘TOO MUCH TERRITORY’

“It is silly to set one people against another or embitter nations by blanket accusations. We need not theorize about this. Almost every American has known Germans or the folk of German stock in his own community, and I defy anybody to say that any all-embracing evil trait or characteristic ran through these folk.

“Let’s go back to our own experience. The Germans have been good citizens, and likewise the Italians, the Irish and the Greeks. This is a short column. I can’t name all the nationalities gathered here under one roof. I am merely pleading for a clear understanding of the undeniable fact that guilt is a personal thing and that Edmund Burke was eternally right when he said it was impossible and outrageous to indict an entire nation.”