EUROPE UNDER HITLER

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 801, 26 November 1954, Page 12

EUROPE UNDER HITLER

SURVEY OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 1939- Te aoe ee p bdearaihe, ord by Arnold and DOC MENTS ON 4 1939-1946, Vol. 2--HITLER’S EUROPE, edited by ‘Margaret Carlyle. Both ublished by Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, English prices 63/+ and 38/-. HESE companion volumes are notable additions to the formidable series of books in which Chatham House is disentangling the course of recent

world history. The authors of the Sure vey are well chosen and, despite its bulk and detail, it makes fascinating reading. The volume as a whole presents. the drama of a spectacular empire, which was never so securely based as outwardly appeared, and which collapsed in utter ruin after a few years of glory. In the occupied countries, too, there was the tragedy of the resistance movements, heroic, but only too often frustrated by the power of the Germans, by the powerlessness or suspicions of the Allies, and at times by their own over-playing of a difficult hand. Their contribution to the spiritual life of their countries was of precious value, but at a human cost terrible to tontemplate. The overall] impression remains one of disappointment that, in spite of high hopes and sustained heroism of the wartime years, we should have fashioned no better a world than that of the 1950s. The Documents are well chosen and build out the picture vividly. Two phrases caught the eye of a hurried reader: the German direction of 1941 "whatever the particular circumstances, every case of resistance to the German occupation forces must be treated as due to Communism," followed by the murderous direction that the death of fifty to one hundred Communists would be suitable atonement for the killing of each German. The second is General Eisenhower's remark of 1942 that "existing French sentiment in North Africa does not evén remotely resemble prior calculations," To those who believe that accurate knowledge will help politicians towards wise action these volumes will be a powerful aid, With them, as with other companion volumes, there is an important condition; the recollection that for all the learning and balance and humanity here embodied, it is still necessary to check interpretations and seek supplementary facts from additional sources.

F. L. W.

Wood