Austin J. App: History's Most Terrifying Peace, Part 1/2
[Der Weg 1947-04] An Original Translation of "Ein gerechter Frieden!"
Title: A Just Peace! [de: Ein gerechter Frieden!]
Author(s): Austin J. App
“Der Weg” Issue: Year 1, Issue 4 (September 1947)
Page(s): 265
Dan Rouse’s Note(s):
Der Weg - El Sendero is a German and Spanish language magazine published by Dürer-Verlag in Buenos-Aires, Argentina by Germans with connections to the defeated Third Reich.
Der Weg ran monthly issues from 1947 to 1957, with official sanction from Juan Perón’s Government until his overthrow in September 1955.
Austin J. App Tribute by the IHR and FBI FOIA files. As this text is originally published in English in America, I have provided the original and not a back-translated version.
Source Document(s):
[LINK] Scans of 1947 Der Weg Issues (archive.org)
[LINK] The Most Terrifying Peace in History (archive.org)
[LINK] Der erschreckendste friede der geschichte (archive.org)
[LINK] The Atlantic Charter
Austin J. App: A Just Peace!
The Editor: Concerning the obligation of the victorious nations to establish a just peace, the distinguished North American university professor Austin J. App writes in his book The Most Terrifying Peace in History:
Chapter III: Justice is One - For the Victor and Vanquished
What are the duties of the victors and the rights of the Germans? Justice—nothing more or less than justice. What is the justice which the Allies must create and grant? They must impose a peace that is honestly and sincerely, without equivocations, an Atlantic Charter peace. This Charter, declared by Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill before we were in the war, was pledged by all the thirty-three United Nations, on January 1, 1942, and has since been reaffirmed in the Yalta Agreement. Consequently its principles have been recognized by all the victors as the principles of justice. The Allies therefore, to the extent of the Charter at least, know what justice is. God demands justice of them. Every man must demand justice of everybody and for everybody. Justice is everybody’s business. That means the Germans, though they cannot and may not kill to get it, must demand it. It means that it is particularly the duty of the victors, who have the power and who are on their honor, to see that justice is done—impartially.
According to the Atlantic Charter, the United Nation’s manifesto of justice, the rights of the Germans (and of the Japanese and of the Italians and Hungarians and Finns) are that none of their lands be taken from them without
“the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned”;
that they may not be split into different countries if they want to be united; that they may
“choose the form of government under which they will live”;
that they be given
“access, on equal terms, to the trade and raw materials of the world which are needed for their economic prosperity,”
which means that they may not be deindustrialized but must rather be helped to greater economic, agricultural, and industrial prosperity, that they may
“traverse the high seas and oceans without hindrance”
and may therefore build what ships they need; and that their disarmament may not be forever unilateral but must be merely the first step towards the reduction of armaments of all nations,
“pending the establishment of a wider and permanent system of general security.”
These are the principles all the United Nations have pledged themselves to establish should they win. They have won. They are now on their honor to fulfil their pledges. In so far as they are just, these principles and pledges are not merely the charitable hope but the inalienable right of the Germans (and Japanese and Italians), because justice is the duty and the right of all peoples. Justice is one—for victors and vanquished.
The Editor: We draw forth several additional passages that align with the demands expressed:
Chapter XII: American War Reasoning - 1941-46
If an American who bombed Rome is a hero, isn't a German boy who bombed London also a hero? […]
If the Germans who refused to fight were admirable “patriots,” weren't Americans who refused to fight also admirable patriots? Or do we have one brand of patriotism for Germans and another brand for the Anglo-American “superrace”? […]
If Hitler was to have been hanged for attacking Poland to get Danzig back, why must not Stalin also be hanged for attacking Finland to get the Karelian territory? […]
If it is our noble responsibility to declare the Koreans independent from Japan, why isn’t it also our noble responsibility to declare the Indians and the Burmese and the Malayans independent from Britain, and the Javanese and Sumatrans independent from the Dutch? […]
If, because we are the strongest nation in the Western Hemisphere, we have the right to declare a Monroe Doctrine over this hemisphere, does not Japan, because she is the strongest nation in East Asia, have the right to declare a Monroe Doctrine for East Asia (Great East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere)? If not, why not? […]
If we had a right to put American citizens into concentration or relocation camps merely because they had Japanese blood in them, did not Germany have the right to put German citizens into concentration camps merely because they had Jewish blood in them? […]
If we had a right to refuse peace to the German people until and unless they revolted from their national socialistic government, would the Germans have had the right to refuse peace to the Russians until they had revolted from their communistic government and to the English until they had revolted from their monarchistic government and to us Americans until we had revolted from our New Deal government? […]
If it took one of our “peace-loving” allies of 1918, Italy, that helped us dictate the Versailles peace to the Germans, only about twenty years to become a “wicked” aggressor nation, how long will it take this time for one of the “peace-loving” Big Four, dictating this second peace, to change from a lamb to a wolf?