Hitler and his God

The Beginning of the World War II (1 September 1939)

*Poland*. It had been Hitler’s steadfast intention to conquer Russia since the time he wrote Mein Kampf. To get there, however, he had to close the geographical gap which separated that country from Germany, for in between lay Czechoslovakia and Poland. Of Czechoslovakia he had made quick work, brashly and unhindered. Now, to invade Poland, he needed the compliance of Stalin – which means that to attack Stalin in the long term he had to befriend him in the short term.

A Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and Russia was concluded on 23 August, just in time to make the Polish invasion roll off as planned. This was perhaps the most cynical treaty in modern history, and a perfect illustration of Hitler’s theories about the moral value of the relations between nations. For one of the main points of the Nazi doctrine and propaganda had been throughout that it was the aim of the Third Reich to obliterate Judeo-Bolshevism; on the other hand, for the Russians and for the Communist Parties all over the world Nazism represented the acme of imperialistic capitalism and was their much maligned enemy. Yet, after the news of the Non-Aggression Pact had struck them for a short while with complete consternation, the faithful in both blocs dapperly toed the party line again.

Sri Aurobindo will observe that “Hitler is getting remarkable inspiration from his Asura. He doesn’t go by reason but only by the voice. He considers all possibilities and when he fixes on something he goes ahead. Only, he did not foresee the British and French intervention on behalf of Poland.” 1114 Indeed, the patience of the British and French Allies, and therewith the attitude of “appeasement”, had worn out. By now Chamberlain understood – and his government colleagues as well as the House of Commons had made him understand – that Hitler had tricked him. Great Britain and France both warned Hitler that this time they would not take any further aggressive action lying down. On 2 September they warned him by ultimatum that he had to withdraw his invasion force by 11 am the next day, or that their countries would be at war with Germany.

Paul Schmidt, Hitler’s official interpreter, was present when the Führer received this news in the company of Joachim von Ribbentrop, his Foreign Minister. “When I entered the room Hitler was sitting at his desk and Ribbentrop stood by the window. Both looked up expectantly as I came in. [Schmidt had been handed the ultimatum by the British Ambassador.] I stopped at some distance from Hitler’s desk, and then slowly translated the British ultimatum. When I finished there was complete silence. Hitler sat immobile, gazing before him … After an interval which seemed an age he turned to Ribbentrop, who had remained standing by the window. ‘What now?’ asked Hitler with a savage look, as though implying that his Foreign Minister had misled him about England’s probable reaction. Ribbentrop answered quietly: ‘I assume that the French will hand in a similar ultimatum within the hour’.” 1115

“Yes, he is getting remarkable guidance from his Asura”, said Sri Aurobindo on another occasion. “Sometimes the Asuras have an extraordinary foresight that comes true with perfect precision both on the vital and subtle-vital planes, just like that which is possible on the spiritual planes. Of course they are not always infallible. But Hitler committed only one mistake: when attacking Poland he thought that the Allies would not intervene. Napoleon did not have such guidance.” 1116 This was how, on the Western front, “the phoney war” began, both sides occupying their positions from the North Sea to Switzerland, making loud propagandistic noises, watching each other through their binoculars, playing football, and shouting insults at each other. Then, on 10 May 1940, the Sitzkrieg (sitting war) turned into a Blitzkrieg (lightning war), when Hitler troops invaded the Netherlands, Luxemburg, Belgium and France.

Dunkirk. Hitler started this phase of his war with a daring manoeuvre: he attacked the Allied armies (Belgian, French and the British Expeditionary Force) at the one point which they had thought to be impracticable: through the Belgian wooded hills of the Ardennes. His inner guidance was again working wonders, also in the way he had fully supported the innovative ideas of his tank commanders. His strategy cut off the enemy armies in Belgium and the north of France, together more than a million men. The Belgians, under their enigmatic king Leopold III, soon surrendered, following the example of the Dutch. Suddenly the British Expeditionary Force, along with three French armies, found itself trapped and had to make the life-or-death effort of retreating posthaste towards Dunkirk, France’s third biggest port.

When the retreating armies were completely encircled, Hitler gave the order to his tank divisions to stop. “That evening [of 24 May] four Panzer divisions were stopped at the AA Canal. The tank crews were astounded. No fire was coming from the opposite bank. Beyond they could make out the peaceful spires of Dunkirk. Had Operations gone crazy? The division commanders were even more amazed. They knew they could take Dunkirk with little trouble since the British were still heavily engaged near Lille. Why weren’t they allowed to seize the last escape port to England?” 1117

This Hitler order is briskly discussed to the present day and every historian has his own explanation. Hitler had special consideration for the British, who mainly consisted of tribes as Aryan as the Germans, and he wanted to gain their cooperation by sparing the encircled troops; he doubted that the tanks would be effective in a landscape cut by rivers and canals; the troops were tired and needed a rest; he feared an attack by the French on his southern flank; his military campaign had gone so well that he became nervous and feared it might turn sour; etc.

Given the military situation, with the hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers inescapably trapped, and the fact that for Great Britain the continuation of the war depended on these troops, the real reason of Hitler’s decision – possibly combined with one or other of the elements aforementioned – may have been Göring’s eagerness and promise to pulverize the enemy armies, amassed in the harbour and on the beaches, with his Luftwaffe. Göring wanted his share in a victory which was driving the Germans wild with pride. If the Luftwaffe did the job, the tanks could be spared for the decisive turn towards the south and Paris. And it may have given Hitler great pleasure to visualize the bloody pulp to which his airplanes would reduce the helpless troops on the beaches. For from this time onward he was convinced that he was the master of the world – and the world better take notice.

When some troops of the BEF began to escape, Hitler realized that he had blundered and ordered the ground attack to restart on 26 May. This had given the Allies, commanded by the French Admiral Abrial, the time to organize a perimeter which they defended with heroism. Then, when Operation Dynamo took off, the transport of thousands of soldiers by a fleet of vessels ranging from battle cruisers to small fishing and pleasure boats, something troubling for the Germans happened: their relentless aerial pounding of the Allies came at times practically to a standstill.

Survivors of the Operation as well as historians agree that the weather in those days was splendid: the sun shone in a blue sky and the sea was “like glass” – luckily, for otherwise the soldiers, who had to wade through the water from the beach toward the vessels, would never have been able to embark. There was however another weather factor in play, this one preventing the German bomber planes from taking off because the airfields were covered with fog. “Fog came to the rescue of the British. Not only was Dunkirk itself enshrouded but all the Luftwaffe fields were blanketed by low clouds which grounded their three thousand bombers.” (Toland 1118) Reuth and Kershaw too mention “the bad weather”, which can only have been prevalent inland; and Shirer quotes from the diary of the German General Halder: “The pocket would have been closed at the coast if only our armour had not been held back. The bad weather has grounded the Luftwaffe and we must now stand by and watch countless thousands of the enemy get away to England right under our noses.” 1119

As soon as Belgium had surrendered, Sri Aurobindo, who closely kept track of the developments, commented: “The surrender means that Dunkirk – and also Calais – will fall to Germany … There is no way out for [the BEF] unless Dunkirk can hold on or they can rush through the gap from the French line … Ostend [a Belgian port town] was in the hands of the Belgian army. By their surrender Dunkirk will be vulnerable unless [the Allies] have sufficient troops there to defend it. Now escape also is difficult. They may try to dash through the gap and line up with the French on the Somme. Otherwise I don’t see any way.” 1120

On 30 May, when Operation Dynamo was in full swing, a disciple observed: “Dunkirk is still in the hands of the Allies … It will be a great feat if they can escape.” Sri Aurobindo answered: “Yes, it can be called a great military feat.” The next day Sri Aurobindo himself opened the talk with some relish by referring to the evacuation of the Allied troops: “So they are getting away from Dunkirk!” A disciple remarked: “Yes. It seems the fog helped the evacuation.” Sri Aurobindo: “Yes. Fog is rather unusual at this time …” According to Nirodbaran, who recorded these conversations, Sri Aurobindo’s tone seemed to insinuate that the fog was caused by occult intervention. 1121 The evacuation continued till 4 June, when the Germans finally succeeded in occupying the town of Dunkirk. Altogether 338 226 men were evacuated, of whom 123 095 were French and 16 816 Belgian. 1122 “If the British Expeditionary Force had been lost, it is almost inconceivable that Churchill would have survived the growing pressure from those powerful forces within Britain that were ready to seek terms with Hitler.” 1123

Sri Aurobindo would later write about himself, once more in the third person: “Inwardly he put his spiritual force behind the Allies from the moment of Dunkirk when everybody was expecting the immediate fall of England and the definite triumph of Hitler, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the rush of German victory almost immediately arrested and the tide of war began to turn in the opposite direction. This he did because he saw that behind Hitler and Nazism were dark Asuric forces and that their success would mean the enslavement of mankind to the tyranny of evil, and a set-back to the course of evolution and especially to the spiritual evolution of mankind …” 1124 A few days after what has come to be named “the miracle of Dunkirk” he said: “If England can win against the Germans, it would mean that she is specially protected”; and in December of the same year: “[The British] were saved by divine intervention … They would have been smashed if Hitler had invaded England at the right time, just after the fall of France.” 1125

It is noteworthy that Sri Aurobindo said on 20 June, i.e. before Hitler’s western campaign was concluded: “I think the next war will be between Russia and Germany.” 1126 (In March, before the Blitzkrieg, he had already opined: “Hitler is the great danger to Russia.”) Hitler had his first meeting about the invasion with some of his top generals on 31 July, and made his intentions known to attack Russia in the spring of the following year. 1127 Toland describes how Field Marshall von Brauchitsch instructed his military staff, to their astonishment, to prepare the plans for what would become Operation Barbarossa.

Churchill. Hitler did not invade England and neither did Great Britain collapse, as was generally expected. The reason was one man: Winston Churchill, who had become Prime Minister on 10 May, the very day of the German attack. “In Churchill Hitler found something more than an antagonist. To a panic-stricken Europe the German dictator had appeared almost like invincible fate. Churchill reduced him to a conquerable power”, writes Fest. 1128 Before the invasion of France Sri Aurobindo had already said in passing: “England is quite unreliable under her present leadership” 1129, and that he and the Mother were looking for a suitable person. If the Asura had his instrument in one camp, the White Forces needed theirs in the opposite camp once their decision had been taken to actively engage in the battle.

It is now mostly forgotten what a chancy affair the coming to power of Winston Churchill actually was. For he was generally considered to be an adventurer, responsible for the debacles of Gallipoli in the First World War and recently, as the First Sea Lord, for the British misadventure in Norway. Besides, his dogged attitude of unconditional defiance toward Nazi Germany ran contrary to a widespread spirit which felt very much inclined to give in and ask for a peace settlement – which Hitler would have been delighted to accept. Hitler seems to have felt instinctively that Churchill would be the big obstacle for the realization of his plans and hated him wholeheartedly. He called him “an incompetent, alcoholic demagogue”, “a Yid-ridden half-American souse”, “a political whore”, “a characterless pig”, and much more of the kind.

Was Churchill aware of the spiritual support provided to him? In the House of Commons he said on 13 October 1942: “I sometimes have a feeling, in fact I have it very strongly, a feeling of interference. I want to stress that I have a feeling sometimes that some guiding hand has interfered. I have the feeling that we have a guardian because we serve a great cause, and that we shall have that guardian so long as we serve that cause faithfully. And what cause it is!” 1130 The greatness of the cause often echoed in his speeches, which at times took on Aurobindonian accents: “You ask: What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory … for without victory, there is no survival … no survival for the urge and impulse of the ages, that mankind will move forwards to its goal.” “Behind them – behind us – behind the armies and fleets of Britain and France – gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races … upon all of whom the long night of barbarism will descend …” “If we can stand up to [Hitler], all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world … will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age …” “… I will say that he must indeed have a blind soul who cannot see that some great purpose and design is being worked out here below, of which we have the honour to be the faithful servants.” 1131

Sri Aurobindo found Churchill’s Ministry of National Cooperation “a remarkable Ministry”. The British spirit of resistance, awakened by Churchill despite the desperate situation, had “removed many dangers”. Even before the French armistice on 22 June 1940, when everybody expected that Hitler, following up on his successes, would cross over to England, Sri Aurobindo said: “I don’t think an invasion is likely or possible”, and a few days later: “I don’t think any attack [on England] is likely now … No, Hitler won’t attack …” After the armistice with France, when an invasion was thought to be imminent, Sri Aurobindo again weighed the chances and concluded: “Nobody knows what [Hitler] has up his sleeve, but I don’t think that he can attack … He never considers possibilities. If he gets the right inspiration, possibilities don’t matter … All through he has been guided by inspiration and he has gone ahead depending on luck. Regarding France, Poland and all other countries he had set out a plan beforehand and carried it out, but regarding England nobody knows what he has. He has a most original mind, because it is not his own mind.” 1132 Hitler set several dates for Operation Sea Lion in which the German forces would cross the Channel – but the attack, indeed, never happened.

Operation Sea Lion had to be preceded by an intensive action of Göring’s Luftwaffe, which had to annihilate the RAF fighter force together with its bases. Hitler had blamed Göring for the evacuation of the BEF, which the Luftwaffe had not been able to prevent; this was Göring’s chance to redeem himself. For Operation Adlerangriff (eagle attack) – which would develop into “the Battle of Britain”, the first air battle in history – he used everything at his disposal: 1039 fighters, 998 bombers and 316 dive-bombers. The odds were, as Churchill would recollect later, “seven or eight to one”.

A few weeks before the attacks, one of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples had asked: “Why does Hitler say that he wants to finish this campaign by 15 August?” Sri Aurobindo had answered: “That is a clear indication, if an indication was necessary, that he is the enemy of our work.” 1133 15 August was Sri Aurobindo’s birthday. Did Hitler ever say such a thing? In Shirer’s The Nightmare Years we find the following: “On June 11, I had lunch at the Adlon [a hotel in Berlin] with Karl von Wiegand, the veteran Hearst correspondent, who was just back from interviewing Hitler at the front. The dictator had told him France would be finished by the middle of the month – four days from now! – and Great Britain by the middle of August – two months hence. Karl … said Hitler acted as if he had the world at his feet.” A few pages further on, Shirer writes: “Making my rounds in the Wilhelmstrasse on August 1, I had taken two bets from Nazi officials: one, that the swastika would be flying over Trafalgar Square by August 15; the other, by September 7. I bet no.”

Finally 15 August had come, and Shirer remembered: “Already excitement among our military guides was mounting. Coming into Calais from Dunkirk they had begun dropping hints that this day, Thursday, August 15, 1940, might be a historic one. The Luftwaffe might be carrying out, if the weather held, its most murderous attack yet against Britain. As it turned out, August 15 saw the biggest engagement of the Battle of Britain, with more planes in action than had ever been seen before. The Luftwaffe flew 1950 sorties, the RAF [Royal Air Force] nearly a thousand, as they joined battle over a front of five hundred miles. It was one of the decisive battles of history and, along with a similar one exactly a month later, on September 15, determined the fate of Britain and indeed of Nazi Germany.” 1134 The RAF won.

In spite of this victory the situation remained very dark for Great Britain and any other leader but Churchill might have given in to the apparently hopeless situation. Britain had to stand up alone against a powerful and euphorically victorious enemy; it was bereft of most of its heavy military equipment, which the BEF had had to leave behind on the continent; and countless strategic problems were worsening day by day in its enormous empire in the East. Moreover, the British public, now heavily bombed in London and other places in the south of the country, had heard only bad news without a single ray of hope; and the military assistance of the United States remained uncertain because Roosevelt had to fight his internal political battles. Yet Churchill never vacillated, at least not in public, at a time when Hitler was “sprawled over Europe” and Great Britain had “the honour to be the sole champion of the liberties of Europe”. “If England can hold on for one year at least, or two winters, there is a chance”, said Sri Aurobindo. 1135

The humiliation of France. The armistice between Germany and France was signed on 22 June 1940 at Compiègne. Hitler had staged the most humiliating ceremony possible, demanding that the signing take place at the exact spot where Germany had surrendered in 1918 and in the self-same railway car, which had been taken from a museum in Paris. Sri Aurobindo had already warned that Marshall Pétain was dangerous at the time that he became a member of the French war cabinet. Now he said, not mincing his words: “This fool of a Marshal Pétain has sold France,” and “Pétain has killed the Revolution – the Revolution which had required three more revolutions to make it firm and established.” 1136 We know how essential Sri Aurobindo considered the ideals of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution for the future development of humanity, and how Hitler and Nazism represented the exact opposite.

“Hitler will see to it that France has no power to rise again … France will be terribly impoverished”, said Sri Aurobindo. 1137 This was exactly what happened, although Pétain and his fascist collaborators thought they would be able to spare their country from Hitler’s unspeakable contempt and greed. France was cut up into five parts. Alsace-Lorraine became once again German territory; the north of the country was joined with Belgium into a kind of temporary protectorate which in due time would also be incorporated into Greater Germany; the Atlantic coast with its precious ports and their hinterland were occupied; “Vichy France” became so to speak independent under an own government; a fifth part, in the south, was occupied by Italy as its share of the spoils. Hitler had realized the Kriegsziele (war aims) of World War I, and much more. In his mind there was never any doubt that France was there to be used, abused, and sucked dry. If he let Vichy France exist for the time being, it was only because he was too busy elsewhere and would be less distracted while others took care of it for the time being. As Robert Paxton puts it: “It was Pétain who wanted collaboration; Hitler wanted only booty.” 1138

Sri Aurobindo feared that Hitler would want to destroy Paris. “Paris has been the centre of human civilization for three centuries. Now he will destroy it. That is the sign of the Asura. History is repeating itself. The Graeco-Roman civilization was also destroyed by the Germans … It is not likely that Germany will preserve [Paris]. Destruction of Paris means the destruction of modern European civilization.” 1139 Knowledgeable people tell us that Sri Aurobindo saw correctly.

Speer quotes Hitler as saying: “In the past I often considered whether we would not have to destroy Paris.” “Although I was accustomed to hearing Hitler make impulsive remarks”, writes Speer, “I was nevertheless shocked by this cool display of vandalism. He had reacted in a similar fashion to the destruction of Warsaw.” 1140 Hanfstängl testifies to the fact that the destruction of Paris was a kind of obsession with Hitler. “‘We shall reach the decision in France’, Hitler screamed. ‘We will reduce Paris to rubble. We must break the chains of Versailles.’ Oh! my God, I thought, Paris in ruins, the Louvre, all those art treasures gone. Each time Hitler got into this mood I felt almost physically sick.” 1141 And Fest writes in Der Untergang: “According to a report by Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff, Hitler had already during the campaign against Poland insisted on the bombing of Warsaw, which was about to surrender, and found excitement in watching the destruction through his field glasses; later he had considered the destruction of Paris, and also of Moscow and Leningrad …” 1142

The order for the destruction of Paris was finally given after the Allied invasion in Normandy, and is printed with all references in Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. It read: “Paris must not fall in the hands of the enemy, or, if it does he must find there nothing but a field of ruins.” And the authors write that the day after the liberation of the cultural metropolis of the world “every Parisian looking out of his window on that night could gaze at one of the wonders of the war: Paris was unharmed … All those peerless monuments which had made the city into a beacon of civilized man, had up to that day stood undamaged through five years of the most destructive war in history.” 1143

A fifty per cent chance. After the Battle of Britain had been fought and won by the British, Sri Aurobindo still gave Hitler an even chance of success. “It is only the British navy that stands against Hitler’s world domination … He is practically master of Europe. If after the collapse of France he had invaded England, by now he would have been in Asia. Now another force has been set up against him. Still the danger has not passed. He has a fifty per cent chance of success. It is a question of balance of forces. Up to the time of the collapse of France he was extraordinarily successful because he sided with the Asuric Power behind him from which he received remarkably correct messages.” 1144

Sri Aurobindo was not the only one who thought the scales were evenly balanced. Thomas Mann was of the same opinion in May 1941. John Lukacs writes that “in 1940 and 1941 Hitler came close to winning the war”. 1145 And H.R. Trevor-Roper said in a conversation with Ron Rosenbaum: “The fact is he nearly won the war. It was by a whisker he didn’t.” 1146 We find this opinion similarly worded in Sri Aurobindo’s “postscript chapter” to his Ideal of Human Unity: “[The Germans] came for a time within a hair’s breadth of success”. 1147

A disciple said to Sri Aurobindo: “Gandhi writes that the non-violence tried by some people in Germany has failed because it has not been strong enough to generate sufficient heat to melt Hitler’s heart.” To this Sri Aurobindo answered: “It would have to be a furnace in that case. The only way to melt his heart is to bomb it out of existence.” 1148 This was before the war, when Sri Aurobindo also reflected: “There is no chance for the world unless something happens in Germany or else Hitler and Stalin quarrel. But there is no such likelihood at present.” 1149 The Non-Agression Pact between Germany and Russia still continued to be honoured. After the French surrender, Sri Aurobindo expressed his opinion trenchantly: “Hitler now becomes the master of Europe … Now only Hitler’s death can save the situation.” 1150

When the world situation had become critical, Sri Aurobindo said: “It is only the British navy that stands against Hitler’s world domination.” 1151 In fact, the only positive news in those dark months had been some gallant actions by the Navy, for instance in the Atlantic the battle with the Graf Spee, which had resulted in the scuttling of the “pocket battle ship” and the suicide of its captain. When France surrendered, there was an imminent danger that the French fleet, the second in the world, would fall into Hitler’s hands. Day by day Sri Aurobindo paid full attention to the development of the situation. “If the French navy falls into [Hitler’s] hands, he will become tremendously strong … If Pétain surrenders the navy and the colonies nothing can be more shameful and more disastrous … The situation won’t be safe if the French fleet falls into [Hitler’s] hands …” 1152 “Article 8 of the Armistice prescribed that the French Fleet … ‘shall be collected in ports to be specified and there demobilised and disarmed under German or Italian control”, writes Churchill. “But who in his senses would trust the word of Hitler after his shameful record and the facts of the hour? … The life of the State and the salvation of our cause were at stake.” 1153

Part of the French fleet, including the ultra-modern battle-cruisers Dunkerque and Strasbourg, was anchored at Mers-el-Kebir, the military harbour of Oran. Great Britain gave the admiral in charge three options: (a) join the British and continue to fight for victory against the Axis; (b) transfer the ships under control to a British port; (c) sail the ships under reduced crews to some French port in the West Indies, where they will be demilitarized and the crews repatriated. If he refused this offer, his ships would be sunk within six hours. The Admiral did refuse and on 3 July most of the ships were sunk or damaged beyond repair, with the loss of 1250 lives.

“The elimination of the French Navy as an important factor almost at a single stroke by violent action produced a profound impression in every country”, writes Churchill. “Here was this Britain which so many had counted down and out, which strangers had supposed to be quivering on the brink of surrender to the mighty power arrayed against her, striking ruthlessly at her dearest friends of yesterday and securing for a while to herself the undisputed command of the sea. It was made plain that the British War Cabinet feared nothing and would stop at nothing. This was true.” 1154

But Britain remained “at bay” for quite some time and its leaders really did have little else to offer to the population than “blood, toil, tears and sweat”. Military catastrophes came in quick succession: North Africa, Greece, Crete … “On the map the sum of Hitler’s conquests by September 1942 looked staggering. The Mediterranean had become practically an Axis lake, with Germany and Italy holding most of the northern shore from Spain to Turkey and the southern shore from Tunisia to within sixty miles of the Nile. In fact, German troops now stood guard from the Norwegian North Cape on the Arctic Ocean to Egypt, from the Atlantic at Brest to the southern reaches of the Volga River on the border of Central Asia.” (William Shirer 1155)

Sri Aurobindo had hoped that Great Britain would be able to hold out for a year or two winters; it did hold out and it was indeed in the second winter that the tide turned. “Operation Torch”, the Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, took place on 7/8 November 1942, just after Rommel and his Afrika Korps had had to retreat from El Alamein. When Stalingrad fell, on 31 January, the war was practically decided, for now the Red Army attained its full fighting capacity and the United States, shocked by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, had entered the war on the side of the Allies. That from that time onward the outcome was certain, we know now; then, however, fighting raged all over the globe, continuing to cause suffering, destruction and death apparently without end.