Today, many countries conquered by the Nazis share, more or less, the same fate. How could it happen that the majority of European nations came, directly or indirectly, under the heel of German occupation or domination? German military preparedness, technical superiority, brute force or threats of using it, may explain the present situation to a certain extent only. The fact remains that the Germans were allowed to choose their victims. one by one. the idea of collective security having fallen into complete bankruptcy.
There was consequently no collective action against aggression, no common front against the common enemy. When Poland was attacked, her allies Great Britain and France declared war' on Gefmany, but they could not act efficiently at that time, owing to their own unpreparedness and to the attitude of other European states. The latter remained neutral, thinking that they would be spared by the aggressors, Neutrality observed in face of flagrant aggression offers, in fact, to the aggressor a physical and moral encouragement. And yet neutrality ras considered—erronously, of course—to be the best tactics to avoid war. But the Germans soon discovered that a neutrality which refuses to yield without restrictions to all their orders ceases to be "true" neutrality. and the neutral countries have—been -in their turn invaded, one after another, in spite of all previous agreements, promises and solemn declarations of the Fuehrer.
Not long ago, the Germans were playing the part of peaceful poor victims having one claim only: the abolition of the treaty of Versailles which in fact was never strictly enforced, otherwise the Germans would not have become again a danger to humanity. At present, they are throwing off the mask, claiming the "leadership" in Europe.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.