Letters from Vienna #40
1940
On 21st October 1940 Victor Klemperer wrote: “New coercive measure against Jews: Use of the lending libraries is also forbidden. Two years after the ban on public libraries. Why? Out of fear, to prevent any contact between people with critical minds.”[1] During the last lockdown in Vienna I too was forbidden from visiting the local library; most probably for the very same reason; history is repeating itself. The restrictions, although officially over, remain very much in place. Thus, it wasn’t possible for me to visit a gallery yesterday or to go to one of my favourite cafés: Bräunerhof.
In 1940 Victor Klemperer was on the constant look-out for information about what was actually going on both at home and abroad. In March he wrote: “The most unanswerable and at the same time decisive riddle is the mood of the people. What does it believe? Everyone grumbles and rants. But I think most are patient and trust what they’ve been indoctrinated into thinking.”[2] This is most definitely the case of Austria now. Most either believe the nonsense or are simply trying to muddle through. Some are doing so by hook or by crook, faking the odd test here or there or buying a fake immunity pass but most are conforming, with tearful consequences: the promised “freedom” they so dearly desire eludes them. The problem is: the willingness to conform and the ability to muddle through makes one less willing to protest.
The fact that the censorship was so appalling in 1940 didn’t help Klemperer learn much. In January he wrote: “Daily prison convictions for listening to enemy radio. Reason: The nation must be protected from corrosive and poisonous lies. Now, in the course of the “struggle for freedom”, the death penalty is being threatened for the same offence.”[3] I can’t help but think of the “Fact Checkers”, current censorship of RT, bans on Social Media, warnings of “dangerous content”, and pending threats of fines or imprisonment for “fake news”. It’s only a question of time before people are publicly beheaded for telling the truth.
The confusion resulted in rumours. In July 1940 “fake news” circulated that the British government had either fallen or fled. It turned out to be inaccurate but Klemperer couldn’t know that at the time.[4]
What he most definitely didn’t know was that, in 1940, the war, and history, could easily have taken a completely different turn. “If there is a sense of reality,” Robert Musil once opined “there must also be a sense of possibility.”
In November 1939 the Russians had attacked Finland and in February 1940 the British and French decided to intervene: “The first intervention plan, approved on 4–5 February 1940 by the Allied High Command, consisted of 100,000 British and 35,000 French troops that were to disembark at the Norwegian port of Narvik and support Finland via Sweden while securing supply routes along the way. Plans were made to launch the operation on 20 March under the condition of a formal request for assistance from the Finnish government…On 2 March, transit rights were officially requested from the governments of Norway and Sweden…”[5]
Simultaneously the French were planning an attack on the Caucasus.[6] What makes this affair all the more interesting is the fact that the French had long been preparing for it.
Kai Moltke wrote: “In July 1930 a special school was opened in the French capital, an officers’ academy for the training of White Guard Russian émigrés in military sciences. The funds for this had been raised by a number of Europe’s greatest financial magnates, and significantly enough the Anglo-Dutch petroleum king Henri Deterding gave the opening address. He explained: “You have to rely on yourself. You must remember that all your work and activity will take place on the Russian soil of your fathers. The hope that Russia – now suffering a national calamity – will soon be liberated is growing and growing stronger by the day. The hour of the liberation of your fatherland is at hand. The liberation of Russia will take place much sooner than everyone believes. It may only be a matter of months.””[7]
The only thing which prevented the attack in 1940 was the Finnish plea for an armistice a week before the planned intervention. Had the British and French attacked the war would have taken on a completely different course and the Germans and Russians most probably (if Halford Mackinder is to be believed) have won.
On the 11th of May Klemperer noted: “Yesterday, May 10th… “at dawn” began the offensive through Holland and Belgium. Of course, the “counterattack” to “intercept the enemy intrusion at the last hour”, the entire “presentation”, Hitler’s appeal to the famous “thousand years”, his taking over of the command of operations (!) shows that everything is now being decided. If he doesn’t win (even if he draws), he falls.”[8]
A few days later he wrote: “After the initial successes (Liège, North Holland), I no longer consider it impossible that Hitler will be in London by August 1st.”[9]
Why exactly Hitler didn’t take London but rather sent his tanks east, as Klemperer subsequently learned, is a long and complicated question and one which needs to be reserved for a later letter.
[1]p.558 Victor Klemperer Tagebücher 1933-1941
[2]p.512 Ibid
[3]p.511 Ibid
[4]p.538 Ibid
[5]https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Franco-British_plans_for_intervention_in_the_Winter_War
[6]p.38 Kai Moltke, Krämer des Krieges
[7]p.38 Ibid
[8]p.524 Victor Klemperer Tagebücher 1933-1941
[9]p.524 Ibid