The road to war as history tells us!
19 марта 2025 в 15:31 5460Moscow - Veterans news. The World Veterans Federation with a focus on veterans and victims of war are very concerned about the recent steps being of rearmament taken from Europe as a preparation for World War 3. Especially when we look at the history 90 years back in time.
Wars do not begin with the invasion of individual countries, but require long-term preparations: Armament, war planning, mobilization of soldiers and, in particular, the ideological atonement of people fwar effort. This could be described with the word “war-ready”.
Hitlers Germany.
90 years ago, in March 1935, Germans began this process in public. Even before 1933, the workers' parties warned: “Whoever votes for Hitler, votes for war!” And indeed, the first meeting of the Hitler-Hugenberg-Papen government, which was appointed on January 30, 1933, was on February 4, 1933, with the Reichswehr leadership, where the Reich Chancellor explained his foreign policy agenda to the military. It meant a revision of the "Treaty of Versailles" and a second bid for world power.
It took another two years for the nazi government to begin openly preparing for war through political terror, the creation of laws and the ideological conformity of German society. After the German Reich had left the League of Nations and announced that it would no longer adhere to the restrictions of the "Treaty of Versailles", Hermann Göring announced at the beginning of March 1935 that from now on there would be a German air force as an additional type of weapon. On March 16, 1935, a law was officially passed establishing general conscription. Even before this, young adults had been prepared for paramilitary service in the labor service. Now these disciplined young adults were prepared for military service. General conscription was regulated in the “Law on the Development of the Armed Forces”, which was translated into administrative action with the “Reich Defense Act” of 21 May 1935. The laws provided for a “peacetime strength” of the Wehrmacht of 550,000 men, which was already five times the military strength authorized by the Treaty of Versailles. However, many more soldiers were needed for the war itself, as a “feasibility study” by the Army Office had already determined in the mid-1920s, which was implemented as a rough outline by 1939.
An “external enemy” had to be used to legitimize the preparations for war. Even the withdrawal of the German Reich from the League of Nations was linked to the demand that Germany wanted “equal rights”, which at the time meant nothing other than that it wanted to be able to arm itself just like other European states.
Fake deals.
The political reaction of the states that could be regarded as guarantors of the "Treaty of Versailles" is significant. Of course, France protested against this step, but only with a written protest, without taking any further action. Great Britain reacted with complete affinity to the German measures. The British Foreign Secretary Samuel Hoare and the German special envoy Joachim von Ribbentrop signed a naval agreement in London on June 18, 1935. The strength ratio of the German and British naval forces was set at a total of 35 to 100. The Hitler government quite rightly interpreted these reactions from the Western powers as carte blanche for further steps in preparation for war. These were fake deals to hide an intention for a coming war.
History repeats itself.
Looking at this development 90 years ago, it becomes clear that expansionist policies and the military enforcement of imperial interests cannot be stopped only when - as on September 1, 1939 - the invasion of the respective countries takes place, but when war planning and preparations for war become obvious. If you follow the current armament rhetoric of EU Commissioner von der Leyen and in one of the last meetings of EU government representatives, you must have the impression that Europe are in a phase in which massive preparations are being made for war. This time it is not called “equality”, but “preventing a Russian attack on Central Europe”, but regardless of all the propagandist bluster, many billions of euros are to be invested in the development of a European war industry, which will of course not be ready to defend itself today or tomorrow, but will develop a military potential by the end of the decade that would be capable of war for expansion to the east. Are we facing a “third grab for world power” or preparing for WW 3, this time under the label of the EU?
In memory of the cruel experiences of the peoples of Europe and the heroic struggle of all parts of the anti-Hitler coalition to militarily crush nazi barbarism, we warns - with a view to the development that began 90 years ago - against today's rearmament plans and a militarization of Europe.
The World Veterans Federation strongly protest against this build-up of a "war-ready» situation which could be seen as a further provocation to escalate an already threatening situation for WW3 which unfortunately may give us more and more veterans and victims of war to take care of.
Mr. Dan Viggo Bergtun Honorary President of the WVF
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