Critics of Winston Churchill have been quick to quote lines from an article entitled “The Truth About Hitler”. ((Available in Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume V Companion Part 3 Documents: The Coming of War, 1936-1939 (London: Heinemann, 1982), 903-904.)) It was originally written in November of 1935 ((Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Vol. 5, Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939 (London: Minerva, 1990), 680.))
and was republished two years later in Great Contemporaries, a book of short biographies. The article was retitled “Hitler and His Choice” for the book’s publication.
The goal of these critics is to discredit Churchill’s image as the lone prophet warning the world about Hitler and give the impression that he once approved of Hitler. These lines have been taken out of context. When “Hitler and His Choice” is read in its entirety along with the reactions from Nazi Germany, it is plain to see that Churchill had no lapse of judgment in his views of the gathering storm.
A Critic’s Misuse: Patrick J. Buchanan
One current vocal critic of Churchill, Patrick J. Buchanan, quotes portions of “Hitler and His Choice” in the book Churchill, Hitler, and the “Unnecessary War”. Buchanan dedicates several pages to the reactions of British politicians toward Hitler’s military occupation of the Rhineland (Western Germany) in March of 1936.
To review Churchill’s reaction, Buchanan quotes Churchill’s article.
In 1937, three years after the Night of the Long Knives murders of Roehm and his SA henchmen, two years after the Nuremberg Laws had been imposed on the Jews, one year after Hitler marched into the Rhineland, Churchill published Great Contemporaries. He included in it his 1935 essay “Hitler and His Choice.” ((Patrick J. Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War” (New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2008), 173.))
Notice that Buchanan lists events that took place before 1937 to somehow implicate Churchill’s ignorance toward the seriousness of Hitler. To follow Buchanan’s logic, the reader must consider all the events that took place before 1937 when Churchill republished the article instead of viewing the article in its original context of 1935. This is especially effective as Buchanan quotes only certain portions of the article.
In this profile, Churchill expresses his “admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled [Hitler] to challenge, defy, conciliate, or overcome, all the authorities or resistances which barred his path.” ((Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, 173.))
Buchanan makes no mention of the preceding pages in which Churchill told the story of Hitler’s rise to power and attributed it to the “lethargy and folly of the French and British Governments” for failing to reduce the grievances suffered by Germany after World War I. ((Winston S. Churchill, Great Contemporaries (London: Fontana, 1937), 213.))
After narrating Hitler’s rise to power, Churchill then examined Hitler’s goals and methods which were to “restore Germany to the height of her power in Europe” and “cure the cruel unemployment that afflicted the people.” ((Churchill, Great Contemporaries, 217.)) Hitler’s method was to employ the people by putting them to work for Germany’s military rearmament. The “whole available energies of Germany were directed to preparations for war” which included factories, barracks, aviation grounds, schools, colleges, and propaganda. ((Churchill, Great Contemporaries, 217.)) While Churchill acknowledged that Hitler’s career had been borne “not only by a passionate love of Germany, but by currents of hatred so intense as to sear the souls of those who swim upon them.” ((Churchill, Great Contemporaries, 218.)) Churchill then pointed to Mein Kampf and Hitler’s hatred of the French, Jews, and communists.
Churchill’s narration of Hitler in 1935 was one full of awe and caution. Churchill was willing to tell of the injustices suffered by Germany and the “lethargy and folly” of European governments after World War I that opened the door for the rise of someone like Hitler, but Churchill was not willing to ignore Hitler’s methods, goals, and hatred.
Buchanan leaves all this out. Instead, he continues to quote other portions of the article:
“Those who have met Herr Hitler face to face,” wrote Churchill, “have found a highly competent, cool, well-informed functionary with an agreeable manner, a disarming smile, and few have been unaffected by a subtle personal magnetism.” Hitler and his Nazis had surely shown “their patriotic ardor and love of country.” ((Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, 173.))
Here, Buchanan cuts and pastes different portions of the article and merges them together. The description of “meeting Hitler face to face” appears three pages after the description of Hitler and his Nazis’ patriotism. Buchanan’s aim is to stream together a series of complimentary sounding descriptions of Hitler that give the impression that Churchill did not understand the seriousness of the man.
After the patriotism quote, Buchanan now skips back four pages in the article to continue the stream of quotes.
Churchill went on to conclude: “We cannot tell whether Hitler will be the man who will once again let loose upon the world another war in which civilisation will irretrievably succumb, or whether he will go down in history as the man who restored honour and peace of mind to the great Germanic nation. . . . [History] is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim, and even frightful methods but who, nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler.”Churchill concluded his essay on a hopeful note: “We may yet to live to see Hitler a gentler figure in a happier age.” ((Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, 173-174.))
The final quote gives the most damning words directly from Churchill’s mouth when viewed in this context, or lack thereof. However, Churchill had not yet “concluded his essay” with those words. The “hopeful note”, as Buchanan misleads, was followed by cautious note.
Meanwhile, he makes speeches to the nations, which are sometimes characterised by candour and moderation. Recently he has offered many words of reassurance, eagerly lapped up by those who have been so tragically wrong about Germany in the past. Only time can show, but, meanwhile, the great wheels revolve; the rifle, the cannon, the tanks, the shot and shell, the air-bombs, the poison-gas cylinders, the aeroplanes, the submarines, and now the beginnings of a fleet flow in ever-broadening streams from the already largely war-mobilised arsenals and factories of Germany. ((Buchanan, Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”, 219-220.))
The first line of “Hitler and His Choice” sets the tone for the article, “It is not possible to form a just judgment of a public figure who has attained the enormous dimensions of Adolf Hitler until his life work as a whole is before us.” The narration is a reflective one which presents two possible outcomes. Churchill pointed out that there have been those who rose to power in a such a manner as Hitler and eventually did good for their people, but he cannot ignore the build-up for war that was taking place in Germany.
A Final Note on Buchanan’s Cut-and-Paste Method
In order to change the meaning of Churchill’s words, Buchanan has not only skipped around the original text, but he has completely mixed up its order. There are 16 paragraphs in the article. He quotes the paragraphs in the following order: 8, 15, 8, 2, 1, and 15. The reader is led to believe that the quotes are at least in order when Buchanan precedes them with words like “Churchill went on…”
Buchanan claims the quotes paragraphs 2, 1, and 15 are Churchill’s “conclusion”, but the reality is Buchanan left out any mention of the final paragraph and real conclusion.
Reactions to “Hitler and His Choice”
To get an understanding of the effect of Churchill’s words, one must look at the reactions to “Hitler and His Choice” in 1935 and 1937. When the article was first published, the German government complained formally to the British Foreign Office about Churchill’s “personal attack on the Head of the German State.” The magazine containing the article was banned from the country. ((This was noted in a telegram from British Ambassador Eric Phipps sent on October 29, 1935 which was published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Vol. 5, Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939, 680.)) An official at the British Foreign Office noted the next day that “Mr Churchill is making himself very unpopular in Germany.” ((This was noted by British government official in the Foreign Office, Ralph Wigram on October 30, 1935. Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Vol. 5, Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939, 680.))
A few days later, the German Government complained again about the article declaring it an “insult” to Hitler and that it was “hardly to be exceeded” for its offensiveness. ((This was reported by British Ambassador Phipps on October 31, 1935 and published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Vol. 5, Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939, 682.)) Hitler himself asked after reading the article, “What is to be the fate of the Anglo-German naval agreement if the writer of this article is to be the Minister of the British Navy?” ((Again, this was reported by Phipps on November 2, 1935 and published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill: Vol. 5, Prophet of Truth, 1922-1939, 682.))
In 1937, when Churchill planned to republish the article in Great Contemporaries, he sent the article for review by various colleagues. From the British Foreign Office, he was asked “whether republication just now was advisable.” ((Churchill Papers 8/548 and published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume V Companion Part 3 Documents: The Coming of War, 1936-1939, 717.)) The reviewer believed the article would not be “at all palatable to the powers that be in Germany.” ((Churchill Papers 8/548 and published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume V Companion Part 3 Documents: The Coming of War, 1936-1939, 716.)) Churchill responded that the majority of the article “is no more than he is accustomed to say on public platforms.” ((Churchill Papers 8/548 and published in Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill Volume V Companion Part 3 Documents: The Coming of War, 1936-1939, 717.))
“Hitler and His Choice” has been misquoted often to give the impression that Churchill had a sudden lapse in judgment concerning Hitler. Nicholson Baker misquoted the article in Human Smoke, published earlier this year, to give the impression that Churchill hoped to see a gentler Hitler “despite the arming of Germany and hounding of Jews.” ((Nicholson Baker, Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 70-71.))
Buchanan even used some of the same misquotes in his 1999 book, A Republic, Not an Empire, to claim that Churchill did “believe and hope as late as 1937.” ((The book was originally published in 1999. The updated edition was published in 2002. Patrick J. Buchanan, A Republic, Not an Empire: Reclaiming America’s Destiny (Washington: Regnery, 2002), 257.))
The truth is that the article offended Hitler, was banned in Germany, and was asked to be toned down by the British Foreign Office. Churchill had a better understanding of Hitler in the 1930’s than these critics do today.