Deadly D’s

Each year on Memorial Day we remember those who died to defend others—but why did so many have to die in history’s biggest bloodbath, World War II? How did darkness squash a supposedly Enlightened nation and deviltry triumph so dramatically in the land of Kant and Goethe?

Four D’s have appeared prominently in historical accounts of Hitler’s rise:

World War I Defeat followed by hyperinflationary. Disaster followed by economic Depression, with ideological Darwinism providing an overarching “survival of the fittest” rationale. But two other D’s also were important: the Deutsche Kirche (a Nazi-backed perversion of Christianity) and Drugs.

David Pietrusza’s 1932: The Rise of Hitler and FDR (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016) artfully narrates the events of that crucial year and the anti-Christian impulse that Hitler frankly acknowledged: “National Socialism is a form of conversion, a new faith. … Once we hold the power, Christianity will be overcome and the Deutsche Kirche established … without a Pope and without the Bible.” Roosevelt’s speeches reflected an America still based in Christianity, but for a crucial mass of Germans the defeat of 1918 had become more important than the victory of Christ over Satan—and that change unleashed satanic forces.

Norman Ohler’s Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich, translated by Shaun Whiteside (Houghton Mifflin, 2017), is a history bestseller gaining praise in just about every media outlet from The New York Times to Playboy. Ohler’s tautly written account, based on previously overlooked documents, shows the role of drugs in fueling Hitler’s rapid rise during the 1930s and sensational fall during the second half of World War II. Among the conclusions: Methamphetamines distributed to millions of soldiers made possible the blitzkrieg that killed France in 1940. Hitler became dependent on a witch’s cornucopia of heroin and other drugs during World War II.

But not all was lost. Hanna Schott’s Love in a Time of Hate (Herald Press, 2017) effectively tells the story of André and Magda Trocmé, a pastor and pastor’s wife who led other Protestants in a small French town, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. At great risk to their own lives, they saved more than 3,000 Jewish children and adults from Nazi annihilation.

Sometimes they lied to the murderers, but many of them noted that the Exodus 20:16 text sometimes quoted as “You shall not lie” actually reads, “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” They asked, What if we did not bear false witness against our neighbor but for our neighbor? André Trocmé’s message to his daughter when she turned 40 struck me: “You have to learn to laugh at yourself [and] live for others … since those who instinctively hold on to the egoism of their youth in their older years have no future at all.”

Another book to counter depressing World War II books is Christianity in Eurafrica by Steven Paas (New Academia Publishing, 2017). Its 552 pages of succinct entries on the church north and south over 2,000 years show the ups and downs of history and many comebacks from apparently fatal ecclesiastical diseases.

Is this our time?

Readers of the Q&A with Trevin Wax in WORLD’s May 13 issue have asked me about his new book, This Is Our Time (B&H, 2017). It communicates well some basic truths. Among them: We should not settle for being lie-detector Christians who spot falsehood (as in LGBT propaganda) but miss the longing behind the falsehood. Those who say “just be happy” often don’t know what makes us happy.

Wax at age 35 may be most helpful in speaking to Christians in their 20s who keep postponing marriage. Among the thoughts millennials should take to heart: Sex is superficial and marriage matters. To say, “I don’t need a piece of paper to love you,” is to say, “My love for you has not reached the marriage level.” Weddings are bases, not mountaintops. Fiftieth anniversaries are summits. —M.O.