You wonder – maybe you don’t but today it’s appropriate – what would the World War II generation say about America’s public life today. Historians mark today’s date, September 1, as the beginning of World War II. I suspect the “greatest generation” might call us naïve.
The “Book Review” section in Sunday’s New York Times looks at seven books about World War II. Reviewing Roger Moorhouse’s “Poland 1939,” Timothy Snyder writes, “Poland’s decision to resist the Germans in summer 1939, after Austria and Czechoslovakia had yielded in 1938, was of world historical significance. Poland’s resistance forced Britain and France to honor a security guarantee, and thus established the kernel of the alliance that would eventually win the war. If Britain had not joined the war in 1939, it is hard to see how the United States would ever have found a reason to intervene in Europe.” Jay Winik reviews “Countdown 1945” by Chris Wallace with Mitch Weiss. “‘Countdown 1945’ is also a profound story of decision making at the highest levels – and of pathos. The alternative to using the (atomic) bombs would have been for a war-weary America to invade Japan. Yet…the closer American troops got to Japan, the more ‘fanatical’ the Japanese defenders became. American military planners feared that the war could go on not for months but for years.”
History shows Christians how the horrors of war stand in stark contrast to the justice of God’s ways. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:1-2).
Peter Fritzsche reviews “Hitler: Downfall 1939-1945” by Volker Ullrich. “Ullrich concludes this accomplished biography with lessons about ‘how quickly democracy can be pried from its hinges when political institutions fail’ and ‘how thin the mantle separating civilization and barbarism actually is. The history of the Third Reich teaches us about ‘what human beings are capable of when the rule of law and ethical norms are suspended.’” That tells me the stakes in today’s America are high, very high.
From time to time aged World War II veterans are brought out to reminisce, but younger generations easily pass over their words as merely the memories of old people. We like to flatter ourselves that we know best. History teaches us otherwise and directs us to wiser ways to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).
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