Worm in the Apple German Traitors and Other Influences That Pushed the World Into War: The little-known story of the men who destroyed Adolf Hitler's Germany Friedrich Lenz 11. The importance of the Resistance from the English perspective Being a "thorough" German, I will list some further evidence which shows that the British attached the utmost value to the activities of the Resistance Movement: 1. The London quarterly Contacts wrote: "The existence of a German conspiracy was well known in London at the time of the declaration of war; and it must have played a considerable role in the British Government's deliberations at that time." 2. Churchill wrote: "Jan Colvin, the son of the well-known leader-writer of the News Chronicle - stationed in Berlin - got deeply involved in German politics and established top-secret relations with some Generals but also with some independent and capable Germans of character. Several times I was visited by high-ranking people from Germany who poured out their anguished hearts to me.... Any and all facts that I learned from any source... I would report to the Government from time to time." 3. Oswald Pirow, the former South African Minister of Defence, had come to England shortly before the outbreak of war, with the intention of working together with Chamberlain and Hitler, with whom he was closely acquainted, in order to bring about an Anglo-German settlement. In England, however, he encountered various groups who considered 'Munich' to be a British defeat, and who were opposed to any agreement. He wrote the following about his experiences in his search for the reasons for this negative attitude: "Whereas my task with respect to Berlin took on a more definite form in this way, I made use of my spare time to get clear in my own mind about the obstacles that stood in the way of an Anglo-German agreement. "I have already mentioned the Jews in this context. "Their closest confederate was Winston Churchill, who still lived in the atmosphere of the First World War and who obviously hoped that his anti-German attitude would help him to rise up the political ladder again. On the occasion of an earlier visit to London I had discussed the European situation with him. He was on such poor terms with Chamberlain that this time I avoided any meeting with him. "Major Attlee, the leader of the working classes, must be mentioned in third place. He and his party were very close to Communism and were judiciously brought into play by instruments of Jewish propaganda wherever these saw fit. "The fourth group that opposed an Anglo-German agreement was of a more serious nature than the aforementioned politicians. It consisted of the national chauvinists of all parties and classes who regarded the events of Munich as the greatest humiliation for Britain since the Dutch had sailed their warships up the River Thames. A great percentage of these people were in the army and in the Foreign Office. "I established contact with these people, and got to hear things which I regarded at the time as the pipe-dreams of those who told them to me. I was informed, for example, that if war broke out between Germany and Britain there would be a domestic German revolt against Hitler. Leading politicians and even high-ranking military men would participate in this. When I smiled at these prognostications they assured me that these people had already established contact with London! I, who believed I knew something of German honor and the soldier's oath of allegiance, refused to place any stock in these claims. Today, however, it seems to me that these Englishmen were right in their accounts of German treason even before the outbreak of war! "So these were the factors that fought against Chamberlain's politics of peace: the boundlessly embittered propaganda of world Jewry, Churchill's political egotism and that of a handful of his followers who at that time hardly included anyone outside his own family circle, the semi-Communist machinations of the Labor Party, and the chauvinists' war-mongering, encouraged as it was by German traitors. In November 1938, when I negotiated with Chamberlain, this peculiar coalition had not yet managed to shake his political position, as it was to do later...." 4. In his book Before the Catastrophe, the French Secretary of State Bonnet wrote: "Admittedly, many bits of information from abroad could lead us to believe that our opponent was already in very bad shape. I received such news directly or through our ambassadors. "Aside from the well-known tales of German workers on strike and soldiers refusing military service, we were approached time and again with hopes for an imminent assassination, which was already planned and was to bring National-Socialism to its knees. As in 1938, in the last week prior to the war we were deluged with reports of this. One might summarize it thus: 'Hold out, the German Generals will overthrow Hitler! Halder has already handed in his resignation.' On August 31, our Deuxième-Bureau summarized the news that had just arrived as follows: 'Hitler has had a nervous breakdown in Berchtesgaden, and Dr. Bunck was called from Munich to his bedside. Hitler has recovered, but the physician remains at his service. The German General Staff hopes to avail itself of Hitler's nervous condition to carry out a military coup...' In the meantime, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. So nothing stood in the way of the 'military coup' of which we had been so kindly apprised. This rumor continued to be circulated in the first days of the war. On September 5, for example, I was visited by one of my old colleagues from the Council of State who, with my agreement, had for the past three months been setting up a semi-official news service focusing on Hitler's Germany. He told me: 'We are aware that a plot is being hatched against Hitler. He and his regime will be overthrown within a month.' He had gathered this from a German politician who had lived abroad for years as refugee so as to escape the National-Socialists, and who appeared to be a reliable source." 5. How great a role the plans for the coup also played in the Polish decision-making process is shown by the following excerpt from the book by the Swede Birger Dahlerus, Der letzte Versuch: Dahlerus and the British Ambassadorial Secretary Forbes had gone to see the Polish Ambassador Lipski in order to submit the German proposals to him. "On our way back, Forbes told me something that alarmed me: while I had been dictating to the secretary, Lipski had informed Forbes that he had no need whatsoever to take any interest in memos or offers from the German side. After spending five-and-a-half years in Germany as Ambassador he was thoroughly familiar with the situation there, and was in close touch with Göring and others from the leading circles; he declared that he was convinced that in the case of a war, unrest would break out in that country and the Polish troops would be able to march successfully on Berlin." That the conspirators were clear on these consequences of their connections with abroad is shown by various sources, especially by the book Germany's Underground by the American A. W. Dulles. He writes that Halder believed that internal unrest would all but invite an attack from outside. Men such as Beck, Halder, Canaris, Weizsäcker, Kordt etc. must have been perfectly clear on the consequences of their actions. One cannot excuse them on the grounds of credulity and the noble intent of Krimhilde who believed she could protect her Siegfried by betraying his one vulnerable spot to Hagen. But these gentlemen were the same ones who continued their subversive activities of 1938 day by day right until July 20, 1944, until their ambitious hatred seemed gratified by the attempted murder of Hitler - true to Talleyrand's observation that crime is one of the tools of choice of the politically brain-dead. And now I come to the conclusion that, in retrospect, July 20, 1944 has at least the one redeeming feature of having shown the German people which clique it was that is to blame for Germany no longer being what she was on September 1, 1939, namely the great and powerful Fatherland of all Germans and sole protector of the Western world. It is one of the ironies of world history that the powerful victorious nations now court the military contribution of a pathetic remnant of this once great Germany. Of the clever and noble gentlemen responsible for this development, those who are still alive today acknowledge in dumbfounded amazement that, as the well-known poet laureate of the Resistance, Ernst Wiechert, put it: "We who considered ourselves the 'better Germans' desired nothing more dearly than the final demise of tyranny, we even prayed for the Allies' victory while their bombs leveled our cities, because we hoped that it would be the last war and that the Democratic Idea of a just and lasting peace would triumph." Worm in the Apple German Traitors and Other Influences That Pushed the World Into War: The little-known story of the men who destroyed Adolf Hitler's Germany