By William Mills
Recent media debates over the radicalisation of predominantly Asian youths has centred on the belief that if only the extremist preachers could be reined in all would be well. However if we compare similarities today with past European radicalisation we are left wondering whether any such easy fixes really exist.
Heidi, a 30 year old native German from Berlin, was in England as part of a work placement scheme for four months before returning home to Berlin, and agreed to speak to me shortly before her departure in January 2015
We discussed recent German history and its impact on our lives. I explained that I believed how Germany had ample grounds to feel harshly treated at the end of the First World War.
Heidi countered that Germany had been lucky to have been left with any land after 1945 and she had been brought up to be grateful for all they had. She wants to settle down with her fiancé and create a happy home for their children to be.
She was raised with the West German concept that their border was absolute and could never be changed. Indeed when showed an old Atlas detailing the German lands lost to the to the east of the River Oder she was unfamiliar with much of it.
However Heidi vividly remembers the celebrations when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Although growing up in the south near Stuttgart she moved to Berlin as soon as she was old enough. I asked why.
“That’s where Omi had her kinder.” She replied.
Berlin April 1945
Her Grandmother had escaped from Berlin with her three infants in April 1945, and always dreaming of going back had spoken fondly about pre war Berlin and had encouraged Heidi to raise her own children in Brandenburg.
“Omi told me how the radio was Hitler’s great weapon hearing his voice for the first time in 1928. It was in the days before television and mass travel so comparatively few people had actually seen him. But they all heard him.” Heidi explained.
In November 1938 at the final Nuremburg rally 600,000 were packed in to hear Hitler speak at the Sportsplatz. Hitler shouted two words. The first was ‘Heil!’
The loudspeakers relayed it across the crowd giving an echoing effect similar to sound bouncing between mountains. Then he shouted; “Deutschland!”
Nuremberg Rally 1938
A second set of speakers sent this too in waves across the audience who heard ‘Deutschland!’ and ‘Heil’ reverberating backwards and forwards. The crowd went absolutely ecstatic with reports of girls and young women swooning and fainting.
This was radicalisation on a national scale.
Yet since 1945 there has been an equally determined attempt at de-Nazification first by the Allied Control Commission and later by the West German Government.
Heidi spoke of her feelings towards her grandmother’s wish for her children to be born on German soil-indeed during the 1990 reunification talks the West German Government initially asked for the 1939 borders to be re-instated- and her own pragmatic view that she is part of modern Europe.
“I don’t think it is possible to influence people with just words.” She continued. “Once a guy try and hypnotise me into getting undressed. ‘No!’ I said, ‘You must use something much more powerful like liquid ecstasy if you want that.’ I’m referring to an aphrodisiac popular in some Berlin nightclubs.”
Maybe radicalisation is in the bloodline and even decades of counter de-Nazification will have limited effect.
Muslim
Britain is facing a threat from a section of the Muslim community which is unacceptable to the majority in this country, and calls into question the wisdom of mass immigration and multiculturalism.
Until Britain’s response is equal to the threat matters are unlikely to improve. At the moment mainstream Britain are still talking of a ‘tiny minority’ of otherwise peaceful Muslims behaving as violent killers and rapists.
In contrast by 1945 Germany the allies aim was complete de-Nazification. There was no talk of a silent majority of beneficial Nazis who should be given Government grants to continue their practices while a tiny minority around discredited cleric – should be cracked down on. Nazism was seen as a grossly warped form of religion.
The victorious 1945 allies realised after years of pre year appeasement a full overhaul of the European way of life was necessary .
The reason multiculturalism isn’t working today is because of the aloofness of establishment Britain solely concerned European Christianity appearing as a threat to others. Instead it should have worrying about whether any were likely to be a threat to us.
The situation will only get worse until it is made absolutely clear that Britain is a secular country where western dress is the norm and freedom of speech paramount.
This message should be clear to all. Either convert to secular Western Europeanism or leave. The alternative is civil war.
