Palmer Events Center
Peace Movement in Thirties Partially Responsible for the Holocaust
RECEIVED Tue., May 17, 2005
Dear Editor,
The U.S. had a huge and well-organized peace movement in the late 1930's. Students were holding sit-ins demanding "more schools and less battleships," and 50,000 military veterans held a peace march in Washington, D.C. It was matched by a large peace movement active throughout the Western democracies. That the leadership in Germany and Japan were emboldened by that movement is undisputed. It more than likely accounted for the failure to put an end to Hitler while he was still relatively weak. So an argument can be made that the "peace advocates," sincere though they may have been, contributed greatly to the catastrophic blood bath we call World War II and even to the Holocaust. So the numbers in the peace movement will remain small right up until people forget what the last great peace movement brought us. War must always be the absolute last option. But taking that option completely off the table is naiveté run riot.
The U.S. had a huge and well-organized peace movement in the late 1930's. Students were holding sit-ins demanding "more schools and less battleships," and 50,000 military veterans held a peace march in Washington, D.C. It was matched by a large peace movement active throughout the Western democracies. That the leadership in Germany and Japan were emboldened by that movement is undisputed. It more than likely accounted for the failure to put an end to Hitler while he was still relatively weak. So an argument can be made that the "peace advocates," sincere though they may have been, contributed greatly to the catastrophic blood bath we call World War II and even to the Holocaust. So the numbers in the peace movement will remain small right up until people forget what the last great peace movement brought us. War must always be the absolute last option. But taking that option completely off the table is naiveté run riot.
Scott Sexton