Nazism & the EU

THE OMINOUS PARALLELS : NAZISM AND THE EU
It's often claimed - not least by our opponents - that Nazis and Fascists are nothing more than extreme xenophobic nationalists, totally opposed to 'good' international bodies like the EU. In the words of the song, "It Ain't Necessarily So.""

The EU War Baby

Back in 1942, a book called "The European Community" was published. Its principal author, a Doctor of Economics, had argued in 1940 for a "Central European Union" and "European Economic Area" and for fixed exchange rates - EMU in all but name. In this book, he wrote that "No nation in Europe can achieve on its own the highest level of economic freedom which is compatible with all social requirements...The formation of very large economic areas follows a natural law of development....interstate agreements in Europe will control [economic forces generally]...There must be a readiness to subordinate one's own interests in certain cases to those of [the EC]."

One of his co-authors wrote that the "classic national economy..is dead...community of fate which is the European economy...fate and extent of European co-operation depends on a new unity economic plan". Another observed that "We have a real European Community task before us...I am convinced that this Community effort will last beyond the end of the war."

The last three words explain things. The principal author was Nazi Economics Minister and war criminal Walther Funk. The other two were respectively Nazi academic Heinrich Hunke and official Gustav Koenig. Nor were they just eccentrics. Goering's orders in 1940 were followed by a project for the "large-scale economic unification of Europe" Goebbels, in the same year, compared Germany's road to unification in the nineteenth century with Europe's in the twentieth, believing that "in fifty years' time [people] no longer think in terms of countries."

The Same Old "New Europe"?

Ribbentrop, in 1943, endorsed plans for a European confederation. Seyss-Inquart, Gauleiter of Holland, spoke of "The new Europe of solidarity and co-operation among all its people... will find...rapidly increasing prosperity once national economic boundaries are removed."

Their collaborators felt the same way. Quisling himself stated that there was no opposition between European economic co-operation and National Socialism, Vichy French Minister Jacques Benoist-Mechin that France had to "abandon nationalism...take place in European Community with honour."

In the words of Rodney Atkinson, "The European Community was therefore intended by the Nazis.... as a common cause against British...economic systems of trade and free exchange." Mr. Atkinson goes on (in his book "Europe's Full Circle") to kindly provide us (pages 92-93) with a list of parallels between "Hitler's Europe" and "Today's Europe."

* Europaische Wirtshaftsgemeinschaft
European Economic Community

* European Currency System
European Exchange Rate Mechanism

* Europabank (Berlin)
European Central Bank (Frankfurt)
[b]
* European Regional Principle[/b]
Committee of the Regions

* Common Labour Policy
Social Chapter

* Economic and Trading Agreements
Single Market

A few further quotes may be of interest -"The Germans alone can really organise Europe... The future will belong to the Germans when we build the House of Europe...The Anglo-Saxon economic system, the classic national economy, is dead...It is important to establish a European Single Currency core in order to stand firm against Anglo-Saxon values."

I just quoted, respectively, Goebbels, Kohl, Hunke, and (in 1996) Belgian Finance Minister Philippe Maystadt. No, I'm not just indulging in cheap jibes or insinuating that all Europhiles are closet Nazis. Obviously they don't share Hitler's racial paranoia. No doubt they see them selves as good liberal-minded democrats. However, all totalitarian regimes stand for concentrating power in central hands. They're all prone to meddle in people's private lives and pursuits and to issue directives without properly consulting a free Parliament first. In short - the Eurocrats may not be totalitarians but they are totalitarian-minded in their behaviour.

For further details, I recommend "Europe's Full Circle" by Rodney Atkinson, "The Tainted Source" by John Laughland and "Britain Held Hostage" by Lindsay Jenkins.

A final thought: The Nazis used referenda to seduce power out of the hands of the people's representatives and concentrate it in the hands of a few. With the prospect of a UK referendum on the single currency and the dangers of concentrating economic powers in the hands of a virtually unaccountable European Central Bank - remember: NEVER AGAIN!

- About the author: Mark Taha is a freelance researcher into British and European history and politics. A National Committee member of CIB, he is writing in a personal capacity.