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A Letter by Paul Rassinier

 
What motivated this stalwart Frenchman Rassinier, who, in spite of internment and privation in German concentration camps, all but absolved Germany's leadership of the alleged crime of genocide? What did he really think about the Third Reich and National Socialism?

Rassinier helps to answer these questions in the following letter, which was provided by Mr. Myron Kok and is published here in English translation.

 May 8, 1965

Thank you for your letter of May 3, 1965.

No, I am not a supporter of National Socialism: I am a socialist in the historical and doctrinal sense of the word, and this has absolutely nothing to do with the interpretation which is given to it at present by the leaders of parties, incorrectly called socialist. If, therefore, I do not support National Socialism, this is simply a philosophical attitude: The Fuhrerprinzip [leadership principle] does not attract me; I am not only a socialist, but also a democrat. However, when I correct the vulgar errors of the hysterical adversaries of Nazism, I do so because, although I am a Frenchman, I am also a European: these vulgar errors, committed with malice aforethought, have no other aim than to exclude Germany from the community of European nations and to abort the birth of Europe, something that is impossible without Germany - or, indeed, any other country on our continent.

In the twentieth century, the quarrel between Germany and the other European nations is a resurrection of the quarrel between the Armagnacs and the Brugundians or between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. It is maintained at fever pitch by Bolshevism, which is the modern version of Pan-Slavism, and it aims at the subversion of Europe, a subversion against which Germany is our only shield. In 1965, the Slavs, who had been driven back by Charlemagne beyond the Vistual, are 50 kilometers from Hamburg. If they can engineer the collapse of Germany, they will, tomorrow, be in Brest and Bayonne. The lies which the Press pours out over Germany in a never-ending stream must serve as their moral justification.

It is my intention to wring from public opinion the admission that, in the war of 1939-1945, Englishmen, Russians, Frenchmen and Americans committed crimes just as horrible and in just as great a number as those attributed to the Germans - whose real crimes are, however, very much open to dispute. I also wish to have it conceded that it is immoral to investigate merely German war criminals, especially when the criminal nature of their behavior has been exaggerated, as has indeed been the case. I believe that, after a war, there should be a general amnesty for all combatants because this is the only way to bring about an atmosphere of peace between the nations, and to avoid future wars. There is, of course, the Communist danger, as well, which can only be warded off by a Europe, united in mutual and brotherly goodwill.

That is my point of view: it defines my intentions. And it has, furthermore, the advantage of being based on a search for historic truth, beyond the rancors of outmoded nationalism.

With my best wishes,

Paul Rassinier

Reprinted by permission of The Journal of Historical Review, P.O. Box 1306, Torrance, CA 90505, United States of America. Domestic subscription rate: $40 per year. foreign rate: $50 per year.