WHITEWASH?
Ludovic Kennedy asks for 'information as to Admiral Rogge's contribution towards keeping the gas chambers filled.' That is easily given. He fought, very efficiently and in a responsible position, for the Nazis throughout the war. Without the support and loyalty of men like him, the war would not have been fought or the gas chambers filled. The fact that he Was not a member of the Nazi Party or that he treated prisoners humanely has nothing to do with it he supported, fought for, would have given his lite for, the system that ran the gas chambers. If his religious beliefs clashed, as Mr. Kennedy says vaguely there is 'some evidence' they did, with the Nazis' views, why did he fight for them? It may have taken heroism not to, or at least meant leaving Germany before the war began; but it could have been done. Others did it. Perhaps we cannot hold humbler members of Hitler's forces very personally responsible for what happened (though every one 01 them must bear some weight, however small, of the responsibility : that is what being human means); but the senior officers (a man like Rogge, with the damage he did to allied shipping, extending the war —how long, how far?): their responsibility was direct, personal and terrible. I don't want to see any more films about Nazis. or their brave, efficient and devoted soldiers, sailors, airmen, concentration camp guards, scientific researchers, or lampshade manu- facturers. And if the public said this loudly enough, We wouldn't get them.
This is a subject that raises temperatures, as I know from previous occasions. When I wrote about 7.be Young Lions a while ago I had some violently abusive letters sent to me personally, quite apart from those published in the Spectator. But I can't See what makes Mr. Kennedy so waspish. He finds it stupefying' to read my 'anti-racial rubbish' in the 4ectator. Now, steady on: where does racialism conic into it? I spoke of 'those who fought for Hitler': I was careful (I am always careful) to speak Nazis (and that, as far as responsibility goes, in- cludes their fighting chiefs, even if they weren't members of the Nazi Party, and were humane to Prisoners and pussycats), not Germans. Nazism is a moral disease, not necessarily a national and cer- tainly not a racial characteristic. It would be ironic
to use racialistic arguments to wallop the memory 9. an ideology founded on racialism; almost as Ironic as the thought of Admiral Rogge being in- vited to see the film about his exploits at—of all Places—last summer's film festival in Berlin.
Incidentally, talking of racialism, a Jewish film
critic friend of mine tells me that whenever he writes about films of this kind he gets letters staying: 'You °9ght to be grateful to the Nazis for leaving you alive,' and other pretty things of the sort —Yours faithfully.
ISABEL QU1GLY
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