Shorter Notices
The German Mentality. By Verrina. (Allen and Unwin. pas. 6d.) Tim author joins Sir Robert Vansittart in drawing up an indict- ment against a whole people. German " national mentality " is illustrated by treatment of the Jews, the Gestapo, love of uniforms, the German conception of " honour " exemplified in duelling. This is the old song. But the author has lived there for over fifty years as lawyer, merchant and landowner ; and the sections on Nazi jurisdiction and economic morals are correspondingly good, as are most of his remarks about the professional classes in Germany. The main thesis is that the depths of degradation which Hitler has achieved could have been produced only amongst a people peculiarly susceptible to brutal impulses : and that proof of this is the readiness with which Germans of all classes have acquiesced in Hitler's aims and methods. Assertions beginning " it crossed the minds of very few Germans " and " no average German ever reflected, let alone wished to," must always be suspect when—on the author's own showing—all public opinion and social life have been so thoroughly disintegrated and terrorised. How can anyone know? Of greater value are the concluding sections on the re-education of Germany, and the suggestion that a start may be made with prisoners of war. There is much that is commendable in the book, though this might have been concentrated into a much smaller book. But even the blackest record, if played too often and on one side only, becomes worn and scratched.
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