Article from a Newspaper Written by Louis Bonnel - 1941

This is a section of the full length newspaper article that can be viewed here.

This is an article written by Louis Bonnel which discussed a chapter in Lars Moën’s book, Under the Iron Heel. The chapter that Bonnel focuses on is called, “What the German Soldier Thinks About” and in this article he gave a little bit of context for who Moën, then summarized this specific chapter, and then he provided some commentary about it. In the specific chapter that Bonnel discussed Moën, an American engineer, talked about what he heard German soldiers talking about during his time living in German-occupied Belgium. Moën stated that soldiers would often talk quite bluntly behind their commanding officers’ backs talking about how they were already tired of war this early on and about how the common theme between all German soldiers was that they just wanted to go home already. However, Moën also mentioned that the Germans believed that they were justified for going to war partially because of historical reasons, like the Treaty of Versailles and what it did to Germany, which Hitler exploited to rile up the people behind him. For example, Moën mentions that Hitler falsely promised the German population economic stability which would’ve sounded appealing to a population that hadn’t had that for about 15 years. Moën also pointed out how the German population also had a “Deep hatred for Churchill” which Bonnet later clarified came from Churchill insulting the German population which only made it easier for Hitler to unite the German people under his ideals. Moën also added that the German population also felt like Hitler and the Nazi party were the only option they had left since the Weimar Republic was an extremely weak and fragile government.

Bonnel wraps his article up by giving his views and opinions on what Moën was writing about and by acknowledging some other viewpoints about Moën’s book. Bonnel acknowledges the criticism that other readers have pointed out of Moën’s book being sympathetic towards the Nazi party and while he agrees to an extent, he also pushes back noting that every leader was flawed during WWII. He points out that Hitler and the Nazi party were by far the worst for their ideals and for how they acted on them, but he also points out how Churchill and Roosevelt in particular didn’t help much by distancing themselves from the Germans stating that they were below them and for putting Germany in the financial struggle that led to Hitlers rise in power (Crawford and Walters 1941).