PIC: Gandhi's 1939 letter to Adolf Hitler

-Laelth

Futile and potentially misinterpreted? Yes. Impertinent? No.

Seriously, thanks for posting.

Unfortunately, if Hitler were confronted with nonviolent resistance, he would have blown away that resistance and, looking Gandhi in the eye before ordering him to Auschwitz, said "That you for making this so easy."

What Gandhi had here was a failure to communicate. Some men you just can't reach. Hitler challenged the world to take him down violently, and what he asked for, he got.

he had known about the ovens and the experiments on human beings.

of nonviolent resistance in the very early years of Nazi control might have made a difference. The Nazis had been starting street fights, in order to whinie about the lack of law and order, even before the seizure of power. But after they seized power, they outlawed all other political parties, shut down the opposition press, and opened concentration camps like Dachau. By the end of 1933, opponents could be thrown in prison without rights, and it was common for them to get the crap kicked out of them. By 1939, the Nazis had pretty thoroughly terrified the internal opposition

Maybe a concerted non-violent resistance that began organizing immediately in 1933 might have had a chance

same corporate constituencies the Nazis eventually won over.

they didn't play well together. The Catholic Center folk sure as hell weren't gonna work with the Communists, and the Communists sure as hell weren't gonna work with the Social Democrats