Nazism Was Not An Exclusively German Cancer

In 1941, Bertolt Brecht wrote a play, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, a satire on Adolf Hitler's rise to power. "The womb from which the foul beast sprang is still fertile" is a line from its epilogue. Brecht was right: here we are once again.

Nazism was not an exclusively German cancer. The dance began very early: the Wehrmacht entered Austria on March 12, 1938, with the wholesome aim of imposing the Anschluss - that is, Austria's annexation to the Third Reich - without encountering the slightest opposition. France and Britain confined themselves to issuing a formal diplomatic protest: both were colonial powers, and their love for the independence of peoples had yet to see the light of day.

That may have been what led Andre Malraux to state:

I have seen democracies intervene against almost everything, except fascism.

The following month, the Nazis organized a plebiscite to ratify Austria's annexation to the Reich, and 99% of the votes were in favor: what could be better than a well-organized vote?

The Nazi contagion reached much of Europe with greater or lesser virulence: the list of countries in which the foul beast emerged is as long as a day without bread, stretching from the temperate beaches of the Mediterranean to the icy waters of the Baltic Sea.

And that was not all: the American continent saw its own versions of Nazism appear, from Hudson Bay to the Strait of Magellan.

Chile, which is never left behind in such matters, saw the emergence of Jorge Gonzalez von Marees, a mediocre lawyer who founded the National Socialist Movement of Chile (Nazi), of which he became the Fuhrer. A member of parliament from 1937 to 1945, he eventually joined - how could it have been otherwise? - the Liberal Party, where he served as Secretary-General from 1950 to 1951.

Argentina - a country that, at the end of World War II, took in numerous Nazis, including Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann - had its own version of Nazism. According to Horacio, in 1938 the Argentine Nazis organized the largest political rally held outside Germany. It took place at Luna Park, the very venue where Carlos Gardel had lain in state.

Later, the defeat of Nazism in Europe did not eliminate all the criminals.
The United States, which sought to dominate the continent and seize the French empire, opposed De Gaulle, who wanted to restore France's power and independence. Along the way, the United States recycled numerous Nazis into a wide variety of occupations, with the invaluable assistance of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and, later, the CIA.

De Gaulle never took part in commemorations of the American troops' Normandy landings because, as he explained quite clearly, the United States did not give a damn about liberating France. The planned objective was to colonize the country. So much so that the landing operation was given an appropriate name: Overlord (meaning "supreme lord," "great master," or "feudal lord"). By Roosevelt's will, and with the gracious assistance of certain French collaborators, France was to become a kind of dominion, colony, settlement, or land grab belonging to the Empire.

In France, collaborators with Nazism were protected and put back to use. De Gaulle's enemies received support and funding. Not only the petty thugs who did the dirty work, but above all industrialists such as Jacques Lemaigre-Dubreuil and bankers such as Jean Monnet, who acted as Roosevelt's henchmen.

In a top-secret report dated May 6, 1943, addressed to Harry Hopkins, Secretary of State, Jean Monnet wrote:

It must be concluded that it is impossible to reach an understanding with him (De Gaulle); that he is an enemy of the French people and their freedoms (sic); that he is an enemy of European construction; and that, consequently, he must be destroyed in the interests of the French...

Lemaigre-Dubreuil and Monnet took part in the United States' plans to colonize France and anchor the country in what would later become the European Union, dominated by the Empire. In this endeavor, Jean Monnet and the CIA stopped at nothing, including campaigns of lies about De Gaulle, such as the one joined by the well-known magazine LIFE, according to which De Gaulle's government was a den of Soviet spies.

While Jacques Lemaigre-Dubreuil was assassinated (no one wanted to know whether the CIA, the French secret services, or some other agency was responsible...), Jean Monnet, as a reward for his work in the service of a foreign power, rests in the Pantheon near Napoleon's tomb. Numerous streets and squares in various cities bear his name, accompanied by the words "Jean Monnet, Father of Europe."

If you did not know why De Gaulle always believed France had to assert its sovereignty, now you do. As early as 1958, Mon General questioned French participation in NATO.
In 1966, De Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's Integrated Military Command.
In 1967, the United States had to evacuate 27,000 soldiers and 37,000 employees, while 30 air, land, and naval bases were transferred to Belgium.

The traitors who collaborated with Nazism were executed by the Resistance, as Admiral Darlan was, or sentenced to death and shot, as were General Pierre Pucheu and Pierre Laval, president of the Council of Ministers under Marshal Petain's collaborationist regime. Petain himself was sentenced to death, but De Gaulle commuted the sentence to life imprisonment, and Petain rotted in jail - on the Isle of Yeu - until his death in 1951.

However, as noted above, the purge was not complete. The usual suspects escaped: the major industrialists, bankers, financiers, and speculators who did business with Nazi Germany, with the Petain regime, and with the American "liberators," and who also latched on to the Marshall Plan, whose objective was not so much the reconstruction of Europe as its domination by the "American Friend."