In the late summer of 1938, Dr. Preston Barba wasn’t particularly surprised to receive a call from a local newspaper reporter.
As the head of the German language department at Mühlenberg College and a well-known expert on German pop culture in Pennsylvania, he has been asked to speak frequently about his research.
After returning from a summer study in Germany at the Deutsches Institut für Ostland (DAI) in Stuttgart, he presented a well-received research paper. In fact, he had a copy to discuss with the press.
But when the reporter arrived, the Barba scholarship seemed like the last.
The professor began to deal with questions about the “situation” in Europe. How does he view the escalating tensions between Germany, Great Britain and France over Czechoslovakia? What exactly did the German dictator Adolf Hitler want? Will Europe rush for a second twenty years after the last world war? What were his thoughts?
Barba claimed he was completely ignorant of the political situation. The story of the “Morning Cool” correspondent said the next day: “Dr. Barba said it seems war is more talked about on this side of the ocean than there is in Europe. ” And she went on, quoting him as saying that it was only after he returned to America that he realized that the crisis was imminent.
Contemporary sources indicate that in 1938 it was almost impossible to miss the war fever. But it was possible that Barba was just an absent-minded professor who did not know Germany at the German Institute of Osland, or perhaps he suspected that this was not the case. Something was done. After all, he was a professor of German folklife in Pennsylvania, not political science, and was unfamiliar with current affairs.
But the DAI, founded in 1917, which according to a source at the time “could hardly be described as political or aggressive”, to which Barba had belonged since the 1920s, experienced a drastic change under the Third Reich.
The institute should be a center to provide immigration assistance to German citizens and to conduct research and teaching. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, they overthrew the DAI General Secretary because of his “Jewish origins”. A source claims he later fled to South America. That same year, Nazi thugs stormed President Dai’s home and murdered him. No one has ever been prosecuted for the crime. Another officer in the group was “dismissed” when he was told that the leader wanted to lead Dai in a different direction.
By 1938, the DAI had become the mouthpiece of the Nazis. It was under the control of the SS until the end of World War II. According to a 1946 study by the Library of Congress, after reviewing and organizing the DAI files, its role under Hitler was “in an efficient and effective way” to create a ” large national community (ie the National Socialists) ”. . “
Apparently, in the 1930s, Barba felt he had to answer some questions from Mühlenberg students about the rise of the Nazis. One of them, the late Randolph “Randy” Kolb, remembers Barba many years later and said, “Now I know how you feel about these things, but you don’t know how bad it really was before.”
Exactly what he was referring to “before” Barba seems never to have said it. He may have been thinking about hyperinflation in Germany in the 1920s. Perhaps because of the chaos in the Weimar Republic, when street fights between communists and Nazi thugs were the order of the day. Was the change in German culture too drastic and new for his taste? Or is it something else? After nearly ninety years it became impossible to know.
If someone as close to the European landscape as Barba is not aware of Europe’s problems, it is hard to imagine that the citizens of Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, who took care of the Great Depression, were worried about a foreign country in 1938 that some might call. Hardly pronounced.
If they thought about European affairs at all, they should have stayed largely away from them.
Since the 1920s, many Americans have come to the conclusion that European (mostly British) bankers and “death dealers” “took over” the country to take part in World War I. In the 1930s, Congress passed neutrality laws to keep the country out of the war. America will defend itself behind the walls of the ocean. Europe could “make its own juices”.
There was no 24 hour news cycle today. Newspapers were. The radios did some news that morning, but that was it. As since the 1920s, radio was largely a form of entertainment. As a result of the Munich crisis of 1938, however, the first steps towards today’s broadcast journalism were taken.
Thanks to Edward R. Morrow of CBS, a group of knowledgeable journalists have gathered to bring the news from European capitals. Among them was William L. Shearer in Berlin. For the first time, newsletters can break into regular programs that contain news of the ongoing crisis.
During 1938 most newspaper readers were fascinated by pilots and aviation. On July 15, a young man named Howard Hughes dominated the headlines in Morning Call and other newspapers when he arrived in New York after a record breaking world flight of 91 hours and 17 minutes. The front page shows the battered young man being greeted by the town’s official greeting, Grover Whalen.
Locals were more entertaining than Douglas’ accounts of “The Wrong Way” Corrigan, who was traveling across the Atlantic on his itinerary to California. The return of his plane to America on a cargo ship called the “SS Lehigh” has increased local interest.
Over the summer, newspapers followed Hollywood rumors about the impending split between actress Lupe “Mexican Spitfire” Velez and Johnny “Tarzan” Weissmuller. The couple is known to have quarreled for quite some time.
Domestically, attention has been drawn to a major upcoming Allentown show attraction, Lucky Tetter and Hell-Drivers. On August 18th there was a full house at Allentown’s Colonial Theater to hear that the newsreel movie “Allentown On Parade” was coming soon.
However, current events in Europe will change the lives of people in the Lehigh Valley and America forever.
Dictatorships in Europe have been on alert since 1933. In Germany, Adolf Hitler initially claimed that he was for peace. At the same time, he created an armed force that tore down the World War I era restrictions imposed on this country, built a large army, and established an air force.
His fellow dictator Benito Mussolini was the first to invade Ethiopia in 1935. The League of Nations imposed light sanctions, but the rest of Europe did nothing.
In 1936 Hitler sent his troops, which were still to be examined, to the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland between Germany and France, and again nothing was done.
Civil war broke out in Spain between the republic and the fascist rebel forces led by General Francisco Franco. Germany and Italy sent him supplies. France and England said they were neutral. In March 1938, Hitler annexed Austria to Germany. Once again, the former Allied forces did nothing.
In the summer of 1938, Hitler used the German minority in Czechoslovakia as an excuse to disarm a country he believed threatened his future role in conquering Eastern Europe. As before, he played with the fears of Great Britain and France.
Both countries began to arm themselves, but after the massacre in World War I, their populations showed an aversion to the war. In France, anti-war fever is approaching mania, despite having more weapons than the Germans. Britain felt that its army would not be ready, at least until the early 1940s. Therefore, they believed that by then Hitler had to be appeased. UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said he was simply prepared with a pencil to ask dictators what they want and work towards a compromise.
On September 1, 1938, Hitler ordered the Führer of the Germans in Czechoslovakia to reject settlement offers from the Czech government. “The armistice plan was rejected in the crisis by Hitler, who wanted to act quickly,” read the headline in the morning roll call the following day. Next to her was a story heralding Mussolini’s new “Aryan” racial policy. All Jews who came to Italy since 1919 had six months to leave.
On September 6, Hitler organized a march in Nuremberg in which he demanded that the Czechs allow the Germans to become part of the “Greater German Nation”. The Morning Call published its editorial: “Will Hitler Go Headlong to War?” On September 8, before a group of veterans on the Allentown Show, retired Navy General Smedley Butler predicted that Europe would be at war by 1940.
Hitler screamed and raved on. Despite promises that Britain and France would support the Czechs, Hitler was convinced they would not act. On September 14th, Morning Call editors summed up the situation, saying Europe was on the brink of war with a man who could decide:
The question now is: will Hitler take the step that is part of the path that he has taken for himself and for Germany? The crisis in Europe is not being alleviated intelligently. It was only postponed to the day Mr. Hitler was elected. It would be a miracle if Europe didn’t go to war within a few months. Hitler could be a miracle if his desire for peace were as strong as his protest on the subject. “
The next day, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stunned everyone by saying he would go to Germany and speak to Hitler. And so the goalkeeping game began. Every time Chamberlain thought he had a deal, Hitler turned away from him and asked for more.
This Sunday, Reverend William F. Cosman at Salem Reformed Church in Allentown preaches eloquently on the horrors of war:
“Current United States politics must be isolated from all European wars … If war comes we must stay outside! Our entry will only expand and strengthen. If we stay away we may be able to save something of value. “Then he applied healing ointment to the wounds of civilization that would otherwise have died completely.”
But Hitler had no plans for America, at least not yet. He further escalated the rhetoric and announced that he did not want any Czechs in the German Reich. After all, he and Mussolini had a plan. He drew it, then gave it to the Italian dictator and presented it to a conference of the four powers as the Mussolini conference.
He would save Britain and France, “those little worms,” as Hitler called them. So they met the French Prime Minister Edouard Deladir in Munich to great enthusiasm and signed a pact that ultimately ended Czechoslovakia. It gave Hitler everything he wanted. Chamberlain returned to London and declared peace “with honor” and “peace in our time”. There was dancing in the streets of London and Paris.
On October 1st, when Hitler’s tanks penetrated what was soon to be the former Czechoslovakia – he was soon to swallow the rest – the world and the Lehigh Valley breathed a sigh of relief. I thanked the “intelligent and intelligent Italian” also known as Mussolini for drawing up a plan that saved the peace, the morning cry said, “Peace in Europe has been maintained for 24 hours and it is hoped … that he will will be guaranteed indefinitely. “World War II was less than a year away.
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