LET US HAVE CLEAR FRONTS
May, 1941
1
ONE of the most amazing features of our times has been the overwhelming success of evil.
We are not concerned here with its many military victories in the field, but with its innumerable victories over human minds and hearts all over the world.
For a number of years, I had the opportunity to watch from close quarters how a once great nation had been systematically drugged with an ideology of barbarism and how it came to hail such an ideology as its only salvation.
I shall never forget one afternoon in the early weeks after the advent of Nazidom to power. I was sitting in one of the reading rooms of the Institute for Philosophy of the Berlin University when the philosophic quietude of the premises was suddenly desecrated by the crude noise of heavily tramping military boots. The door was flung open and before us stood a tall young fellow, clad in the ill-famed uniform of the S.A. Battalions of terror. At first there seemed to be nothing uncommon in the sight. In those days, we had already become accustomed to the invasion of the precincts of learning by uniformed brutality come to carry out the “Gleichschaltung” of the spirit.
We continued with our work. But gradually we noticed that, after all, there was something uncommon about the visitor. He moved about not like a newcomer, not with the wary and curious steps of a new landlord who was having a first look round at his freshly-acquired property. He tramped about with mighty, steadfast strides, never wavering and with complete self-confidence finding his way about the maze of books.
One’s first impulse was to think: what a proof of uniformed efficiency. But no! This would be a mistake. I looked at him again and saw no efficiency; I saw what the world had to learn in the years after: Treachery. I saw all the great books which enclosed us betrayed. The newcomer was no newcomer. His uniform only was new; the mighty tramping was new to him. But he himself was an old acquaintance of ours. He was the young and promising First Assistant of that Institute of Knowledge and Wisdom, the rising hope of the philosophic school. How modestly he used to walk about on well-educated democratic feet, conscious of his responsibilities as one of the foremost young men among the representatives of the spirit.
No, he was no newcomer. The treason was new, his brutish trampling on Plato and Aristotle, his betrayal of Kant. The selling of the spirit to political success was new. The degradation of philosopy to the role of a handmaid to force was new.
I shall never forget the shame we felt at such degradation. Since then the picture of the philosopher in the S.A. uniform has served me as a clue to the happenings of our days.
Year after year, it was the same story that repeated itself before our eyes. Knees bowing to the success of evil and worshipping it. Year after year, the same tragedy of the selling and betraying of the spirit, of morals and ethics, of hearts and minds to successful wickedness.
It is this “philosopher in the infamous uniform” of whom we must think when speaking of the success of evil as a feature of our times. Not its military victories, but the conquest of minds and hearts achieved by evil represents the real depth of the tragedy.
2
One may here be tempted to remark: all this goes to prove that there must be something wrong with Knowledge and Philosophy, with Morals and Ethics; and ultimately—as they all depend on human beings—there must be something wrong with man. It is certainly true to say that, in the long run, everything will depend on whether man succeeds in his own betterment or not. However, this is not enough. Such a general statement regarding the future of mankind cannot satisfy us Jews. For thousands of years, we have lived by our faith in the ultimate victory of what is good and true. And people who live by such a faith rightly demand that the historic events around them should be explained as parts in a great divine scheme which, ultimately, will bring about the victory of goodness and truth, so ardently longed for.
For us Jews, the question is: how can we, in the many successes of evil around us, recognise the outlines of that victory, and how can they be seen as the necessary preliminaries to it?
The Psalmist seems to give the answer to such a question when he says: **Psalms XCII, 8-9.“When the wicked flourish as grass, and all the workers of iniquity spring up; it is that they may be destroyed for ever. And thou, O Lord, art on high for evermore”. The meaning of these words is not, as commonly understood, that God allows the wicked to grow mighty and powerful only for the sake of destroying them at the end that His name may be acknowledged forever. This would be neither just nor clever. It would certainly be more reasonable not to let them flourish at all than to wreak vengeance on them after they have become mighty and have been able to cause suffering and sorrow. A more careful reading of the sentence puts the matter in a different light. The Psalmist mentions two groups of people: “the wicked” and “the workers of iniquity”. And two verbs are used: of the wicked it is said that they flourish, whereas the workers of iniquity spring up, break forth, or budding out they become visible.
Bearing this in mind, we notice a clear difference between the two groups. The wicked will be recognised as such at the first glance. You have only to look at him and you know: “the wicked”. What he is, he is openly. He has courage, he is a known enemy, he is a challenger. The “workers of iniquity”, however, are more modest and not so easily recognisable. They are working slowly, they are working cautiously, they are working hard but secretly, hidden from the eyes of men behind their mask of decency and civilised behaviour. They can only be seen when they “spring up” from underneath their cover.
But there are times when the “workers of iniquity” do come out into the open. The success of wickedness emboldens them to lay aside their masks. When the wicked are successful, when there is nothing to be afraid of, when the forces of evil with which they have always sympathised in their hearts seem to have gained the upper hand, then the cowardly workers of iniquity creep out from their lairs. Successful evil lures them into the light of the sun.
Remember the “Philosopher in uniform”. He did not change, he only crept out. He laid down the mask when it was safe and useful to do so.
Think of the vast and sordid scene of world politics in the last twenty odd years: the cowardly and intriguing workers of iniquity playing into the hands of the wicked. Remember how they became bolder and bolder with every success of the wicked.
We often thought it was betrayal. It was not. They remained faithful to themselves. They only took off the mask as the moral conscience of mankind withered away under the contaminating breath of successful evil.
It is this feature of our days which is illuminated by the Psalmist. When the wicked flourish, then the secret workers of iniquity dare come forward from their underground hiding places … there is sense in this. Wickedness must succeed for a while that the hidden servants of evil may be lured into the light, that we may look them into their eyes, that they be known and fought and destroyed for ever.
3
If the present war is a struggle between good and evil, let us have clear fronts. Those who in their heart belong to the camp of evil, must be forced to take off their masks. This is an essential of victory. This is indeed what is happening before our eyes day after day. The Quisling is encouraged to reveal himself. Many are deserting the cause of justice. At the moment, it does not pay to be just and faithful. Let them go, it is good that this is so. The fronts are crystallising as we require. The workers of iniquity must not escape under their deceiving masks on the doomsday of wickedness.
Clear fronts are needed that the weapon of justice may not be blunted and the coming day of deliverance not polluted by the survival of the “workers of iniquity;” that, when humanity has won this war, it may not lose the peace owing to the intrigues and machinations of the forces of evil which have managed to survive under the guise of respectability.
The success of the wicked is establishing this clear front which is needed in the interest of the just cause and is most important for the future of mankind.
The course of history in these days is a hard lesson. Remember the lesson of the clear fronts that when the time comes we may rebuild this unfortunate world of ours with clean minds and hearts as well as with clean hands.