In Book III of my Lebensraum novels, I describe the horrific 1945 end battle for the City of Berlin, where one of my characters, a shy and studious German teenager, Erika, who always shied away from hurting any living thing even in her thoughts, puts herself behind an "ack-ack anti-aircraft gun" (her words) and shoots an Allied soldier from the sky - after having been savagely raped. Many of my readers have written to me about that narration, wondering if the scene was reconstructed from personal experience.
No. I was too young in 1945 - the story was told to me in the early 1950s in Argentina by a young man who was then, in 1945, a fourteen-year-old Hitler Youth - who was given a "Panzerfaust" (literally "panzer fist" - also called bazooka ) and sent into battle to fight the Zhukov hordes who were murdering the males of his family and raping his sisters and mother.
My friend, "Johann", told of his experience many times, and I began to see it as vividly as though I had been there myself. (I happened to have been 40 km away, and I saw the night sky burn from the flames of the dying city...)
I personally remember many acts of German soldier heroism from those days that I witnessed with my own eyes. I believe in the duty to tell - although it might shock many readers. Our people need heroes to whose lives and deeds they can emotionally relate because they make sense within the context of the times.
Recalling "Johann's" story, this little essay below struck a chord in me, and I thought it would be a fine way to end a rather remarkable "Revisionist" week I will summarize for you in tomorrow's "Revisionist Week in Review."
Subject: Claremont Institute Precepts: The Patriot, Patriotism and the Truth
The Claremont Institute--PRECEPTS| | June 20, 2000 Visit <http://www.claremont.org>| | No. 230
The Patriot, Patriotism and the Truth
By Matthew Robinson
It's surprising what shocks American audiences these days. When it comes to imaginary life on the big screen, most people are contentedly inured to the rawest sex and most graphic violence.
Well, not quite. Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Patriot", managed to alarm some in the audience at a screening in Los Angeles recently. According to reports, at one point in the film about the American Revolution, Gibson's character, Benjamin Martin, arms his young sons (ages 10 and 13) with muskets and leads them in a deadly ambush of British soldiers.
Some in the audience "gasped" at the scene. Young boys with guns! After Columbine, no less!
We live in a remarkable time when people cannot tell the difference between fighting to defend one's rights and killing for thrills. The very idea of patriotism is suspect, at least in the eyes of critics, academics and the press. The most celebrated books and most newsworthy stories hinge on the sins of the Founding Fathers, rather than their ideas and accomplishments. We hear now that Francis Marion, one of the influences for Gibson's character in the film, is alleged to have raped his slaves and hunted Indians for sport.
These are critical details, we're told, because they are the truth. But if critics were interested in flesh-and- blood truth, they wouldn't object to the historical fact of 10-year-olds fighting and dying for freedom. The truth is, the Revolution was a war won by the greatest generation of Americans to ever live.
The Revolutionaries believed that every citizen was responsible not just for his freedom, but for the liberty of the generations to come. They fought for the principle that a people who have no power to curb government's appetite for money and power would soon be reduced to servitude.
Today's objections to the Revolutionary generation obscure what is important about the America's Founders. They had their share of sinners, hypocrites, and, yes, slaveholders. But the attacks against them say more about the petty, small, and self-important personalities of our era.
The vicious drag them down not out of any dedication to truth. The real objective is to use history for propaganda purposes. And if that means squelching great deeds of great men or the dramatic deeds of courageous boys, then the first and most unpitied victim of their cause will be the truth. Not only do they lack the courage and sense of sacrifice of that early generation, but they gasp at the very idea of courage and sacrifice.
To read a longer version of this article, visit the Claremont Institute's website at http://www.claremont.org. To read more about the American Revolution as the Founders understood it, visit http://www.founding.com.
Matthew Robinson is the 1999 Phillips Foundation Journalism Fellow and an Adjunct Fellow of the Claremont Institute.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 2000 The Claremont Institute
To subscribe to Precepts, go to: http://www.claremont.org/1_precepts.cfm , or e-mail us at info@claremont.org . To be removed from this list, go to :
http://www.claremont.org/remove_public.cfm , or e-mail us at info@claremont.org . For general correspondence or additional information about the Claremont Institute, e-mail : info@claremont.org , or visit our website at : http://www.claremont.org . Changing your e-mail address? Please let us know at : info@claremont.org . For press inquiries, contact Nazalee Topalian at topalian@msn.com or (202) 265-9010 or Tim Caspar at tcaspar@claremont.org or (909) 621-6825.
The mission of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.
The Claremont Institute | 250 West First Street | Suite 330 | Claremont, CA 91711 | Phone (909) 621-6825 | Fax (909) 626-8724
<end>
=====
Thought for the Day:
"Fear of being called anti-Semitic made McCarthy manipulable and made his position awkward. If he had been more heroic on that point, he would perhaps have gone down to defeat anyway, but he would certainly have opened some people's eyes."
(Letter to the Zundelsite)
--