The civil population of Germany have, however, an easy way to escape from these severities. All they have to do is to leave the cities where the munitions work is being carried on—abandon their work, and go out into the fields, and watch their home fires burning from a distance. In this way they may find time for meditation and repentance; there they may remember the millions of Russian women and children they have driven out to perish in the snows, and the mass executions of peasantry and prisoners-of-war which in varying scales they are inflicting upon so many of the ancient and famous peoples of Europe. There they may remember that it is the villainous Hitlerite regime which is responsible for dragging Germany through misery and slaughter to ultimate ruin, and learn that the tyrant’s overthrow is the first step to world liberation.
1942, 10 May. Broadcast, London. (End, 129;
Harmon, “Are We Beasts?,” passim.)
A quotation you don’t hear every day, amid the cacophony stating (incorrectly) that Churchill ordered (and exulted in) the bombing of Dresden, which had actually been requested by the Russians while WSC was en route to Yalta. There was a grim logic to his recommendations.
Are we beasts? Are we taking this too far?
1943, 29 June, Chequers. (OB VII, 437: Lady
Soames to the editor.)
WSC said this after sitting bolt upright during a film showing the bombing of German towns from the air. This was a typical reaction of a man whose humanity was never lacking. "He would have done anything to win the war, ” his daughter said, "and I daresay he had to do some pretty rough things. But they didn’t unman him.”
World History
