Wilhelm Mohr

Wilhelm Mohr. On World War II
– with the precondition of reversing the process should warnings from
the continent come as a product of ’a foreseeable foreign policy’.
There was a line of thinking throughout this period that the leadership
of our Defence Forces lacked influence, and there was no desire
that it should have any. For instance, the Defence Council, which had
been established as part of the downsizing process, had been activated
for the last time in 1937, and thereafter closed down. A joint Intelligence
Service, an initiative from the Defence Forces to, among other
things, enable strategic warning, received no support. There were voices
against this political line, but no particular initiatives from any individual
political party.
It should be noted that with the responsibility of government, a desire
to modify the Labour Party’s single-minded anti-military attitude
gradually surfaced. Characteristically, this happened in the younger
segments of the Party, who were less disposed to the fortified attitude
that the military was the protective tool of the middle classes. However,
with all the inherent political heritage involved, this was far from a
light-hearted operation. With regard to Foreign Minister Koht’s statements
in Parliament, while they could be clear and disquieting enough
for action, he often added positives that were easy to focus on, and it
is a very human characteristic to grasp a glimpse of the coming dawn,
rather than acknowledge the gravity of an ever-creeping darkness. I will
not pursue this issue any further, tempting though it undoubtedly may
be. Quite simply, the Government felt it could master such situations
that arose by political means alone. Thus, the crisis management was
as it was, and war came.
However, there are a couple of features from this time that I want
to point out because they focus on what was said and not said under
the particular circumstances or, worse still, were never even considered.
Yet, I consider these features to be important. This is because it is
strange to observe how little reaction the very visible growth of national
socialist forces seemed to generate with our elected Members of Parliament
at the time. It is true that voices of resentment and engagement
had arisen within the population, particularly within radical movements,
with regard to the civil war in Spain, for instance. However, in
106