Ghosts From The Past
Another point that comes to mind is that as far back as I can remember I have always been gripped by an inexplicable fear at the sight of a policeman. Never having had any unpleasant personal dealings with the police force in any country I have lived in, it is something quite irrational. It had always puzzled me why I should feel that way, until one day, at the time of working on this part of my jottings, I ‘chanced’ to look out of the window. A policeman and a small boy were walking past my house and chatting amicably to each other. The usual fear rose inside me and suddenly I knew with great clarity that the scene before me contained a message for me. But what?
Because the Universe loves us and wants to show us the way, it is constantly sending us signals through our environment *. This is very helpful when we appear to be stuck in difficult situations, but the meaning of the message can be hard to recognise. After some reflection I realised that in this case the Universe was trying to help me face up to and come to terms with one of my ghosts from the past. The incident I witnessed had nothing to do with the fear of policemen but uniforms in general and the institutions they represent. I hope that writing about it will help me release myself from the darkness of the Gestapo memories and what they stood for, so that in future I can see police officers as the friends and helpers they truly are to law-abiding citizens.
But what was the Gestapo? The Nazi regime, like any dictatorship, was nothing short of organised and legalised terrorism. All societies contain dark elements and the German ones in those days found many new outlets and this time with the blessings of the state. One of the government’s most important tools was the Gestapo, short for Geheime Staatspolizei or secret state police. They had the power to arrest anyone at any time of day or night and that for the flimsiest of reasons. Spreading fear was their main task and no-one was safe from them. There was no way of getting away from their menacing presence when they called for you. This organisation was nothing less than a continuation of the Christian church’s long arm of the Inquisition during the middle ages.
The party rallies were another important aspect of the Nazi terror regime. With hindsight, it is not hard to see that they were carefully staged and orchestrated, in particular the ones in Nuremberg and the Olympic stadium in Berlin. These rallies served several purposes. It was not only to strike terror into the hearts and souls of other countries, but also into the German people. They were a preparation for the coming experience of the monstrous extermination machine our world had ever experienced, which the Nazis created in the name of the German people.
The newsreel pictures of these events were intended to create the impression that the German nation stood solidly behind its government. But that most certainly was not true. As ever, a vocal minority controlled everything and any opposition was swiftly and mercilessly silenced and stamped out. Our street was a good example of this. It contained thirty odd homes and most of them were occupied by young families with children. Our house was No. 17, about halfway along. As far as I am aware, only one of these families, the one next door to us, supported the party. They had one little boy of our age, whom we used to call Nazi pig – sometimes to his face. Naturally, the boy had anything to do with the party and I am merely including this to show you how ordinary citizens of that time felt.
A widely held view seems to have existed abroad that Nazi Germany was orderly and well organised. The Germans had been known for these qualities in their administrations before the Hitler time and was assumed by many that this continued in Nazi times. Quite the opposite was true. The overall general administration of the Nazis was frequently a mess. Yet, there was method in the madness and those at the top of the organisation wanted it to be that way, because it ensured that the people within it were constantly at each other’s throats. This created the desired state of chaos and confusion in which the lower ranks within the party never knew where they stood.
The closer the end of the war drew, the more the whole country resembled one gigantic concentration camp. It certainly would have looked like that to neutral observers. Large numbers of prisoners of war were kept inside the country. At the time of preparing this part of my jottings, the book ‘The Last Escape’ – the untold story of Allied prisoners of war in Germany 1944-1945 by John Nichol and Tony Rennel came my way. The following quote is from its preface: ‘How many prisoners of war were there in Germany? Official documents are inconsistent in their estimates of numbers, but it can be said with some – though not total – confidence that in the middle of 1944 Germany was keeping within its boundaries nine million prisoners of varying nationalities. It is a staggering figure, hard to take in. Imagine the entire population of Greater London held behind barbed wire.’
The suffering inflicted by the Nazis to large parts of our world was incredible and the karmic debt incurred by Germany through this, individually and collectively, must be so immense that it would be folly to think that any one person could hope to redeem and repay but the tiniest fraction of it. To my mind, healing and forgiveness for those events, and similar ones that to this day are happening in our world, can only be found through a better understanding of the higher purpose behind humankind’s earthly existence and that even trials of this nature are necessary to teach us invaluable lessons. If my writings help someone somewhere to get a better grasp of these things, it might count as a minute contribution towards making good the debts incurred by the country of my birth for this lifetime. Then my living would not have been in vain.
* Recommended Reading:
• ‘Universal Guidance From The Environment’
This article is a chapter from ‘War And Peace Between Nations.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘War And Peace Between Nations’