1940: Gandhi’s Letters to Hitler | ‘You are today the one person in the World Who Can Prevent a War'
Channel: News 360 Tv
Date: 2021-08-19

December 24, 1940: Gandhi wrote a second letter at the beginning of World War II, asking Adolf Hitler to 'stop the war'
More than a year into the war, on Christmas Eve of 1940, Gandhi was compelled to try again, this time getting into far more detail than his first brief letter, which was just 131 words in the body of the text. The sophomore attempt multiplied by 1,028 words.

Again, Gandhi started with the words, “Dear Friend,” and immediately double-downed on it, adding, “That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes. My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind, irrespective of race, color, or creed.”

He even takes the step of somewhat complimenting Hilter for his beliefs, saying, “We have no doubt about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe that you are the monster described by your opponents.”

But then he does go on to call his actions “monstrous and unbecoming of human dignity,” calling out his “humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland and the swallowing of Denmark.”

Gandhi continues by linking their situations: “We resist British Imperialism no less than Nazism,” but then encourages peaceful means. “We are determined to make their rule impossible by non-violent non-co-operation. It is a method in its nature indefensible.”

After getting into the granular details of British rule, Gandhi writes, “We have found in non-violence a force which, if organized, can, without doubt, match itself against a combination of all the most violent forces in the world. In nonviolent technique, as I have said, there is no such thing as defeat. It is all ‘do or die’ without killing or hurting.”

After the setup, Gandhi gets to the point simply: “I, therefore, appeal to you in the name of humanity to stop the war.”

Playing out either result of the War, Gandhi reasons, “You will lose nothing by referring all the matters of dispute between you and Great Britain to an international tribunal of your joint choice. If you attain success in the war, it will not prove that you were in the right. It will only prove that your power of destruction was greater.”

He even alludes to the holidays adding, “During this season when the hearts of the peoples of Europe yearn for peace, we have suspended even our own peaceful struggle. Is it too much to ask you to make an effort for peace during a time which may mean nothing to you personally but which must mean much to the millions of Europeans whose dumb cry for peace I hear, for my ears are attuned to hearing the dumb millions?”

Gandhi concludes by bringing in his meeting with Mussolini. “I had intended to address a joint appeal to you and Signor Mussolini, whom I had the privilege of meeting when I was in Rome during my visit to England as a delegate to the Round Table Conference. I hope that he will take this as addressed to him also with the necessary changes.”
The letters were never sent
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