Evening star., 1949-02-19
Meeting Of Christian,
In TotaIitarian States
Is Treason in Itself
Won MoItke Cuse Recalled
As Trial Of Moral and
Spiritual Attitude
By Dorothy Thompson

By Dorothy Thompson
The case Of Helmuth Won
Moltke. tried five years ago. stands
out among all other peoples tri-
bunal" judgments because it
boiled down exclusively to the
: trial Of q moral and spiritual at
"titude. Won Moltke was SEN
fenced and hanged without proof
or even charge. of reasonable
: action. But Roland Freisler. the
Judge, sneered, only in one re-
-spect does national socialism re-
-semble Christianity: We demand
the whole allegiance of man, body
and SOUL"
Won Moltke could not deny his
rejection Of the Nazi thesis or ac-
ceptance of the Christian. That
was, in itself. treason. as it is
treason in every totalitarian
state.
The mere association of Chris
tians with each other was trea-
sonable. Tried with Won Moltke,
a Protestant layman. was Father
'Delp. a Catholic priest. Judge
Freisler, referring to a meeting in
Won Moltke's home, shouted:
And who was present! A Jesuit
father! And Protestant minis
ter! And not a single national
socialist! There's the dirt! A
Jesuit. one of Germanys most
dangerous enemies! And the other
reverend gentlemen! You
went visiting bishops! You
take your orders from the Fueh-
rer. and any one who takes them
no matter how indirectly. from
another world. is taking them
from the enemy"
Common Assumption.
There. precisely stated, is the
assumption common to Nazism
and communism. Won Moltke. in
his farewell letter to his wife,
commented:
1T was established that at no
time did we design to use force.
But we thought. And in the face
of the thoughts of isolated men.
national socialism gets in a panic,
to root out anything thought may
have infected. Our case his
tories give documentary proof
that it is neither plots nor plans
but the very spirit of man that is
to be hunted down.
In recognition that though
many are called of God, few are
chosen. Won Moltke, facing death,
could exult:
And so finally your husband,
selected as a Protestant-not as a
great landlord. for all I knew
was against great estates in prin-
ciple; not as a Prussian. not as a
German. stood there as a
Christian and nothing else.
That I, a man whose station in
life would have inclined him to
conformity as Schulze said,
should have been chosen to set
an example! All the pains
God has taken with me. The
purport of them all was revealed
within an hour. aon January 10,
1945. To think that God
gave Himself so much trouble, just
for that hour!"
Young, handsome. well born. a
devoted husband and father, Hell
DGth Won Moltke loved life. But
he wrote:
II would gladly go on living.
but for that I should need a new
task from God, since the one for
which He created me is finished" !"
Helplessness of Accused.
Won Moltke's letter also throws
light on the peculiar helplessness
of the accused:
when I was called to make my
final statement I wished to say.
'Slay my body, destroy my good
name, wreak your will upon my
wife and child; still you will not
have the victory. Right is on our
side But that would have made
things worse for the Others"
Yet never for a moment did
Won Moltke doubt the final tri-
umph. He quoted the New Testa-
ment to his wife:
1--WE are troubled on every
side; perplexed but not dismayed;
cast down but not destroyed; al
ways bearing about in the body
the dying of the Lord Jesus. that
the life also of Jesus might be
manifest in our body Thanks
be, my dearest, before all things
of God"
The testimony which Helmuth
Won Moltke was able to make to
the world before he died would be
made by thousands of Christian
men in the prisons of Eastern Eu-
rope, If they could send their mes
sages to us.
Many, in this twentieth century
of Our Lord" have preceded
them-hundreds of thousands in
Russia. Christianity, which has
survived all wars and revolutions,
Is ever renewed by its martyrs.
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