The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1957-08-30
Names Have Too Many Consonants'
Why Does America Ignore
Parts Of Europe In Schools!
by Erik v. Kuehnelt-L eddihn

One of the most pressing problems OF our ume As
revealed in a twofold American tragic comedy OF errors:
the selling short of %lunknownl Eastern europe ano INC
general ignorance about Southern Europe.
The reader undoubtedly would like to know tne rea-
sons for this state of affairs; why, in American schools
does there seem to be interest only TOT Britain anu
France and Ia little) for Germany.
" he is shrewd he will also inquire why there seems
TO be in American public opinion such a high REGARD tor
not exactly "popuIar"l, the seandinavans, the Dutch,
the Germans, the Ausfrians, the Swiss, and tanong artists
and intellectually for the French.
On the other hand there is not too much enthusiasm
for the rest of the Latins, the Slavs, and the Magyars:
A study of the American immigration laws OF 1921 and
1924 reveals a definite bias against South and East EURO
peans and the descendants of these Immigrants frequent
Iy have to suffer the consequences of this attitude.
Though there are, in American slang. certain nicknames
for the Irish, the Germans, the Scandinavians these have
a friendly rather than a contemptuous ring.
Now, let's play detective and 60 after the reasons.
Where do they have their roots?
Here, to begin with, is a somewhat consoling state
disease. We find them in Britain, Scandinavia, and up
to a point, even in Germany and Austria. In the schools
of these countries Continental history. suffers from dis
tortions similar to those prevailing in American high
schools, colleges, and universities.
Even the Englishman of some educational achieve
ment knows Spanish history only inasmuch as it touches
upon the history Of his own country.
Now, If the prejudice against Southern and Eastern
Europe is not a purely American issue, we have to dig
deeper. One Of the roots Of this sad state Of affairs is
The cult of the fair haired, blue eyed, honest, clean,
energetic, ethical Nordic is not merely spread by the Ku
Klux Klan but also by certain minds in Europe's intenec-
tual underworld.
These unscientific notions have been raised to high
political principles by the Nazis. In their name not only
millions of Jews and Gypsies have been murdered but
also East Europeans mistreated, enslaved and persecut-
ed. 1t was Nazi racialism which prevented the COLLAPSE
of the Soviet Union by turning the Russians, who at first
had greeted the Germans as iberators, into their fiercest
enemies.
= The second root is a religious one: the notion. that
Professionalism" is the religion of decency, %enlighten-
ment, and progress, as against .reactlonary' and de-
tism, dictatorship.
Undoubtedly there has been an interlude in history
which favored the Northern Protestant nations in a ma
terial sense. There are more bath tubs per capita in SWe-
den than in Sicily, more telephones in Denmark than in
Bulgaria, more cars in Holland than in Greece, more dem
tai care in Norway than in Rumania.
This Nordic- Protestant age, however, is rapidly
drawing to a close and once .again one is prone to Judge
nations according to their real achievements in litera-
fure, af, and architecture on the one hand and accord
ing to their religious fervor, their sanetisy, their courage
and endurance on the other.
The tragedies of Teneran, Yalta, and
European no less than American and "Au-Christian''
tragedies-would not have happened if Americans land
Britons) would have hada full grasp of what an immense
~ important part of Christendom Though neither a Nor
die nor a Protestant one) they were selling out to t-
ranny.
How many Americans and Britons, low and high,
did not feel that it mattered little whether East Euro
peans- had political or economic democracy" he
label used for Communism by Henry Wallace
Yet, what had lghtheartedly been sacrificed was a
very essential part of our civilization: nations with an
ancient history, with a grand artistic heritage, great
learning, beautiful folk ways, much piety and devotion,
a high %birthrate, and great native intelligence. nations
about whom the English speaking peoples "knew SO
little" except that they were not Nordics, that, in
their majority they had rejected the blessings of the Re-
formation, that they rated Glow" on the immigration in
dex and had too many consonants in their names.
It is high time that the English-speaking nations con-
Germ themselves a little more about the victims of their
foreign policy. And it would certainly be a primary task
of higher Catholic education in the United States to inn
part to young Americans a solid knowledge about their
brethren in Southern and, above all. in Eastern Europe.
This is a specifically Catholic American task in the
service of Christendom in general and America in par
ticular.
the Son of God. There is no tinues: For every creature Of