Las Vegas Sun

June 4, 2012

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Sun editorial:

No appeasing evil

The atrocities of World War II should be a chilling reminder to the world

Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

In the 1930s the world’s leading powers tried to stop the rising Nazi threat in Germany by following an ill-begotten policy of appeasement, seeking to placate Adolf Hitler. In 1938, after Britain and France signed an agreement allowing Germany to expand its territory, British Prime Minster Neville Chamberlain infamously declared there would be “peace in our time.”

Less than a year later Nazi Germany invaded Poland, starting World War II. The invasion was 70 years ago today, and the story of the Nazi regime and its atrocities should never be forgotten.

Despite Chamberlain’s declaration, there were clear signs of Nazi Germany’s intentions. Before the war, as Europe watched, Hitler’s government harassed, segregated and jailed Jews and others deemed to be undesirable. It also built an imposing military.

Hitler expanded Germany’s territory through various agreements and treaties. Left unchecked, Hitler grew more brazen.

When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France — the powers in Western Europe — declared war. They had pledged to fight for Poland’s defense, but they didn’t have the means. They had let Germany build up its military into a force that was superior to any other at the time. Nazi Germany was easily able to cut across Western Europe to conquer France.

Hitler also neutralized the power to the east, the Soviet Union, by signing a nonaggression pact. He agreed to split Poland with the Soviets. Two years later Hitler broke the agreement and ordered the invasion of Soviet-held Poland and the Soviet Union.

The Nazis constructed concentration camps across Europe, shipping off Jews and other perceived enemies. More than 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, including more than 1 million at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland.

In the decades since, there have been any number of wars and countless atrocities, from the killing fields of Khmer Rouge to the ethnic cleansing in Darfur. They have all been committed because the world’s leading nations looked the other way or tried to placate a regime. If there is one lesson the world should remember today, it’s that evil cannot be appeased.

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