LE FLEAU DE L’EUROPE – LE FLEAU DE L’EUROPE – “The Scourge of Europe” by Jean de L’Ill, edited by Kolmar and Happel. Published by Office Alsacien D’Information, Paris, 1936 – First edition. French. Extremely rare.
An important publication, released in France three years before the outbreak of World War II, presenting the visionary insights of the author, who recognized and understood the threat posed by the Nazi regime long before the world grasped its full scale. This book unveils the dark methods of the German secret police, the Gestapo, providing an in-depth description of their systematic takeover of German society. The author skillfully analyzed the geopolitical landscape of those grim days and drew the correct conclusion: the Nazis were not content with internal domination in Germany but aimed to subjugate all of Europe and establish a new world order. The book details how these plans relied on the Gestapo’s sophisticated repression mechanism, which served both to intimidate the German population and to create a network of control beyond Germany’s borders.
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A specter is haunting Europe… and the entire world. There is not a single country that is not directly or indirectly threatened by it… This specter is that of German espionage… Germany is, in fact, making extraordinary efforts to probe other nations from every perspective—military, economic, political, social, and moral—and seeks to destabilize them through its propaganda. What is the purpose of this multifaceted and extensive activity? It can be summed up in one word: preparation for war… Hitler is preparing for war, arming for war, which he sees as the last opportunity, the last possibility still open to Germany and himself. He will launch this war first against us, the French, whom he considers, as he openly stated in Mein Kampf, to be the mortal enemies of Germany… We have the right and the duty to be vigilant and to show Germany that France fully understands the meaning and objectives of this German policy.” (From the introduction)
The author reveals in detail how exactly the operational mechanism of the German Gestapo functioned, progressing step by step toward taking control of European nations from within. For instance, he accurately presents the number of secret agents active at that time in France, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and other countries – 2,450 in total, along with approximately 20,000 local collaborators. The author describes how these agents gather “material” day and night on the political, economic, and military life of the country where they “work, ” acting under specific instructions – each agent relays the information to their “operator.” The author discloses, one by one, the tasks assigned to the German Gestapo members, their execution methods, the selection process for agents intended to operate outside of Germany, the Gestapo’s involvement in press propaganda in neighboring countries, its interference in films through the placement of its people in the industry, the threats and reign of fear imposed by the higher echelons on the lower ranks to ensure mission fulfillment, the secret actions taken by the Gestapo to suppress any signs of opposition to Nazi Germany’s policies and ideology, the manner in which it embeds “German culture” among wavering populations, the terror it employs against Nazi opponents within Germany, secret arrests and executions carried out by the Gestapo inside Germany itself, its interventions in various industrial companies, the exposure of espionage activities conducted by the Gestapo in violation of international law, and more.
The author writes in the most observant manner of that time:
“If this work of the Gestapo were merely an internal German matter or concerned only refugees, we would not be interested in dealing with it. But we must clearly see that German secret activities could have the most serious consequences for us (the French)… As far as France is concerned, German espionage naturally concentrates most of its efforts on our eastern borders. We can say without exaggeration, to put it mildly, that our Alsace and Lorraine departments are ‘operated’ by a large team of intelligence agents, not to mention the rest of the secret organization.” These words were written four years before Germany’s invasion of France!
The author further reveals the Gestapo’s plans for gas attacks, elaborating extensively on “the danger of covert warfare now emanating from Germany.” He explains how Gestapo agents “disappear” in foreign environments and describes “the methods of the secret agent.” A special chapter exposes the propaganda techniques of Nazi Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels and his absolute control over radio, press, literature, associations, education, and German sports. In this regard, the booklet unveils the well-oiled propaganda machine that was in full operation at the time of its printing, preparing for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, during which the Nazis produced no less than seven million propaganda booklets in 19 languages, all connected to the Olympic Games.
The second part of the booklet addresses the numerous channels through which the Nazis managed, by this stage, to infiltrate the Alsace-Lorraine region with the intent of influencing from within via undercover agents, press, cinema, and other means: “In France, there are more than twenty newspapers or magazines which, under a French guise, operate according to instructions from the Berlin Ministry of Propaganda…”
The author accurately identified Nazi Germany’s global domination ambitions and warns about them in the clearest terms: “It has become a habit among Germans not to hide the plans and desires they cherish and are supposed to keep secret… In their writings, they reveal their intentions to us…
Within about two years, Germany will be ready and will also be driven by the desire to lead Europe into another bloodbath…” He explains that “we must not be mistaken in thinking that Germany’s imperial intentions are primarily directed at Soviet Russia; rather, they have specifically marked France as their first target for conquest… What they want is not merely to retake the territories lost during the last war or to enrich themselves at the expense of other countries. They desire a greater Germany, a global German Empire, of the kind envisioned in Ludwig Reimer’s 1905 book (Germany the Pan-Germanist…).” Additionally, the author precisely outlines how German propaganda operates exactly along the lines drawn by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf (which he refers to as “the German Bible”) and in his early speeches, where he explicitly declared his ruthless imperial ambitions.
Toward the end of the book, under the title “What to Do?”, the author addresses the nations of the world:
“Unite against Hitlerism from the moment it crosses its borders to attack other nations! Unite today, not tomorrow! Left or right, rich or poor, all of you who wish to live in peace and freedom, this Germany, which views you individually or collectively as mortal enemies, compels you to unite! Frenchmen, Europeans, there is no alternative. If you are aware of Germany’s political objectives, you must unite so that this dream of German world hegemony – a hegemony that will exploit you to the last drop of your blood, turning you into miserable slaves – will never become a reality. You must remember your traditions, your history, the glory of your civilization. You must understand that you are superior to this spirit of racial hatred, thirst for conquest, and war that Germany openly declares… Unite now! … Once and for all, it is necessary to forbid German agents from carrying out their criminal operations. We can no longer endure the insult of being fought against and spied on daily, in our own country, by those who consider us ‘mortal enemies, ‘ merely to better attack us tomorrow…”
On the cover, the central themes revealed in the book are highlighted: The Gestapo at work, German espionage, German propaganda, the global hegemony of Greater Germany, and “Let Us Unite.”
Extremely rare. Not listed in the WorldCat library catalog.
168 pages. Very good condition.
