My
Battle Against Hitler: Faith, Truth, and
Defiance in the Shadow of the Third Reich by Dietrich Von
Hildebrand is one of the types of historical works that I especially love to
read: a memoire.
This book is translated and edited by John Henry
Crosby with John T. Crosby.
The book begins with a nineteen page introduction to
Hildebrand and to the work about to be read.
Hildebrand was a German Roman Catholic
philosopher-theologian who, early on, warned and wrote against the rise of
Nazism. He began his war of the pen
against Nazism in Germany and moved away from Germany – finally and fully – in
1933 when he believed he could no longer safely wage his war on the physical
front. In doing so, he lost all of his
physical goods to the Nazis.
Late in life (he died in 1977), Hildebrand’s second
wife – who was significantly younger than he – said she mourned not having been
with him and knowing his struggle of the pen as it happened. He responded by writing this memoire for her
– his memories of what happened from his vantage point.
The result is a fascinating tale of his thinking,
speaking, and writing against what he believed to be – not merely a bad
philosophy – but an “antichrist” philosophy (289).
There is great value in hearing what the people who
were there (for any event) thought and wrote and did in history. Although Hildebrand’s view is his own, as an
eyewitness to himself and the events around him, his recollections have more
value than a generic retelling of history by someone who was not there – there
is an integrity of being that is found in a first-person account – however
slanted (not to say his is).
The editors have done a fine job is staying out of
the memoir, except to fill in some bland and lend some guidance as the reader
moves along. This is, after all,
Hildebrand that the reader wants to read.
Unfortunately, Hildebrand died as he began his
recollections of 1938, so the book is incomplete.
What exists is historical gold and
philosophical wealth as Hildebrand argues against anti-Semitism by arguing for
the unique image of God found in each person and the way in which Christians
are united in the mystical body of Christ (250).
After the memoire, the editors have appended a
number or articles or pieces of articles that Hildebrand wrote – primarily for
his magazine. Is was excellent of the
editors to include this material, so readers could hear Hildebrand both in
memoire and in essay – which are very different, but united voices. My criticism is that they did not include all
of his essays and that they have edited some of them. Why? I
don’t know. I hope another volume
becomes available in English of his complete writings.
They have also included a wonderful collection of
photographs of people and places of the time.
Anyone who is interested in the Second World War,
Christianity, and/or the value of personhood will find much to value in this
book.
[This review appears on my blog and on
Amazon.com. I received this book free
from “Blogging for Books” in exchange for an honest review.]
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