The Lost Cause

Today, the Thema des Tages (The Topic of the Day) in the Badische Zeitung commemorated the 150th anniversary of South Carolina's secession from the Union. When the resulting Civil War between the Yankees and the Rebels ended, bemoaning more than 600.000 dead, many a man in the South instead moaned about the Lost Cause. So far, so bad, but then the author, in his article about the Civil War, managed to smuggle in the German "Dolchstoßlegende" (stab-in-the-back legend), and a "Not all was bad (in the Third Reich)." 

Eventually, the author regarded the feelings of those Americans in the Deep South as something in between.

Propaganda drawing from 1860? Black Union army men under the command
of a white officer are attacking the Confederates.
Notice the couple below on the left-hand side fighting to the finish:
 Is this a stab in the back?

 I shake my head! The Dolchstoßlegende, born after the lost First World War, claimed that it was the home front and socialist Jews who had not supported the German fighting men in those trenches in Flanders. They virtually stabbed them in their backs. It was one of those brainwashings of the people by the right-wingers and later by the Nazis. 

However, in the Civil War, the conspiracy theory accused the Southern generals of being traitors.

Germans remember it well! Philipp Scheidemann, who had proclaimed the German Republic, has a dagger in his hand, while Matthias Erzberger, a catholic Jew of the Zentrum Party, is watching. In the background, wealthy Jews sit on their gold and count their paper money.

Whether in the South it was not all bad before the Confederate States were forced back into the Union, I cannot judge, but all was bad as far as the Nazi regime is concerned! The Nazis started with total domination of the people, changed to a total war, and ended in total defeat.

Here's a lesson: Be cautious when comparing historical processes and events.

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