Hitler's peace

Schellenberg braced himself. This was it. Himmler was going to demote him after all.

“That Jew-lover, Roosevelt, must now take the consequences for his refusal to agree to the Fuhrer’s terms.”

Schellenberg smiled with a mixture of relief and amusement. It seemed as though he would be remaining in his position. And it looked as if it wasn’t just the Allies who were busy rewriting history. The first time Himmler had told him of the Fuhrer’s secret trip to Teheran he had added that Hitler’s departure had been precipitated by the discovery that he could not deal with an enemy as cruel and perfidious as Stalin after all.

“What consequences are those, Herr Reichsfuhrer?”

“The war against the Allies may be impossible to win, Schellenberg,” said Himmler. “I think we both know that’s true. But there is still the war against the Jews. The Fuhrer has ordered that the final solution of the Jewish problem is to be given the utmost priority in the coming year. New deportations have already begun in Hungary and Scandinavia, and special camps have been given instructions to increase their turnover.”

Himmler stood up and, clasping his hands behind his back, walked to the window and looked out.

“The work will be difficult, of course. Unpleasant, even. Personally speaking, I myself find this order especially abhorrent. As you know, I have always struggled to find a just peace for Hitler and for Germany.” He glanced back at Schellenberg and shrugged. “But it was not to be. We did our very best. And now…” He walked carefully back to his desk and, sitting down, picked up his fountain pen with its infamous green ink. “Now we must do our very worst.”

Schellenberg breathed a sigh of relief. He was safe after all.

“Yes, Herr Reichsfuhrer.”

EXCERPTS FROM THE WORKS OF WILLARD MAYER

“To be content is to have arrived at the furthest limits of human reason and experience; and there is more satisfaction to be had in the acceptance of what cannot logically be said than in all the moral philosophy ever studied by men. Reason is as inert as a noble gas and functions empirically, by its relation to real existence and matters of fact. And what cannot be tested empirically and is incapable of being proved true or false can never be an object of our reason. To be empirical is to be guided by experience, not by sophists, charlatans, priests, and demagogues.” from On Being Empirical

“All the objects of which we are aware are either impressions we take from the data of sensation, or ideas, which may only be gathered from an impression if that idea is to be logical. In looking to find the meaning of things, we must be empirical concerning matters of fact, or analytical concerning the relation of ideas. But matters of fact are what they are and need reveal no logical relation to each other: that facts are facts is always logically true regardless of rational inspection. Since, however, ideas may also exist as ideas regardless of rational inspection, it will be understood how it is only here, at the level of mere understanding, that there can exist the possibility of philosophy and establishing scientifically what may or may not logically be said. By the same token, since the opposite of any fact can exist as an idea, however illogical, it will be seen as a paradox how any philosophical demonstration of a fact becomes impossible.” from On Being Empirical

“A man need only be convinced of two principles of philosophy in order to find himself liberated from all vulgar creeds, no matter how charismatic these might seem to be: first, that considered in itself, there is nothing in an object that enables us to say anything beyond that object; and, second, that nothing enables us to say anything about an object beyond those observations of which we have direct experience. I say again, let any man take the time to be persuaded of these two philosophical principles, and live his life accordingly, which we might describe as being empirical, and it will be perceived how all the bonds of common ignorance will be broken. In this way does modern philosophy shine the sublime light of science in even the darkest places in Man’s psyche.” from

On Being Empirical