The Germans who reported the Black Disgrace on the Rhineland have been slandered much by so-called “objective historians.” Typically, they have been accused of the modern sin of racism, and even the defenders of the German people’s honor are not free from this atheistic accusation. Therefore I have taken it upon myself to translate this short article, which was probably written by Franz Pieper (though no author is given), into English. The original German text can be found at Lehre und Wehre, 66 (1920), pp. 237–238. Underlining is mine.
Poor Germany! Since the outbreak of the war, the newspapers have treated us with invented atrocities to such an extent that we are inclined to meet pretty much all news of this kind with suspicion. We were therefore also somewhat suspicious toward the news, which reported almost unbelievable atrocities of the French troops on German territory. But now news about it comes from British and French sources. The London Daily Herald had published from the pen of Ed. Morel such terrible messages that the Universal Service news agency cabled to its correspondent in Paris and commissioned him to ascertain whether there was some truth to the matter. The Parisian correspondent, L. Loguet, answered: “Ed. Morel’s revelations [Enthüllungen] concerning the reign of terror of the French on the Rhine are doubtless based on strong and undeniable facts.” Ed. Morel’s revelations read verbatim: “I have received convincing evidence that the French militarists are guilty of abominable crimes against womanhood, the White race, and civilization. We have before us a series [p. 238] of sworn statements from relatives of these sacrifices, from physicians, lawyers, and others. The number of young girls [jungen Mädchen] who mysteriously disappear from the Saarbrücken and whose dead bodies [Leichen] are later found is becoming ever greater. Reports are coming from Mainz, Wiesbaden, and Ludwigshafen that the municipal councils have to provide ever greater opportunities for the Black troops to ‘amuse’ themselves. It has already cost Saarbrücken 70,000 marks to maintain premises for this purpose. When the mayor of a certain city hesitated to comply with the French demands and spend [verausgaben] municipal funds for such purposes, it was made clear [eröffnet] to him by the French authorities that he was exposing himself to trial by court martial, and it was suggested to him that such premises were especially necessary. Many women have committed suicide after being criminally assaulted by Negroes. Not yet satisfied with having employed hundreds of thousands of primitive African barbarians in this war, they are henceforth sending these hordes throughout [durch ganz] Europe. They have used them to massacre Russian peasants; they have sent them to Turkey and Bulgaria; they have concentrated them in Syria. It is in the Bavarian Palatinate, however, where they are putting these Africans to use on the largest scale. As I hear, there is supposed to be 20,000 to 30,000 of them there. They have shaped themselves into an unthinkable terror there. They attack women and girls, spread epidemics, murder harmless citizens [Bürger], and quite often avoid all control. These hordes are a terrible incarnation of the barbaric policy [Politik] of the so-called peace treaty, which tries to push the clock back 2000 years. The following appeared last week in the Paris Clarté: ‘Apart from the barely restrained bestiality of the Black troops, epidemics are wreaking terrible devastation.’ The rest of this article is not suitable for printing. Those responsible for the transplantation of Black barbarism into European communities [Gemeinwesen] knew that these consequences were inevitable. New elevations are made in tribes [Stämmen] which are in the most primitive stage of development. What an inextinguishable fire of hatred is here gathered on the head of the French people, who as a people are indeed innocent, only the future can clearly [deutlich] show. An outstanding military officer recently said to me, ‘If I were a German, I would forgive everything — but this? Never!’ I insist that this Black rape is a part of the policy laid out nakedly and brazenly in the peace treaty to ruin a whole people, to bind them in shackles of slaves, to degrade them, to tear them apart, and to drive them to the uttermost degree of desperation and humiliation.”
I wonder if the LC—MS will now issue a posthumous condemnation of all the editors of Lehre und Wehre at the time this article was published. Whatever the case may be, it is certain that the Missouri Synod, for as long as it existed, never condemned the imaginary sin of racism, but rather opposed Black transplantation into White countries.
Altlutheraner 