Doctor Who_ Just War - Lance Parkin [35]
Steinmann nodded his head, gracefully conceding defeat on that issue. ‘You’re an exceptionally well-informed man, Doktor. So why can’t you see that the world has changed?
We are witnessing the twilight of the ancient regime. This is obvious to every German person, because of what has happened to us during this century. Our colonial possessions were taken off us after the last war; we saw our economy collapse. But we rebuilt and now we have grown stronger than ever before. Capitalism is dead; imperialism is dead; democracy is dead. What remains? Communism? Do you have any inkling what hardships the Russians are suffering under Stalin? How that once great country has collapsed?
The British intelligentsia idolizes a man who has killed millions of his own people, both deliberately and through his own incompetence. Food sits rotting in fields. Cement is shipped from one city to another, but it sets before it arrives. I predict that when we attack, the Russians will turn on their own leaders and that they’ll refuse to fight us. In the slums of England and France, illiterate children die of preventable diseases. What “freedom” do they have under bourgeois democracy? That era is over!’
Steinmann was only inches from the Doctor, and he kept his voice level. His eyes were a piercing blue, his profile and bearing made him imposing, but the most frightening thing about him was that he looked so ordinary. This man wasn’t mad, or a fanatic; he was in complete control of himself.
Steinmann continued. ‘When this war has finished, the British and French empires will be gone, and a new Europe will have sprung up, a vast area controlled by Germany, the greatest empire the world has ever known. We shall enter a new golden age of technological achievement. Fascism is the future. Not just a fusion of all the old styles of government, but also something new and glorious. Have you seen Albert Speer’s plans for Berlin? By the end of the next decade it will be the greatest city the world has ever seen. Every sign of decadence and corruption will be burnt away from Europe.
The slums and ghettos will be cleared, criminals and degenerates will be eradicated, moribund economies will be resurrected. In Fascist cities, grand palaces, great amphitheatres, vast offices and factories, superb autobahns, huge public spaces will be constructed. Every city in the world will be a monument to Fascist victory, to the invincibility of the Reich. That, Doctor, is why our armies were welcomed by cheering crowds in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, even in Paris itself. That is a fact.
‘The British pretend that the German people are, what was the phrase? — “writhing under the Nazi yoke”.
Nonsense, we have never been more prosperous, have never had such firm leadership, such belief in our destiny. I heard word this morning that we have entered Bulgaria. We march onwards. I am the son of a Dresden shoemaker: could any Englishman of my upbringing have risen as far through the ranks? You see: we are not ogres. I am not an... alien. I am a reasonable man.’
‘A man of wealth and taste,’ murmured the Doctor.
‘Is that a quotation?’ Steinmann asked, trying to place it.
‘Not yet, no. But it will be in the future.’
‘You see, Doktor? You are already thinking like a Fascist, thinking of what is to come. A reasonable man such as yourself has nothing to fear. I understand your moral objection: you see the war, you see the people dying — on both sides — and you wonder whether there is another way.
There isn’t. The world must be purified by the flames of this final battle. The war will be swift, though. See how the Netherlands fell in four days and how we swept across France in less than a month? When the time comes, our paratroopers will take London in a day and our eastern army will be at the gates of the Kremlin in three weeks.
It is inevitable, before a new age can rise from the ashes.’
‘How very Wagnerian,’ remarked the Doctor dryly.
‘I loathe Wagner.