How to Treat the Germans

First UK edition, first printing.  Book produced to War Economy Standards.  72pp.  Blue cloth-covered boards with red lettering front and spine.  12mo.  Cloth is worn, marked and stained, rubbed and rounded at corners and spine ends, sunned over spine.  Some spotting on endpapers.  Previous owner’s name neatly inked on front free endpaper.  Small indentation in paper affecting half title and title page else internally neat and tidy.  A little loosening. 

Liberal journalist and writer, Emil Ludwig (1881-1948) left his native Germany at the age of 25 seeking the greater freedoms of Switzerland.  He became a Swiss citizen well before Hitler’s rise in Germany.  His voice was heard worldwide as a warning prophet.  In 1936, on a lecture tour through the USA, he warned of the coming war and advocating a boycott of Germany. In 1937 and 1938 he predicted in books and articles not only the ‘imminent war’ but also that Stalin would fight on the side of the democracies and that Stalin would remain the only one of the three dictators to remain in power after the war.  In 1940 he fled Switzerland for the USA, expecting a German invasion – because he was known in Germany as public enemy No. 1  – for years his house had been spied upon by Nazi agents.  Here, from the sanctuary of California, Ludwig once again writes of repeating the mistakes of Versailles and gives a unique characterisation of the Germans to show the allies how to treat them after the war.  A unique piece of writing, of its time and perspective.