We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again…. This morning I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine. The settlement of the Czechoslovakian problem, which has now been achieved is, in my view, only the prelude to a larger settlement in which all Europe may find peace. On 30 September in 1938, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proudly boasted of his great achievement in signing the Munich agreement: No appeasementĬhurchill said, “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile – hoping it will eat him last.” And while historians will continue to deliberate, discuss and dissect the specific ways in which Churchill’s leadership proved to be critical for victory, I would like to single out three major ideas which defined his outlook, altered the course of the war, and continue to serve as a powerful legacy for contemporary leaders as guides for our endangered generation. The war would drag on until 1945, but Hitler’s path to world domination was stopped. It was really the moment when Hitler could have won the war.”Ĭhurchill turned the tide. The movie’s historical advisor, Phil Reed, director emeritus of the Churchill War Rooms, and Michael Bishop, Executive Director of International Churchill Society, agreed that “It was the most important moment in Churchill’s life and career and the most important historical turning point of the 20th century.
The Darkest Hour gives us some of the historical context for the film’s emphasis on the period of May – June 1940. Winston Churchill played a pivotal role in preventing the nightmare from becoming reality and the world from turning into a living version of hell. Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in the film The Darkest Hour To say the words or even to think the thought that Adolf Hitler might have become a modern-day ruler of the world is to be overcome with the fear of an indescribable nightmare. To have been alive in 1941, as I was, was to recognize the immensity of the threat to civilized mankind and the Herculean effort required to halt what appeared to be the unstoppable forces of the Nazi Third Reich. Jewish faith also demands we share with God the responsibility for combating evil and creating the possibility for the fulfillment of Isaiah’s vision of universal peace. Jewish faith assures us of God’s concern for our survival. But history has its share of horrors – and for righteousness to overcome wickedness Jewish tradition states that we cannot simply rely on miracles history needs heroes for it to bend to the arc of justice. In retrospect we may claim that God would never have allowed it to happen, that the evil which gave birth to the Holocaust would surely not have been permitted to triumph.
There is a frightening realization that strikes one who watches The Darkest Hour, the new film about Winston Churchill’s dramatic appointment to become prime minister of England in 1940: there was a chance that Hitler would have succeeded in conquering the world and effectively bringing an end to Western civilization as we know it.
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