THE GOLDEN NAZI
SIR,—There is nothing remotely objective about Mr. Blackham's criticism of Isabel Quigly's attack on the film The Young Lions. So much is evident from his
monstrous assertion that Britain, after Suez, has no right to reproach Germany for Nazi atrocities. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the Sucz ex- pedition, no sane comparison can be drawn between it and the purposeful extermination of millions of human beings.
The fact is, of course, that Mr: Blackham simply ,cannot live with the appalling facts—one can hardly blame him--and he has found his own particular means of running away from them.
Miss Quigly's arguments are given strength by the fact that the film of The Young Lions utterly departs from the book, which portrays the gradual corruption of Christian, the Nazi; a corruption im- plicit in his beliefs. The film makers, in fact, have not only been at pains to show us a 'Good Nazi'; they have wantonly distorted the novel to do so. When he was recently in London, Mr. Irwin Shaw, its author, remarked to me that 'what Isabel Quigly said was exactly correct.
It is all very well for Mr. Blackham to preach that we should hate the sin and not the sinner— but let us at least recognise the sin.—Yours faith- fully,
1114 Sloane A venue Mansions, SW 3
Previous page
