The Unseen Danger in Kosovo
The Serbs fought on our side in two world wars, and Germany fought against us in both of those wars. How very strange to see that alliance reversed today.
Here is the simple truth that we all should be able to see. Serbia is no threat to Europe or America. But Germany has routinely been a dangerous threat to Europe and the world! And whether we realize it or not, they still are today—even more so than in the past.
The only real winner in our war with Yugoslavia will be Germany. America and Britain will be the great losers. They will grow weaker as Germany grows in power.
It has been said often that “the first casualty of war is the truth.” That probably has never been more true than in this war.
Germany Backs Albania
Yugoslavia has already lost the states of Croatia and Slovenia because of Germany. A December 8, 1991, article in the New York Times titled, “U.S. is at Odds With German Backing for Slovenia and Croatia,” explains Germany’s historical ties with the Yugoslav “breakaway” republics (emphasis mine throughout): “Germany has long historical ties, both glorious and shameful, to Slovenia and Croatia. Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and many people there still identify with the German-speaking world. There has also been German influence in Croatia, and during World War II, Croatia was ruled by a pro-Nazi regime.
“This aspect of Croatian history, and the fact that the Tudjman government has refused to disassociate itself from the Croatian fascists who ruled the republic in the 1940s, has made European leaders unwilling to move quickly toward recognition.”
That was said in 1991. As it turns out, because of German pressure, those leaders did move quickly! They should not have even recognized Slovenia and Croatia, considering Germany’s past—a nation which caused the deaths of 60-70 million people by starting both World Wars. That is in the living memory of many people on this earth.
Remember this important principle: If you start building on a faulty foundation, the structure cannot stand the storms and tests of time. If we build on a false premise, it will end badly.
Germany recognized these breakaway republics and then supported them with troops and armaments. America (and almost the whole world) strongly opposed Germany’s plans in the beginning. But the U.S. weakened and then even decided to support Germany in their war to control the Balkans!
Then the civil war spread into Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Serbs lost control of a large portion of this republic also.
Now the Serbs see Germany supporting a guerrilla army of Albanians. The guerrillas call themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army (k.l.a.). Kosovo was comprised of 90 percent Albanians. These Kosovar Albanians, along with Albania and Germany, support the guerrilla army against the Serbs.
“The German Ambassador made evident the very good relations between the two countries [Albania and Germany] and voiced the will of his government to consolidate and promote further these relations. He highlighted the efficiency of various projects of the German assistance in Albania and stressed that they will be expanded in the coming months.
“Albanian Foreign Minister Milo stressed that Germany is one of the most important countries in the foreign policy of Albania” (Albanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release, Aug. 6, 1997).
Germany is probably the strongest foreign industrial power in Albania. So their ties are unusually close.
There is also direct support coming from Germany. There are 600,000 Albanians in Germany. Many of the k.l.a. guerrillas left their families behind in Germany to come and fight against the Serbs in a civil war which the German-supported Albanians started.
Germany is also giving financial support to the k.l.a. According to BBC News, “In addition to money sent home to relatives [in Germany], Kosovo’s internationally unrecognized government-in-exile has been collecting a tax of 3 percent of earnings. Its Prime Minister, Bujar Bukoshi, who is based in Germany, has repeatedly denied that the money is used to buy arms—he says that it’s spent on running the health and education services” (Aug. 5, 1998). But does anybody believe that?
Kosovo’s “internationally unrecognized government-in-exile” has a prime minister, who is based in Germany, and operates freely with the blessings (and direction?) of the German government!
The k.l.a. guerrilla force didn’t just happen. They were raised up, and are now directly supported by Germany—the powerhouse of Europe.
Germany has also been encouraging nato attacks with the strongest language. The German defense minister, Rudolf Scharping, said in a March television interview on ZDF that “genocide is starting.” Very strong vocabulary. He caused many to think about genocide. Now it is common to hear that word used regarding Kosovo.
The Australian newspaper reported on April 1, 1999: “With thousands of refugees continuing to stream out of the war-torn province, German Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping claimed in Bonn last night that evidence had emerged of concentration camps being set up by Serb forces.”
People watch television and see the streams of Albanian refugees. Then they totally blame the Serbs. Most know very little about Kosovo, yet talk of “genocide”—the deliberate and systematic destruction of a race. Now there is talk about “concentration camps.” “Genocide” and “concentration camps”—words introduced by the German defense minister.
It is true that after a powerful nato air attack, the Serbs responded violently to save what remains of their country. But there was little mentioned about refugees before the nato attacks. In fact, the initial purpose of the war was to protect the Kosovar people in their homeland. That purpose has failed. Is nato blameless?
Germany Pressures nato
Here is a most alarming report from Stratfor Intelligence Systems: “Serbian Radio in Belgrade on September 22 broadcast a scathing commentary, charging Germany with ‘warmongering’ and warning Europe against the alleged rebirth of German fascism” (Sept. 25, 1998).
Call the Serbs what you like, but that is exactly what is happening in Yugoslavia!
The report continues: “More pointedly, Serbian Radio cited Germany’s record in the two World Wars, and charged that Germany harbors ‘open ambition to become the master of Europe.’ Questioning Europe’s silence on Germany’s behavior, commentator Milika Sundic said, ‘It is difficult to comprehend and accept that Europe has become Germany’s slave.’ Sundic went on to claim that ‘Germany contributed the most to the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia,’ and that ‘Serbia has known for some time that Germany was behind the [k.l.a.] terrorism in [Kosovo].’”
Who can present any evidence to refute these powerful words?
“The fact is that Germany is one of the leading voices pushing for nato intervention in Kosovo. In a meeting of natodefense ministers in Portugal on September 24, which resulted in a virtual ultimatum to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to cease the fighting in Kosovo or face natoair strikes, only Germany’s Rühe called for a firm deadline to be set for intervention. Rühe said, ‘We must move quickly to an ultimatum in the next ten days or less…. We must do something for the people on the ground and not just issue one more resolution after another.’… [Is German’s penchant for blitzkrieg warfare beginning to surface?]
“Rühe has argued against awaiting a [United Nations] mandate on the use of force against Serbia. Said Rühe, ‘Pictures of people [in Kosovo] camping out in the open…are in themselves an ultimatum.’ Moreover, and more to the point, Rühe said, ‘We must avoid to be dependent on a Russian veto.’ He claimed that the current relationship between nato and Russia presumes that ‘Russia has no veto whenever nato needs to act.’…
“Germany is leading the campaign for a quick and, if necessary, military solution to the conflict in Kosovo….
“Germany is also extremely concerned about U.S. vacillation in its military commitment to European stability, particularly to the use of nato as a policing tool. That U.S. vacillation has led to the utter disdain in which Serbia holds nato. Germany is looking ahead to the day when it must take a leading role in the defense of Western Europe, and it does not want to take on that role with a dull knife.”
The Serbs see clearly that Germany is behind the breakdown of the former Yugoslavia. Let’s not forget that all of Europe, the U.S. and the UN were against Germany, when they recognized and strongly supported the breakaway of Slovenia and Croatia. But Germany prevailed. Croatia’s breakaway led to civil war, which continues to this day. America’s secretary of state at the time said that “Germany had a certain responsibility” for the Yugoslav war. But he was quickly silenced! And no leader in our government has made such a statement since.
Germany’s Master Plan
Germany has a master plan. We have warned about that master plan since immediately after World War II. (Write for our free booklet, The History and Prophecy of Germany.)
Margaret Thatcher, former British prime minister, said this about the European Union in October 1995: “You have not anchored Germany to Europe; you have anchored Europe to a newly dominant, unified Germany. In the end, my friends, you’ll find it will not work.”
Bernard Connolly, in The Rotten Heart of Europe, said the European Union was only a “cloak for German ambitions.”
At least we ought to consider such authoritative voices.
First of all, the Germans want to control Europe. That means they must gain control of the Balkans. Their fiercest enemy there is the Serbs.
Now, if 75 percent of nato’s military power is supplied by the U.S., what does that mean? Germany is actually pressuring and directing nato—especially the U.S.—to carry out their own ambitions within Europe!
All of Europe, the UN and America caved in to Germany, in spite of their responsibility for the deaths of 60-70 million people in World Wars I and II!
Now Germany has all of nato fighting for their cause, and it seems nobody wants to even discuss how it all began.
Is it so hard to understand why the Serbs are so enraged? Their country is being systematically destroyed—primarily by Germany. What country would not fight against such an outrage? Does any nation really see the Serbs’ point of view?
The German master plan is very similar to what they have done in the past. The only real difference is, it is much more subtle—so far.
If the Western world would only remember the recent past of Germany, it would frighten the life out of us.
The March 26 New York Times stated, “For the first time since the end of World War II, German fighter jets have gone to war, taking part in the attack on Yugoslavia as part of a nato force and marking this country’s definitive emancipation from post-war pacifism….
“Still, the German participation in air raids on Yugoslavia is potentially explosive, for it will confirm every dark Serbian suspicion about the West. If there has been a single obsession in Serbian policy this century, it has been to prevent what Belgrade sees as German expansionism in the Balkans. [This is not an obsession without justification.]
“‘We are not ready to make a distinction between the bombs of Adolf Hitler from 1941 and the bombs of nato,’ Vuk Draskovic, the Yugoslavian Deputy Prime Minister, said.
“Strong German support for Croatian independence from Yugoslavia, and Croatia’s adoption of the hymn ‘Danke Deutschland’ when that independence came in 1991, only reinforced Serbian misgivings.” Croatia clearly knows that their revolt succeeded because of Germany.
Are the Serbs the only ones who see the dangerous rise of a militant Germany once again? Germany poses a danger thousands of times greater than the Serbs could ever pose to Europe and the world.
The Serbs have good reason to fear, since they were victims of the German and Croatian Nazis of World War II. One Trumpet reader from Indiana recently wrote to us, “After reading your article ‘Croatia Reveals the Rising Beast’ in the January 1999 issue…I would like to drop you a few lines in order to express my deepest gratitude to you for what you have done for me as a human being by publishing that article so that millions of other human beings in the world can understand the Serbs.
“As an American of Serbian descent and a survivor of the horrible Croatian Holocaust during World War II, I would like to tell you, my dear friend, how much I appreciate your personal involvement and effort, and how immensely I am grateful to you for your courage, humanity and patriotism for publishing that article in your magazine. I can assure you that from now on, you’ll be my dear friend as long as we live.”
A Warning Unheeded
On several occasions, we have alerted our readers to a shocking World War II intelligence document. The U.S. declassified it in 1996 and it received only sparse news coverage. Yet, even more disturbing than the deep stupor the press is in is the fact that the U.S. government did not make it public until 1996!
The document, detailing an August 1944 meeting between top German industrialists, reveals a secret post-war plan to restore the Nazis to power. Several of Germany’s elite industries were represented, including Messerschmitt and Volkswagenwerk. These companies, the document asserts, must “prepare themselves to finance the Nazi party which would be forced to go underground.”
By 1944, they knew they would lose World War II and were already planning for the next round! “Existing financial reserves in foreign countries,” it says, “must be placed at the disposal of the Party so that a strong German Empire can be created after the defeat.”
Those at the 1944 meeting understood that the most prominent members of the Nazi party would be condemned as war criminals. “However,” the document maintains, “in cooperation with the industrialists it is arranging to place its less conspicuous but most important members in positions with various German factories as technical experts or members of its research and designing offices.”
How alarming! Why was so little written about this in 1996? Why did it take so long for it to be declassified? America and Britain have fallen asleep—our peoples do not understand what is happening behind the scenes!
That is why we feel compelled to return to some of these issues again and again. No one else will! (Since we first referred to this document, several have asked how they might obtain a copy. It is printed in full on pages 9-10.)
Historians have long debated whether or not a secret Nazi plan was made for a post-war, international network. Now that it has been confirmed, as Elan Steinberg of the World Jewish Congress said, “the central question is whether it has been carried out.”
Brian Connell, in his 1957 book A Watcher on the Rhine, offered abundant proof of that plan being carried out. He drew attention to a watershed event in 1947, just two years after the war, when Allied authorities foolishly handed over denazification responsibilities to, of all people, the Germans! After 1947, denazification in Germany, according to Connell, was a farce!
Consider Bavaria as just one example. “The Bavarian administration,” Connell wrote, “is largely in the hands of those who controlled it under Hitler…. Almost all of the 1000 teachers who were removed for political reasons have been reappointed, representing roughly 60 percent of the teaching staff employed by the Ministry of Education. Sixty percent of the 15,000 employees in the finance ministry are former Nazis, and 81 percent of the 924 judges, magistrates and prosecutors in the Ministry of Justice.”
There was also an attempt made to liberalize a narrow method of teaching in education. Connell states, “New teachers were appointed, and a degree of independence assured to individual instructions, which should have made education for democracy a feasible proposition. But many of the former Nazi teachers have found their way back.”
Later, Connell states, “In western Germany, the newly prosperous Ruhr industrialists, the still impenitent core of former Nazis…represents a challenge to the democratic order.”
Nazism is far from being dead in Germany! Today, right-wing extremism continues to increase dramatically—even in German elections! Should that surprise us?
Trumpet readers are also well aware of another report we have drawn attention to. Like the declassified document, this report has never received much press coverage.
The report was given by Herbert W. Armstrong from the United Nations on May 9, 1945, just nine months after the secret meeting between German industrialists. In it, Mr. Armstrong said “The war is over, in Europe—or is it?”
What does he mean by that? Did he know something no one else did? He sure did!
“We don’t understand German thoroughness,” he said. “From the very start of World War II, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War III! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground.”
Many people scoffed at Herbert W. Armstrong’s warning message in 1945. Yet look at how closely his report mirrors what was said in the secret document that was not made public until 50 years later! (Read excerpts of that 1945 radio address of Mr. Armstrong’s below.)
Only God’s messengercould give such a prophetic message over 50 years ago!
Think about what he said.
Think about what was determined at that secret meeting among top German industrialists.
Think about what Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt said right after the war, something we have also quoted often. (“It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism.”)
Yes, think about those things and then consider what is happening now. Our leaders today keep acting like Germany has repented. But the Germans continue in their militant spirit, in spite of the unparalleled crimes they have committed!
We have forgotten our strong commitment to control Germany after World War II, and we are going to pay an indescribable price for that weak and despicable failure in leadership!
You don’t prevent Germany from starting World War III by helping them build an empire in Yugoslavia and Europe!
The spirit of that intelligence document is being implemented in Yugoslavia today (and also in other parts of the world). Germany’s action is not that of a people deeply repentant for the deaths of 60-70 million people in two world wars!
Remember, the Bible says our end-time “lovers” are the ones who inflict great suffering upon us—not our obvious enemies. However, we like to think of ourselves as righteous while we reject God’s warnings!
What Herbert Armstrong prophesied for over 50 years has now come to pass in frightening detail! The Philadelphia Church of God continues to proclaim that same message.
This is all prophesied in your Bible. But you don’t even need the Bible to see that terror is about to strike our peoples!
The American and British peoples are without excuse. And so are you. Only God can save you from a disastrous future. Now is the time for every wise person to heed this message. There is so little time left to respond.
God’s Bigger Master Plan
In Isaiah 10:5, God says, “O Assyrian [the modern Germans], the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.”
God says, “I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets” (v. 6). God says the Germans are a tool in His hands. They tread humans down “like the mire of the streets.” Germany’s rise to power is God’s doing, and we urgently need to understand why! The living God has a master plan too!
Isaiah’s prophecy was recorded in a book for this end time (Isa. 30:8). So God’s people must know who Assyria is in prophecy! Otherwise God looks like a fool.
God will use the Germans in His master plan. They are to be sent against “an hypocritical nation”—people who work hard to appear righteous, but are very evil.
This is God’s master plan for America and Britain if they don’t wake up and repent!
“Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so….” Even the soon-coming leader of the German-led beast power will not think he would ever destroy or cut off nations. But that’s precisely what the remainder of the verse says: “…but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few” (Isa. 10:7).
Who in these modern times has cut off many nations in warfare? At least we should remember what Germany did in World Wars I and II! But that is the way Germany has acted throughout history. They are a great and talented people, but too often overwhelmed by an evil system.
Many nations have been destroyed by the power of the Germans. In Anvil of Civilization, author Leonard Cottrell says, “In all the annals of human conquest, it is difficult to find any people more dedicated to bloodshed and slaughter than the Assyrians. Their ferocity and cruelty have few parallels save in modern times”—meaning Germany.
The greatest war machine in all of history was Assyria. They were great conquerors. They had superior weapons and superior organization. And they are back on the world scene today, becoming very militant—but thankfully for the last time!
The Assyrians and the Germans are obviously the same people. Their militant, cruel ways continue until Christ returns.
God’s Protection
Zephaniah 2:1-3 says, “Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired [God’s faithful people]; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord,all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.” God is saying that if His people are loyal to what they have learned from Him, they can be hidden from the horrors that are soon to come upon this earth!
What is the key to being protected? We must seek God before the Tribulation strikes. That is the formula for escape. Seek God now! “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isa. 55:6-7).
What is happening in Kosovo is a major sign of how close Germany is to achieving its worldwide ambition.
The history of Germany reveals where the events in Europe today are leading. More importantly, God’s prophecies give us an advance preview of what is about to occur in Europe—and how it will affect the whole world. What can you do before it is too late? Seek God while He may be found.