The life of Ben Klassen

During the summer of 1939 the political situation in Europe began to heat up rapidly. After Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, the so-called “democracies” that were under the iron-fisted control of the Jewish power structure had evidently decided that Germany must be crushed, must be destroyed at all costs. I was not totally unaware that summer that war might ensue, but like everyone else, had no crystal ball to predict if it would come, and if so, when, or where, or how, or what its outcome might be.
The National Socialist idea was rapidly spreading to other countries. Mussolini had led Italy out of the Communist mire even years before Hitler, and was solidly on the side of Germany. In Britain, Oswald Mosley was heading up the Black Shirts. In America such stalwart heroes as Charles Lindberg, Eddie Rickenbacker, and others were promoting the America First Party and trying to stave off any American involvement in a European war. Simultaneously, the Silver Shirts were active in both Canada and the United States. In Rumania, Ian Antonescu was heading up the powerful Iron Guard. Other countries such as France, Holland, Sweden, Norway, and even several of the South American countries had incipient counterparts that were sprouting up and growing. Who knows? Perhaps National Socialism could take over the world without ever going to war, as they had done inside Germany itself.
The Germans in Canada had for many years celebrated Deutscher Tag (German Day) as a way of expressing their roots and in appreciation of their German heritage. Some of the Mennonites had attended these for a number of years, but it was not until the summer of 1939 that I enthusiastically attended this celebration in Saskatoon. I remember it vividly, although I had already had a few beers. It was held in a large hall downtown, and there was a good-sized crowd. The Canadian authorities were standing by and “surveilling.” They had forbidden the picture of Adolf Hitler to be displayed at the meeting, nor could his name even be mentioned. Nevertheless, I do remember that several fiery speeches were delivered, the red, white and black Swastika flags hung vertically in the background of the stage, and many sporadic Heil Hitler salutes were given repeatedly and enthusiastically. I thoroughly enjoyed the rousing get-together. It seemed to further polarize my dedication to sweep away the rotten old Jewish system and build a healthy New Order worldwide. Come what may, I wanted to be part of it. I had already applied for a visa, a passport, and written to Nord Deutscher Lloyd for steamship passage, and was in the process of making all preparations for the big move. As August approached, I did the usual – stocking, running the binder, to earn a few extra bucks. One day, September 1, to be exact, as I came home at six o-clock after stocking in the field, my brother Korni broke the news to me that war had been declared and I would not likely be going to Germany.
So all my plans were shattered, or at least temporarily delayed. I had to revise my strategy. I could not now get to Germany even if I wanted to. What to do? Well, first I would wait to see the unfolding of events. Events unfolded rapidly, as all the world now knows. After a few days England and France jumped into the fray and declared war on Germany under the specious pretext of “saving” Poland, for communism, evidently. A few days later, good old Canada,
being the faithful patsy for England that she had always been, decided she must stand by the good old “motherland” and
support England, although French Quebec and most of the other nationalities were against war. Even most of those of Anglo descent, especially the Irish, were probably against war, could they have voted on it. But of course, as always in a “democracy” the people never get to vote on the important, meaningful issues, only such trivialities as to which Jewish stooge should be put up front next. It would be laughable were it not so tragic to observe in retrospect as to how gingerly and surreptitiously the Canadian government slipped their people into a major worldwide conflict with tremendous ramifications that were irretrievable and irreversible. Parliament voted an “initial” sum, a paltry $100,000, to “support” Britain in her war against Germany. When we think of the billons and billons that Canada later spent directly on the war, and directly and indirectly subsidizing and supporting Britain before it was over, and the thousands killed in the war itself, this initial piddling sum to get itself sucked into the war seems like the ultimate exercise in hypocrisy and deceit.
Anyway, the war was now a reality and I had to change my plans. I decided I would study engineering here in Canada and then pursue either my studies or my career in engineering in Germany when the war was over. Again, I did not have a crystal ball with which to predict the coming events, but with the Blitzkrieg tactics demonstrated in Poland, perhaps it would be over in a year or two, and, I was confident, under the superior leadership of Adolf Hitler, this time Germany would be the victor. I would yet move to the Germany of my Ideals and help build the New Order. I decided that meanwhile I would enroll in the University of Saskatchewan and get started in my engineering career.
After a hard month of stocking and threshing and earning an extra hundred bucks, I was ready to leave. On September 24 my brother Henry drove me to the little CNR station of Fiske and I boarded the train for Saskatoon. I established board at the Henry Dyck family, who were also Mennonites. The landlord’s brother, Ed, had been a schoolmate of mine at the Rosthern G.E.A. (he was then in the ninth grade) and another brother, Bill, now also studied engineering at the U. of S.
I enrolled in five subjects and entered into the studies with vigor and enthusiasm. I liked what I was studying and I wanted to make a good showing. Unlike the first year in Arts & Science four years earlier, I had no particular problem with my subjects. To my surprise, I found there were three other Klassens, all Mennonites, no relation, in First Year Engineering. The first was a young man by the name of Harold Klassen, who was a fine fellow, but had no special merits to recommend him. The second was a young fellow by the name of Jake. He was a brilliant student, 18 years old, and he was keenly dedicated to his studies. Four years later he was to win the Governor General’s Gold Medal, a most prestigious prize given to that one student in the whole University considered to have made the best grades over their total college enrollment at graduation. The third member of the clan was a man of 29 by the name of Henry Klassen, whom I had also known at the Rosthern G.E.A. eight years earlier. He was not a great student, but he was a cultured man, handsome and quiet, seeking his niche in life and trying to make a living. He had a beautiful, well-trained baritone voice, and he would have loved to make professional singing his career, but the opportunities in that field eluded him. Anyway, we got together and after being at Dyck’s a month, I decided I needed a change of venue. Henry and I agreed to room together and soon found a nice room with board at a family by the name of Bowers. They were a fine English couple who had the tragic misfortune of having to care for a ten-year-old idiot son.
Meanwhile, the war in Europe was spreading, and I watched its progress with interest and excitement. At this boardinghouse there also resided a young lawyer, a bachelor, by the name of Ted Nieman. We would usually listen to the evening news on the radio. Many is the time we were engrossed in lively and sometimes heated discussions of the historic events that were unfolding, such as the pursuit of the Graf Spec and its dramatic scuttling at the mouth of the River Platte off the coast of South America. (December 17,1939)
In the meantime, in extracurricular activities, I took up boxing at the Varsity gym, a course I pursued with enthusiasm for the next two years, and also a few classes in wrestling, which I did not pursue for very long. I also took swimming lessons at the Varsity pool and swam regularly each week. I did see a number of good movies, sometimes taking a girl friend along. However, my most ardent flame at that time was a vivacious Mennonite girl by the name of Lily Zacharias, from Fiske, of whom I had been seeing much for the last year while teaching school. For several reasons she came to Saskatoon every so often, and when she did we always had a most happy reunion.
It was at this time that I also embarked on a program of reading a series of major books. One of the books that I took out of the library and read in early October was Emil Ludwig’s “Napoleon”. His life and career made a big impression on me at that time, and I equated Hitler and Napoleon as two great and outstanding figures of history. I might say, in retrospect, that since then my esteem of Napoleon has decreased and that of Hitler has increased, and I presently regard Napoleon as a major catastrophe that happened to the White Race. Whereas he was undoubtedly a dynamic military genius of the first order and caused a major furor in world history, his twenty years of warfare and 40 battles served the White race badly. These wars killed off millions of Europe’s finest manhood in their prime and thereby considerably lowered the quality of Europe’s gene pool. The most tragic victim of this sorry massacre of White Men killing White Men was the French nation itself. This, after the massive bloodletting of the French Revolution, left France, who had been a first rate power for a thousand years, now and forever a second rate nation. For this we can impugn the Jews, who constituted the basic membership of the Jacobins, and were the prime organizers and instigators of the French Revolution. History will show that the Jacobins were the forerunners of Jewish communism, a force with which Hitler had to deal more than a century after Napoleon, and is still a Jewish cancer on the face of this planet.
Anyway, it was at this time, although I did not realize it, that I was beginning to become a philosopher and beginning to
formulate a meaningful Weltanschauung. During this period I began to keep a bound blue-green notebook, in which from time to time I would write down random impressions of what was going on, and of what I was thinking. This I did for a period of two years, and fortunately, the book has survived unto this day. In the winter of 1940, when I was 22, I entered the following observations in my blue-green notebook.
Wednesday, March 6, 1940. In the fall of 1939 I read Napoleon, by Emil Ludwig, through which I developed an intense interest and admiration for the man. In his life story I found an expression of some of my own ideas and also gained a new outlook and Weltanschauung. I think to get the most out of life a person must work hard, fast and all the time. A timid, secluded life is worse than no life at all – “to have passed thru this world and not even have left a mark in it.” Therefore, it is better to risk life to gain some valuable end than to carefully preserve it and gain nothing. This is shown by Hitler’s personality and even more so by Mussolini. Doing work at the maximum rate of speed and when doing it applying all energy solely to it. The secret of good thinking is concentrating completely on the problem at hand and forgetting about all others – shutting them out – they can by far best be solved by taking a definite other time to solve them by themselves. Doing a lot of thinking and planning at all times, including spare time, for after all, thinking costs nothing and hurts no one and is not unpleasant and yet it is the fundamental origin and cause of all success in work. In solving a problem and planning the “why and wherefore” are very important and must be understood. Details are very important and the success or failure of a large venture may rest on the success or failure of a small detail. A brilliant plan consists necessarily of a large number of carefully worked out details, and not a few “brilliant” ideas. Therefore, to execute a brilliant plan or program the work behind it will determine its success. Never let your mind go idle – have it going like an electric motor at full speed. In working out details, be vacillating, be grasping for a variety of ideas and pick out and select the ones most suitable. Try to think up all the possibilities in each case and just what you would do for each possibility so that when it does come you are ready for instant action. Always, when with people, act as if you were sure of yourself, even when you aren’t. It is better to be sure of yourself and make a mistake than not to be sure of
yourself and make a mistake. It is better to give a wrong answer than no answer at all due to being afraid of giving the wrong answer. Take chances and plan what action you could take in case your chance falls. (From Hitler.) Never let hardship or pain frighten you from an enterprise. They will do you good. If there is something I want to do and am afraid to do it, I must do it immediately. It is always wiser and easier to do it immediately than to put it off and wait in suspense. Have a strong will and determination and regard other people’s wishes as obstacles of no value. Judge all things by their relative value and by no means over value public opinion and convention. They are hampering to action and success. However, listen to other people’s ideas, for they are often material of which wise use can be made. Regard life not as a distant future but as a swiftly passing performance of today from which you are going to grasp your full measure. When speaking you must think intensely, make it lively, think quickly of the most suitable words to express your ideas. Speak as if you were deeply convinced that what you are saying is absolutely right and that you take it for granted that the person listening believes you. However, don’t be fooled and reserve in your own judgment whether or not he believes you. Pronunciation is important. Get plenty of movement into your lips, speaking as clearly as possible, never too quietly or shyly and make the best possible use of your voice. In argument, bluff is valuable. Turn the debate onto grounds that your opponent knows little about and then talk as if you were an authority on it,
even if you are not. It will make the opponent feel ill informed. If it is necessary to use force, decide quickly whether or not you are going to use it. If you do, use plenty of it to carry your objective through immediately. If you aren’t, lead the contest away so that it seems it never came near a showdown. In most cases use force. Some of these ideas I got from Napoleon, some from Hitler, some from Mussolini and some I concluded myself.
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The next day I was involved in a minor incident that I evidently considered of some importance. I made the following entry. Thursday, March 7, 1940. Today 3rd Year Engineers walked into the Drafting Lab, surrounded and overpowered me and tried to shave my mustache. They had a camera there to photograph the scene. I put up a hard fight – punching, kicking and cursing them. First year fellows quickly came up to see. I yelled at them (between curses) to sock these fellows. They (especially Smith) piled in and 3rd year guys got cold feet and gave up without having cut a hair. As soon as I was loose I slugged one guy. They then ambled off. My pants had been torn in the struggle. Dennis Herring and I went down to collect for damages. Half the engineering lab fellows (mostly First Years) followed. We walked into their lab and demanded repair of damage They (3rd years) quickly collected they’d pay the balance of the bill. They’d actually succeeded in cutting a 3rd year guy’s mustache. We first years were sorry a free-for-all had not been pulled off.
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About the end of February, Mrs. Bowers, the landlady, told us all that they would have to close their boarding house, since they were unable to make ends meet. She would probably go to Vancouver, B.C., where she was offered a job. I felt very sorry for the Bowers. The most tragic burden in their family was the fact that they had to care for a ten-year-old son who was a complete moron. I do not remember too clearly anymore what Mr. and Mrs. Bowers looked like, but I will never forget that troubled, idiotic look on the face of this boy. This experience drove home to me the tragedy of having defective and/or deformed children, not only to the child itself, but what a burden and what misery they inadvertently heap on the rest of the family. It also raised the question in my mind – just what is the point of keeping such people alive?
Henry and I went looking for a new place to stay. I found a place with the Schmidt family, not too far away from the University. Henry did not find it suitable and we parted company. The Schmidts were a nice Dutch family, and had two beautiful blonde daughters, Alvina, 16, and Verna, 19. Of the two, Alvina was more brainy and Verna had the better figure and was better looking. Both had that peaches and cream complexion for which Dutch girls are noted. I stayed with the Schmidts after the end of the college term for several months. After a while Verna and I struck up quite a close relationship. Came the end of April and the end of the term. I wrote my exams and since I had made a special effort to do well during the year I made all “A’”s in every subject. But for about a month before the end of the year another major concern had to be addressed, and that was the matter of getting some kind of a job during the summer to earn a few extra bucks.