Never capitulate!

Spoken as far back, as 1957 by Swiss Major Hans von Dach in Switzerland, a country that had lived practically centuries without war, these words are relevant today as never before. They are relevant for a neutral country, a country that for centuries learned to defend itself, its wealth, its children. But are they relevant to us, TRULY relevant, when the enemy is barely 30 km away? Sometimes it seems - not particularly.

“Our enemy represents a totalitarian regime. It penetrates so deeply into the personal space of every individual, that the fight cannot end even if the army is defeated. Surrender would mean renouncing oneself and therefore cannot be considered. The struggle must be continued until one side or the other is destroyed. There is no other solution.

When two adversaries fight each other with all their strength, as is always the case when it is a question of worldview, the final phase inevitably leads to partisan warfare and civilian resistance. A war leader who undervalues guerrilla warfare or does not consider it at all, makes a mistake, because he is not counting the strength of hearts.

The last battle, and one must admit, the most fierce - will be fought by civilians. It will be fought in the face of deportations, gallows, and concentration camps.”

And at the end the Major adds: “Better to die standing, than to live on one's knees!” Do all of us today think the same way, as that officer of a country that never experienced occupation or deportation thought back then?

I thank the Media Support Fund (MRF) for supporting the post series “War in Ukraine: The Gap Between the Military and Society”