Peace for Our Time!

Indelible words spoken by Neville Chamberlain as he landed in Britain after his meeting with Hitler, September 29-30, 1938, where they had signed the Munich agreement with the leaders of France and Italy.

What was this agreement signed by Germany, Britain, France and Italy?

Czechoslovakia must surrender its border territory, the Sudetenland, to Germany in exchange for peace. 

Missing from the deliberations…Czechoslovakia.

German troops marched into the Sudetenland between October 1-10, 1938.

Appeasement 1938

Neville Chamberlain believed he had prevented European war and made a speech with the words, Peace for our time,  

The speech would later seal Chamberlain’s reputation as the chief architect of appeasement.

A year later, World War 2 began on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland

Illusions

What was the Zack family doing as we went about our daily lives in our picturesque little town, between the Rhine and the Belgian border on that autumn day in September 1938, Mutti, Vati and me?

Were we even aware of the history changing event that had just happened in Berlin? Did my parents know and talk with their friends about the possible significance for our small Jewish community? Or were they apprehensive, afraid to engage with thoughts and words that could open up unimaginable horrors, stored deep in the  memory of our people?

Illusions dissolved on the night of November 9-10, 1938 when state organized violence all over Germany and Austria was unleashed against Jewish communities, a  coordinated action, burning synagogues and attacking Jewish businesses, now called Kistallnacht.

And then together with all the other Jewish families we were ejected from our small home town and relocated to the big city, Köln, from where I escaped to England but my parents were part of the 6 million who perished.

The Munich agreement is a true story about Czechoslovakia, Britain and Germany, the consequences of appeasement in 1938 and the tragedy of hiding your head in the sand.

Tragic responses

Could those catastrophic responses… the indifference or a fateful embrace of false hope by so many in September 1938, also be a warning for us today?

On August 15, 2025, Donald Trump, the President of the USA and Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, met in Alaska to discuss Ukraine and a ceasefire.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2014 with Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, escalating into a full scale invasion on February 24, 2022. (AI Overview)

Missing from the deliberations—Ukraine.

The two world leaders parted without reaching an agreement. While not exactly appeasement clearly there was no restraint…

How shall we respond to this moment in time?

Learning from history, according to AI.