Bilgehan Uçak wrote: Hitler is after Yakup Kadri

Which is worse: being one of the country's most important writers and having your magazine shut down by the state, being exiled and immediately appointed ambassador, or being swiftly occupied by Nazi armies, first in Prague and then in The Hague, within a short period of time?

Yakup Kadri began his duty as Ambassador in Prague in 1935 and remained there for four years until the country was occupied by Nazi Germany.

As soon as he arrived, he spoke of a state of mind he recognized as "war psychosis."

Hitler hasn't even uttered the word "Sudetenland" yet, but he is slamming the Treaty of Versailles.

Yakup Kadri, who has just arrived in the country, is astonished by the indifference in Prague.

“But, for some reason, I don’t know, the poor and rich structure of Czechoslovakia, the paved soil of Czechoslovakia, seemed unaware of this situation, and Prague, this dream city that the Czechs called Golden Prague, with its castles, cathedrals, monuments, fountains and gardens, seemed to still be living the glorious life of the Bohemian kings.”

Moreover, in this country, which Hitler described as a dagger “stuck in the heart of Central Europe, its handle in the hands of Moscow,” the Sudeten Germans began to raise their voices louder day by day, as if inviting Hitler.

Yakup Kadri, who says that all this uproar took place under Hitler's "conductorship," writes that Czechoslovakia only understood the seriousness of the situation "at the end of March 1938 - in the days immediately following the new Anschluss."

"At that time, in Prague, I think it was only possible to understand the disaster that was approaching with giant strides, month by month, week by week, by asking the Jews who had escaped from Germany. They, better than anyone, knew what the Berlin Pharaoh had the power to do. For in the flesh of each of them, marked with the fiery (J) mark, the wrath of that Pharaoh—no, no—that Antichrist—was aching like an incurable wound."

The novelist Yaban , who approaches those people more as a novelist than an ambassador and tries to understand them, expresses it as follows.

"(…) they no longer had any trust in human laws or faith in God's justice. Like the Nazis, they began to see Hitler's will as superior to all other powers, and believing this to be a twist of historical destiny, they fell into the same confused state of mind as the Israelites during their first exodus. On the one hand, they were in rebellion, on the other, in fear, and on the other, in resignation."

While all those who escaped from Germany were saying that Hitler would definitely enter Prague, no one listened to them. Yakup Kadri said that what they were saying was "not only beyond reason but also beyond imagination" and wrote that all kinds of facilities were made available to these people so that they would not create unnecessary panic in society, so that they could go to other lands.

Yakup Kadri is also furious that Chamberlain handed over Czechoslovakia to the “Nazi dragon” in Munich.

According to Yakup Kadri, the Czechoslovak army could be described as “perfect” and was “far superior to the Wehrmacht of that time in terms of quality of materials and equipment.”

He describes, with the penetrating eye of a novelist, the state that war brought to a society after the Sudetenland concession granted to Hitler.

"Unless a great disaster befalls a nation, all moral and character values are so mixed up that it is not clear who is on the right path and who has strayed into crooked paths."

In this chaos, the specter of pessimism and despair begins to loom.

You could say that in those days, Czechoslovakia resembled a sinking ship. Here, everyone was preoccupied with their own lives and property, and the cause of their country had been completely forgotten. Gossip about those who had sent their families to France, Switzerland, and England, or even those who, finding these places insufficiently safe, had fled to South American countries, and those who had handed over their shops, factories, and businesses to foreign hands, constituted the sole topic of conversation in Prague.

Yakup Kadri, who says he has heard many stories of women "surrendering their bodies to any stranger they encounter" in order to escape across the border, claims that the swamp of prostitution and debauchery into which the Czechoslovaks fell is one of the most horrific examples in history, adding that "even the most elegant hotel lounges have become markets for girls and women, reminiscent of the old slave markets."

And when, on a March day, Hitler's army officially occupied all of Czechoslovakia, including Prague, there was no one left to resist.

Everyone, both soldiers and civilians, accepted defeat long beforehand, even though they actually had the strength to resist; perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they were already psychologically defeated.

After the occupation, Yakup Kadri's ambassadorial career began in The Hague.

The Anschluss took place, Czechoslovakia was occupied, but the indifference in the Netherlands was enough to stop Yakup Kadri's mind.

Europe has closed its eyes and ears; it neither sees nor hears the roar of the approaching tanks.

"When I was appointed ambassador to The Hague, the war had already broken out five or ten days ago, and Poland was either finished or about to be finished."

Despite all this, there is no trace of war on The Hague's agenda.

The entire city of The Hague could be described as a display of jewelry, gold, silver, and antiques. At every step was a jeweler, a shopkeeper, an antique furniture maker… And everyone was so hungry that no one even glanced at them. For everyone's home was filled to the brim with silverware, antiques, and jewelry, just like the shop windows.

The great belief and wish for the impassability of the Maginot Line led the Dutch to accept even the most concrete truths.

Then, although it may seem very strange from today's perspective, deep analyses were made to show that the German occupation of Denmark and Norway changed the course of the war, and therefore the danger for the "lowlands", including France, was averted.

"Here in the Netherlands, the winter months of 1940 were passing peacefully and pleasantly with such predictions and interpretations."

But when wishes give way to reality and the sky fills with Luftwaffe planes that resemble a swarm of bees, it is inevitable to be caught unprepared.

"But alas, not long after, on the night of May 10th, I would wake up from one of my peaceful and secure sleeps, to the roar of the Luftwaffe's engines, just before dawn."

Yakup Kadri has been caught in the advance of the Nazi army, after Prague and now in The Hague.

Still, he remembered the reassuring information given by the Dutch Foreign Minister just a few days ago; moreover, "wasn't it just seven or eight hours ago that Madame van Teuyl, the Queen's Minister of the Palace, was playing bridge peacefully and comfortably right here in our embassy with Mrs. Karaosmanoğlu and the wives of the Greek and Italian ambassadors?"

The sun of the lively bridge party is drowned out by the noise of low-flying aircraft.

"German attack? What's the point?"

Yakup Kadri does not want to believe it and finds various explanations, but now, together with the entire population of The Hague, he is watching this attack.

He also encountered German paratroopers here.

"These intrepid fighters of the Luftwaffe were young men, aged between eighteen and twenty, fresh and hairy."

Unlike most of his colleagues, the ambassador does not judge the fascist soldiers of the Nazi army, but tries to understand them.

"Damn it, damn that Hitler! How could he not take pity, how could he slaughter the most beautiful buds of an entire youthful nursery, throwing them handful by handful, heap by heap, into those fields of fire without a tremor in his hand? Hitler had not only slaughtered their bodies, he had seized their souls as well. He had ripped the humanity from their hearts, turning them all into automatons."

Yakup Kadri continues.

"He left nothing in them, neither consciousness, nor heart, nor conscience. If he had left anything... if he had left anything, these young people would have been hesitant and disgusted to undertake such a savage act against Dutch soil and the Dutch people."

Yakup Kadri, a living witness to the Nazi atrocities in every corner of the Netherlands, was called back to Turkey after Seis-Inquart, whom he described as "put the skeleton of a horse's head on a knobby stick and give it to a lame man to walk around in" and whom he called a "scarecrow" and was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Tribunal, occupied the country with his police, Gestapo, and SS units and left Rotterdam untarnished.

But this will not be an easy journey either, as the return route will pass through Berlin.

Yakup Kadri is welcomed by Ambassador Hüsrev Gerede in Berlin.

But war-weary Yakup Kadri is in no mood to enjoy anything, and what's more, the indifference of the war in Berlin is enough to pique his interest.

“During the ten days spent in Berlin, I observed almost everywhere and on every occasion the indifference of German citizens to the German victory – despite Hitler’s orders.”

Yakup Kadri, who left Germany, made a striking observation while passing through Czechoslovakia by train.

"However, I couldn't understand how it happened. As soon as I crossed the German border and arrived in Czechoslovakia, I suddenly found myself in a world more terrifying than the Siberia of a novel. Along the entire length of the railways, men, naked to the waist, were breaking rocks, digging earth, and carrying loads under the scorching July sun. They were so parched that it was impossible to distinguish some from African Negroes and others from American Indians, and sweat was pouring down their foreheads and bodies in torrents."

Despite bringing Europe to its knees one after another, Yakup Kadri is not sure that Germany will be the ultimate victor in the war. As an ambassador who has faced the Nazis, he fears that misinforming his country could lead to major problems.

Moreover, the Nazi ambassador to Ankara, Von Papen, was, in the words of Yakup Kadri, "doing all the flattery possible to drag Türkiye into such an abyss, giving guarantee after guarantee; Hitler was bringing messages of friendship to our republic; he was expressing his admiration for Atatürk" and doing many other things.

One of Yakup Kadri's greatest prides was that Türkiye did not fall behind Von Papen and sided with the "democracy front" rather than with Hitler, who seemed powerful at the time.

Still, Yakup Kadri can never escape the Nazis.

After a very short time in Türkiye, he was appointed to Switzerland, this time as the Ambassador to Bern.

Even though Switzerland had declared that it would remain neutral and was not invaded, it was surrounded by Nazis.

Yakup Kadri claims that there were economic reasons why Switzerland was not invaded.

The fact that many prominent figures of the party, especially Göring, the Nazis' number two, had their fortunes in Swiss banks dissuaded the Nazis from the idea of invasion and aerial bombardment.

In addition, some of the electricity that allows factories in Germany to operate at full capacity is produced in Switzerland.

As it becomes clear day by day that the outcome of the war will change, Switzerland begins to host more and more immigrants.

Yakup Kadri also witnessed the end of the war during his term as ambassador.

He served as Türkiye's Ambassador in Bern, Switzerland, until he went to Iran in 1949.

Although the World War that caused the deaths of millions was over, Yakup Kadri, a great novelist and now an experienced ambassador, sensed the coming Cold War.

After the collapse of the Hitler regime, which had shaken the entire European continent for five years, the giant shadows of Russia on the one hand and America on the other began to loom over the people of this continent like a new sign of danger.

The Diplomat in Force is a very important testimony that Yakup Kadri wrote after finishing his ambassadorial career, which he started against his will, and that brings together diplomacy and literature.