The New York herald., 1920-12-26
Reviewed by H. L. PANGBoRN.
IN THE PRISON CAMPS OF GER
MANY. BY Conrad Hoffman Asso-
clation Press.

NeNtGWtQ Oy Il TtANo10ANANs
The work of the Y NJ. c. A. in Ger
many during the war has not received
the share of public attention 1T
merited. Perhaps the fact that 1t was
done in an enemy country has some-
what obscured it's Importance and
given rise to wrong ideas about its
achievement Thus, this full mar
ratiN by Mr.. Hoffman. who was the
SECRETARY of the international commit
tee of the Y. NJ. c. A. in charge OF the
prisoners of-war work in Germany
from August, 1915. until the summer
of 1919, nearly four years, is of pc
culiar Importance and unusual inter-
est. Moreover, Mr.. Hoffman has done
much more than merely to recount the
welfare and relief work of his or
ganization; his book Is careful pic
ture of life in Germany in war time,
of the German revolution, and of the
state of the country, as it appeared TO
him, when he left it after nine months
of the peace"
Perhaps his summary is the more
valuable in that he looks upon the
German people with a broad, finely
Christian charity. and while not un-
critical. is inclined to make the best
of them. He lived, intimately, among
them during their years of greatest
stress; his conclusions are based on
first hand experience and obserVa-
ton. and have a balanced judicial
quality that is rather unusual. Prob
ably, too, he accurately represents the
opinion of what may be called the
neo- American, that composite clu-
zen who Is becoming dominant in the
United States In place of the dwtnd-
ling remnant of those of purely Eng
lish ancestry. Coming from Kansas in
the summer of 1915, he went to Europe
in a somewhat Wilsonian, neutral
frame of mind. How utterly remote
at that time" says he, was the
thought that America, too. would be-
come involved in the struggle! AT
that time America had little, If any,
interest in the principles at stake"
After four years of observation he
makes this concluding Judgment:
Germany has been most disastrous
ly and ingloriously defeated in war
for which the German Junkers and
Prussian mlitarists were responsible
rather than the German people. The
latter. through centuries of superim-
,osed discipline of a most intensive and
rigid type and through a system most
efficient in the utilization of school,
church and all other agencies for pro-
pagating it's militaristic ideas, were
thoroughly cowed into submission. .
To-day the German people recognize
how far they were misled by these IN
triguing and shrewd superIors.
The revolution resulted In the over
throw Of the system and of the lead
ers, to whom the war is generally at
tributed. The people had come to
look upon Wilson as all powerful. as
sincere, and above all, as Just.
"It is high time, now that Germany
has been defeated, that the hand OF
Christian helpfulness and fellowship
be extended to the German people.
II is necessary to get his final view
point In order to estimate the book as
a whole. He rs more or less conscious
ly loobtng on the bright side of things
and expressly refrains from treating
the other side of the picture. His
summary of prison conditions follows
Much has been said about the
cruelty shown in the treatment of the
allied prisoners of war in Germany
The writer frankly admits that there
were instances of this, but in the fe-
verish heat of desire to arouse senti
ment against Germany these cases
have been generalized and described
as representing the universal condi-
ton of the prison camps in Germany
Conditions behind the lines and in the
occupied territory, as we'll as in the
reprisal camps. are not included in the
present considerations (Mr. Hoffman
either did not see or refrains from de-
scribing these 'reprisaT camps. 1t II
worth noting in passing that ther'
were no such camps in any other bel
igerent country He continues:
THE writer feels justified and quail