Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-10-25
Atrocities
Should Be
Remembered
They're Not Propaganda.
Pealer Tells u. S
By WEsTBRO0K PEGLER

IN - ~
BY WESTBRO0K PEGLER
I EST it be said again. when
this war is over, that the
stories of German atrocities
were inventions of the British
propaganda machine and were
spread abroad to infame the
gullible Americans against a
proud but kindly people, the
day-to-day record of the slaugh-
ter of hostages in France and
other conquered lands should be
preserved with special care.
1t will be remembered that
after the first war. counter
propaganda was circulated 10
cleanse the Germans of their
sins against innocent and help
less captives.
1t was scornfully denied that
the Germans had crucified a
Canadian soldier on a barn door
and that they had ever cut of
the hands of babies or the
breasts of Belgian women or
skewered Belgian children on
their bayonets.
But ii had never been seri-
ousiy alleged that they had COM
mitted any of these horrors and
rumors that they had done so
had been investigated and TO-
pudiated long before.
.--4
NEVERTHELESS, the real
~ atrocities remained in the
record, but were forgotten in
the confusion regarding crimes
that never took place. c.,
It was as. though a man Qsilty
of beating ae~cripple to death
with a bat were to set'sup r
hullabaloo that he had nevta
thrown a baby into a furnace
and thus completely iHeFtat-E
Etentiun-frpn fact that he
actually did slaughter the Grip
pie as charged. 80
In France. in one day, so
Frenchmen have died for the
shooting of a German officer.
although IL was not even alleged
that any of these victims had
the remotest connection with
the crime.
II is promised at the present
writing that so more Frenchmen
will be selected at random from
the pens and shot unfess- The
assassins of another German
officer are turned in.
OBVIOUSLY the assassins cam
~ not be turned up by the
French people or their grepeHHg
government and Marshal Petain,
in a speech that must humiliate
all Frenchmen. has even said
that the killers were the agents
OF foreign powers, presumably
Britain and Russia, In which
case certainly there would be no
shadow of an excuse for these
shocking reprisals on his inno-
cent countrymen.
Yet Petain absolves the Ger
mans of blame in his cry 10
Frenchmen TO find the culprits'
and save further victims from
execution.
After this war certainly there
can be no belief in any German
denials of their atrocities. nor
may IL be allowed that the hor-
rors inflicted on the Jews not
only in Germany but wherever
else. the Germans have found
them are civilized conduct.
The Nazis would have IL that
by decree OF the fuehrer the
| Jews have become subhumqTf
and that atrocities on them ~
not count, but il that contention
is sustained, then any man VIII
have a ifferai-rfgfft TO declare
that any one whom he dislikes Is
subhuman and subject TO death
at his hands or any other cruelty
that his nature DEGREES.
The next dictator might select
Christians or Negroes.
THIS war, il will be remem-
Il bered. was touched off finally
after many years OF whining ana
/ seif-pity on the part of the Ger
mans, as a protest against iniqui-
tous -crlelties of the Versailles
Treaty which. itself. was a gen.
tie and forgiving peace by COM
parison with the plan which the
kaiser had in mind.
Now, the nation which yowled
so loud and long over the loss
of some African colonies which,
as Hitler has admitted, were not
of much practical value, and a
few mild repressions, has abol-
ished number of continental
nations and has decreed that the
Catholic Poles, like the Jews in
Poland and everywhere else. are
of a low order and scarcely
: human.
Hundreds of helpless hostages
have been shot for crimes which,
having been in custody at the
time. they could not have COM
mitted and there is no need to
invent atrocities to make the
record against the German ma
ton.
This naturally prompts the
question whether the United
States, once entered into the
war, would be of a mind and
heart to tame the Germans by