Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-09-15
Hitler Wrote
Propaganda
Against Nazis
PeeIer Says His Actions
Hurt More Than Films
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

htlcal sympathles OF the movie
industry now proceeding in
Washington. il appears that the
magnates, most of whom are
Jews, are TO be charged with
the rather serious offense OF
supporting a policy OF the ma
tional government, assisting in
the national defense TO the ex-
tent of warning the people OF
the enemy's character and
methods and depicting recorded
history.
II the dominant families OF
the trade were Masons or Cath
olics presumably they too would
be disqualified on the ground
that Masons and Catholics as
we'll as Jews have been perse-
cuted by the Nazi government
and therefore cannot be inno-
cent of bias.
In fact. inasmuch as Adolf
Hitler has proclaimed the ir-
reconcilable conflict between his
German state and the American
nation, il follows that no Amer
lean whatever should be allowed
10 portray the incredible bes-
tialities of the evil force which
brought upon the world the
worst war in all history and the
entire subject would be placed
under great taboo.
Yet il must be plain that "
the movie industry under the
ownership of the men who fore
saw its possibilities and created
il from crude and Pickering be-
ginningS had taken this attitude
toward the nations enemy. they
would have been double damned
as stealthy traitors.
THEY would have been &C
i cused Of suppressing and
classifying history so as 10 spare
themselves the very dangerous
embarrassment which is put
upon them now. and some other
group Of United States senator's
would be holding them up TO
hatred for using the monopoly 10
betray the nation into the hands
OF Adolf Hitler and Japan.
UnqueStionahly the movies
have turned out anti-Nazi prop
uganda films. but no more
dreadful anti-Nazi propaganda
could be created out Of mans
Imagination than lies al hand in
the record OF Hitler'S rise.
The most morbid fictloneer on
earth would have been laughed
of the lot as recently as Is
years ago If ne had shown up
with a script predicting the
horrors Of the brown shirt
maraudings and the cold-blooded
brutalities Of the Gestapo.
THE most powerful propa-
L ganda against Nazi Ger
many is 10 be found in the daily
record of events in Germany
since Hitler began 10 rise. in
the fuehrer's own speeches, in
Mcin kampf and in the conduct
Of his nation toward Czecho-
Slovakia Poland Denmark. Nor
way. Belgium, Holland and
France
No fCtioneer invented the
horrors Of the concentration
camps. the anti-Christian regime
imposed on the German people
themselves in their daily life at
home. the conspiracy with Com
muniSt Russia which touched Oft
the war. or the recent persecu-
ton Of French families as
means Of compelling their fugi-
tive sons in the unoccupied zone
TO surrender for death by tor
turc.
The betrayal OF Norway's
Christian hospitality 10 starving
German postwar children who
returned as unsupported friends
in civilian clothes and slaugh-
tered a nation which had saved
their lives is chapter which
the movieS and the publishers or
books and magazines would
have rejected on the ground OF
silly improbability until this
very horror came 10 pass.
| saw Charlie Chaplin's pre-
tentiouS and clumsy master
effort. The Great Dictator, and
thought il was one Of the worst
films Of all time, but only be-
cause the little poSeur had gone
arty and, personally, had turned
in a miserable job.
TT WASN'T that he had eXag-
L gerated the evil of HitleriSm
because the mind of man could
think Of no beaStlinesS that is
not in the record. The other So
called propaganda films / did
not see. but l can discuss them
at least as freely AS those sena-
tors who haven't seen them
either. and | will just take the
position that whatever they
depicted, they could not have
exceeded the horrors that have
been recorded in the news and
verified and not merely adj
mitted by the Nazi government
but defended.
There is no dark, mysterious
reason why we have had no pro-
Nazi films. The reason is that
i'm all the record of Hitlerism