Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-08-10
Jack Pickering
Here
and
Now
KNTNT NKN STETnAN =.

KNTNT MAX STEPHAN:
The following letter IS not
pleasant. Not pleasant but l
certainly couldn't stop reading
IT, / wish that Max stephan
Gould read IL. 1t concerns him.
Here Is the letter.
Dear Pick: Just read In the
paper that they are going 10
hang MaN stephan. We've got n
good mad on here at our house.
"In January. my mother re-
ciVed word from Halifax that
her youngest son, aged -. "A
chief petty officer in the Cana
dian Navy. had been placed In a
hospital upon his return from
the home land,
As soon as his condition per-
mitted. he would be granted
furlough 10 visit his family in
Ontario.
THAT was i'm January. The
first ~ july. after II months i'm
England and five months hos
pitalization. what l. left of the
Kid came home.
II had the privilege Of having
that little ghost In my home
from Friday until Monday. here
I'm Detroit, this past weekend.
last week. that isl You see,
he's my Kid brother.
'YeS, saw him jump out of
he'd and run and hunt for a bomb
shelter when the thunder roared.
saw him try very hard to eat
food. and conceal his bomb
shattered nerves, and drink rum
like bum.
II saw a ghost. will never
zee my brother again. At "a,
he's through.
also heard OF the cable my
sister received from England
sorry. killed in action, etc My
brother-in-law.
$50 please don't let them
hang Max. Send him out here on
Navanhoe avenue. We'd just
love 10 have him for IL months.
wen tie him up I'm the base
ment, on the cold, hard floor.
and give him only canned fruit
until he gets gastritis. And then
rum tea.
"We'd get n lot Of sirens and
shot guns, and pop-pop-pOp till
we split his ear drums. And
we'd go 10 the meat market and
get buckets Of stale meat and
blood. and make him look at IL
for 10 hours at time, till he
fen over. and HIS nerve was
gone.
"And then we'd shoot him.
because that il all you can do
that's merciful for n person
who's been through Hell, wading
every step of the way through
human flesh and blood--on an
en,pty stomach.
"They can blow the bugle any
time for my brother. and his
ghost will answer the call and
salute the flag his body died for.
But his spirit and his soul go
on. He's gone back for more, by
God.
"Just give Make TO me. TIL
even the score. And the million
other Makes. too" -
"a
II Max Stephan will read that
latter. perhaps through his
twisted brain will Seep some
notion Of why he WILL hang.
His repeated assertions that
he won't really hang come from
some sort of a strictly NaZi
frame Of mind. He doesn't quite
understand. Neither do his fell
low Axis members.
But IL is all so simple.
IL all goes back 10 that notion
" which the NaIis have been sell
Ing TO themselves for years. The
democrscies are soft. they said.
Yes. the democracies WERE
soft. They felt that life had n
need for gentleness and kind
ness.
The democracies even went No
far as TO feel that II was better
for some of the guilty to escape,
than 10 punish the innocent.
That's form of softness. But
It's the kind Of sOftness that I
believe il. How about you?
But the NaZis seem TO have
misunderstood. This softneSs
does not apply 10 people who 90
10 war with us. People who try
10 kill US.
It's such simple thing. and
yet the Max Stephans never
have been able 20 understand il.
Cant they see that every
man-Jack in the soft democ-
racieS is going 10 feel the way
this letter writer did--when he
saw the ghost of his brother?
The G erm ans. never have
learned that the sword can Kill
but never pcrSuadcS.
It's such an elementary thing
evil viii boz paid for IN kind.
It's so simple that I wOuldn {
think of writing il down.
Except that the whole world
is bleeding because little r