Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-06-12
By HUGO SPECK


Init News Service stan Correspondent
NEW YORK, June 1--WE
tory. cost what it may
Those words in big black letters
headed an announcement placed
on a big signpost just outside the
Grand Hotel in Bad Nauheim a.
short time before we Americans
who had been interned there for
five months packed our things TO
start for home.
Offhand this would seem to
mean no more than it says and
might well be a poster in our
own country. But for those of us
who have lived and worked in
Germany during this war, those
words represent something en-
tirely different.
CONFIDENCE WAIVERS
II For those of us who have
watched the German blitzkrieg
campaigns either from home bases
or at the front, watched them
crash through all opposition until
the Russians stopped them dead
lin their tracks, the words are an
admission that Hitler is no longer
confident Of victory.
They are far cry from the ia
Imiliar propaganda bombast which
previously featured such phrases
as: Victory is ours" or Victory
is sure"
Victory, cost what IL may"
represents something different In
tone and meaning to the German
people.
1t represents a grim warning to
the German people that the price
of victory is mounting rapidly and
that greater and greater sacri-
fees are going to be demanded
of them.
NOT READY TO QUIT
This does not mean the Nazis
are ready to throw up their hands
and surrender or that Germany
is about TO collapse and provide
the United Nations with an easy
victory minus the necessity of a
Showdown on the battlefields of
the world.
1t would be dangerously mis-
leading to assume that the war is
going to be a walkover for the
democracies. That is why those
of who have seen Germany from
the inside vigorously applaud
President Roosevelt'S recent eau
ton TO the American people not
to expect an early end to the war
without fighting for it.
Well have to fight for 1t. But
our chances for victory when we
60 on the offensive are brighter
than at any time in the war so far.
APPROACHING A CRACKUP
There are many signs evident in
Germany today that the Reich is
acknowledgements but not
yet nearing-a crackup. When
the crackup will come, no careful
observer could honestly predict.
1t may come this year, it may
come next year. The results of
this summers fighting in Russia
may have a bearing on it.
From what I saw in Germany.
I would venture the opinion that
the NaZiS may force the German
people to live on weeds before
actually giving up even when the
end is near. That is the way life
is regimented in Germany.
II is not as easy to start al
revolution nowadays as it was
after World War !. Especially
when the arms are virtually all
in the hands of the Nazi masters
and civilians are bounded by the
Gestapo.
ANTI-NAZI ELEMENTS
OF course there. are powerful
elements in the German army
that are anti-Nazi and in the final
Showdown they may be the Ger
man revolutionaries of World War
III. Only tife will tell.
II a second winter campaign be-
comes necessary in Russia. we can
look for real signs of trouble in
Maitland. And il western front
is opened against Hitler. the trou-
BILE will really begin full blast.
Victory, cost what 1t may" will
then become an empty slogan in
Germany, for the price will be
beyond the means of the German
people, if the United Nations fling
their composite strength into an
about offensive.