The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-01-04

rom Berlln III the newspapers III those days must have wondered at. There was more and more emphasis on the "treacherous fighting fighting methods of the Bolsheviks. !" Goebbels ordered-and his soldier reporters at the front delivered hundreds of reports about this fea- ture, to show the German people why hings had not gone quite &C., cording to schedule. Every day new story about "inhuman Red methods of warfare" appeared in each newspaper, telling about how the Russians would offer to srlrren- der with their hands high int he air and when the Germans neared, plop! the Russians dropped hand grenades from their hands in the midst of the Germans and blew
 them all up; how the Bolsheviks lay as if dead in road, and when Panzer passed over their bodies they inserted T. N. T. in its chassis and before it had progressed another twenty yards it was blasted into Valhalla; and how the Russians
 mined everything including toilet seats in every town they abandoned and caused many brave Nordic to die an undignified death. The stories made exceedingly good reading.
 GOEBBELS' PROPAGANDA
 TRUE TO FORM
 But all Goebbels' little propa- ganda stratagemS were not so harmless. A Nazi in embarrass- ment is dangerous Nazi, and he will resort to any method to rescue himself. To support his line about the bestiality of the Soviet troops, Goebbels also published in the Ger man press dozens of pictures of dead, tortured bodies of Soviet ci- vilians, killed by the retreating Bol- sheviks, the captions said. Jean Graffls, the Berlin representative of the American Acme Newspicture agency, picked several of these out of the files of the Nazi Hoffman ! picture agency and offered to buy them. But the agent, blushing at the situation he found himself in, told Graffis he was sorry but those l WC4V AAOU 4O4 od4S, OA4Cy WS4C OI11y for internal consumption. Graffis had wanted to buy them because he read on their backs the date 1920 they were dead bodies from the Russian Civil War! These photo graphs were being published in German newspapers as snapshots taken by German troops in the war of 1941! Again, group of foreign correspondents was taken to Lem- berg to see a real Soviet torture chamber, in order to reinforce the same line of propaganda in the out side world. The walls of one of the rooms, the execution cham ber," was picked with bullet-holeS from the rifles of Soviet firing squads. When the conductor of the tour left the room. one of the cor- respondents searched the rooms contents and found Russian pro- paganda poster with Stalin's photo graph reproduced on it.; it was shot through with holes. He placed 1t against the wall, and the punctures tallied exactly. hole for hole! Obvi- ously the Germans themselves were responsible for their "atrocity."
 But the press stuck to it's guns. If victory had not happened, then it was about to happen. On July 29. 1941. the official Nazi paper an- nounced: we can already comfort ourselves and say the knife sharp pinnacle of the decision has already been crossed" On August 2. the Supreme Command again saw Vis- ions of Soviet collapse, declaring in a communique that Extensive in- formation indicates the Soviet leadership no longer has any re- liable picture of the situation on it's own front" The official sheet echoed. predicting "the end of the rule of the Kremlin is at hahd." Elated. this particular editorial fins iShed with tlls flourish ITO be Ger man means to be Invinciblel"
 The end of the rule of the KreFn- 1, lin remained obstinately only "at hand" German morale was glip- ping badly downhill impelled to Q swifter decline by the sudden woFsening of other conditions. In | ocpk9HUpCFg &gSAi ttbg Ah9b WsVtetA @A autumn, the press went on a new tack. and began publishing those famous 'explanatory" editorials, saying people were silly to have thought the High Command ever worked according to any particular schedule. that the progress Of the WehFmacht was no surprise to Hit- | loP for iaG had nlaf,nad ik that Wav Theodore selbert, the star corre- spondent of the Voelklscher boe. baehtsF, began the series, and no less q person than pr. doebbels took lt up from there in his new weekly Das Reich. The papers announced astronomic Soviet losses and pF0- duced figures aiming to prove Ger man losses were not much more than the annual death toll ill mlOtol l mm- ammfam..fn n4Na1nwtfaaINan fnFg 2af4~