Evening star., 1943-10-04
BY LOUIS p. LOCHNER,
Former Chief Of Associated Press

BY LOUIS P. LOCHNER.
Former Chief Of Associated Press
Bureau in Berlin.
HOLLYWOOD, Oct. 4.-When, a
little over year ago, returned to
our United States after five months
internment by the Nazis, many a
friend in the newspaper profession
griped to me about the war censor
ship set up for our American press
after Pearl Harbor. Its no differ
ent from what the Nazis are doing"
some fellow journalists would ex-
claim.
I could not help laughing at this
ignorance Of what press control un-
der Naziism means. Our war censor
ship under the able direction of
Byron Price is concerned solely with
keeping from the enemy such in
formation as may help him militar-
lily. The necessity for such a re-
striction must be patent to any one
who remembers that Nazi agents are
on 24-hour duty in all the remain
ing neutral countries, esecially in
Argentina, Portugal, Spain, Switzer-
land and Sweden, where they can
either obtain direct access to Ameri-
can newspapers and magazines, or
can have information concerning
them sent.
Picked Up by Enemy.
1t must also be remembered that
our large broadcasting systems regu-
larly MI the air with news items
contributed quite as much by the
American news associations as BY
their own staffs-in fact. more so.
1hese broadcasts are avidly picked
up by the enemy. The reasons for
a military censorship are therefore
quite obvious.
But beyond that, the widest think
able latitude for expression of dis
sent, OF criticism, of individual view
point obtains in our country. Anv
non-Nazi German editor would iumn
at the chance to work in his country
under conditions anywhere similar
to ours. And even many a faithful
Nazi would join him.
Early in the Nazi regime, Propa-
eanda Minister Joseph Goebbels
pretended to encourage criticism
He assured the German press that
constructive" criticism was well
coined, and that the regimentation
ol the press applied only to that
form OF Subversive activity which,
under the guise Of criticism. sought
TO undermine the new Third Reich
Of Adolf Hitler.
Last to Criticize.
The editor of one of the Ullstein
publications. believe it was the
Gruene Post-guilelessly took the
little doctor" at his word and aired
lew grievances which, as I read
them, seemed innocuous enough.
The editor was promptly removed
on Goebbels' orders Nobody after
him dared criticize.
Some weeks before the famous
purge of June 80, 1884, Franz Won
Papen, then vice chancellor, de-
llvered speech before the students
OF Marburg University, in which he
criticized certain dictatorial tend
~A'>A~' AAA bAiS wan ilIONSlllSIll.
Hltlers gestapo discovered that
Won Papen had ghost writer
named Jung, who had prepared
this speech for Germanys outstand-
ing political will-o-the wisp. Jung
disappeared with the purge!
egimentation of the German
press under Adolf Hitler goes so.
far that even the size of the head
line and the position Of the item on
the page are prescribed in the case
OF news considered important by
the regime.
Conference Every Day.
Every day a press conference is
held In the propaganda ministry in
Berlin, with parallel conferences
throughout the Reich in subsidiary
offces OF the Goebbels apparatus,
TO which each paper must send
man trusted and approved by the
NazlS who is under oath not to
reveal the secret instructions issued
In these daily palavers. There the
papers are told in minute detail
what they may say, must say. are
Ioroldden to say and are cautioned
TO say only in language similar to
that used by Goebbels' spokesman.
II an individual paper digs up
an Item of its own. it must first
confer with the official news bureau,
the DNB. The three initials stand
FOR "Deutsches Nachrichten-Bu-
reau,' but irrepressible humorists
have claimed they stand either for
"darf NIGHTS bringen" C'may pub
lish nothing'p or die nachricht-
ltche bevormundung" c'the news
guardianship~.
l stood beside an unhappy Ger
man editor once who did nothing
more than to describe, in terms
fattering to Der Fuehrer, a re-
ception in Goebbels' official resi-
dence at which Adolf Hitler ap-
peared unexpectedly Imagine his
disgust when, later in the day, he
con1ded to me that he was not even
permitted to publish his own ver-
sion of social affair, but was COM
PEELED to accept the stilted, bureau
cratic DNB version!
Means to Attain Aim.
For Adolf Hitler, the abject and
complete RECOMMENDATION of the Ger
man press was a welcome means
to achieve his principal aim, Wis.
that of planning and preparing for
the greatest war in history.
No matter how clearly far-sighted
Germans might foresee whittier
Hitler was leading them, there was
no paper in all Germany in which
they could air their views.