The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-01-13
WNU Service, Union Trust Building
WASHINGTON, D. C..

washington, ID. y.
AS walk down Pennsylvania ave-
nue. these brisk winter days with all
the sharp reminders OF history about
me-General Jackson there on his
hohSe, tip-tilted in the air with his
charger paving the heavens. in the
center Of Lafayette park; the thea
ter on the spot where Seward was
attacked as part OF the plot that laid
Lincoln low; and across the road.
the White House with its kaleido-
scope OF history--I wonder about the
year ahead of us.
Are we going to face a casualty
list of 400, 900 Americans in the next
2la months?
have watched the President
closely at the last press and radio
conferences since he returned from
Cairo and Teheran. have noted z
seriousness in his mien that have
not seen before. He said, when he
was asked what Stain was like: he
is realist, like me.
And in the last few days, as !
have talked with officials, | find this
same note creeping into their con-
versations. Is America standing at
Gethsemane, with the supreme sac
rifice to come?
The great boast OF Americans is
that we are, realists, that we are
not to be led astray by starry-eyed
dreamers. And yet the last thing
that America is willing to look at is
the bare facts.
Here are some Of them: the AL
lies have one army apiece-the
armed forces. The Reich has two
the armed troops and the uniformed
second army tas early as 1899, an
association of German tailors adj
mitted that every third German was
in uniformly.
The Storm Troopers
First there is the "SA" "Sturm
Abteilung storm troopers.
They started from a nucleus of
"bouncers" who kept order when
the Nazis had their early meetings
before they came into power BY
1882, this group had grown to three
million men Roehm' S brown
shirt army. Roehm, you recall,
was purged. This great organiza-
ton was then theoretically liquidat-
ed but the forces which made its
organization possible remained. In
1886, there was still great organi-
cation (disarmed, except for a dag
ger inscribed, "all for Germany
which had well-organized admins
tration with 637 regiments-perhaps
less than 700, OO0-still goodly sec
ond army" in itself. In 1899, this
group, with nothing really official to
do, was given specific duties, among
them responsibility for the mill
tary training Of all German youth,
as well as responsibility in ca
tastrophes and any national or To-
cal emergency.
But that is only the foundation of
the Nazis' second army"
The "SS' is the elite. 49, stands
for "Schutzstaffeln" usually re-
ferred to as the elite guard. These
are the men whom Hitler has tried
to forge into new aristocracy. /
can best tell of their training in the
words OF a former prisoner in an
Austrian concentration camp, whom
l know personally. He is not Jew,
but full-blooded Teuton. He told
me that from personal observation,
when he had been forced to work in
an "SS' training camp, the train
ing Of the "SS" men was just as
brutal as the discipline Of the prison
ers except, Of course, the bodies OF
the "SS' cadets we're not, injured to
the point Of rendering them useless.
Strong ,anti-Nazi prisoners were
hung up by their wrists with their
hands behind their backs until their
chest and shoulder muscles were
torn apart. This, Of course, would
not be done to an "SS" man since ii
would render him unfit to serve the
Fuehrer. But the "SS" cadets were
beaten in the face with riding whips
and pounded as mercilessly with
whips and slaves.
Backbone Groups
A part Of the "SS' is part of the
fighting army too. With complete
infantry, armor, all the
rest.
There is bitter rivalry between
the 'SS" and the army high COM
mand. 1t is touch and 60" as to
who will be there to surrender Ger
many to the Allies in the end.
These are the backbone organiza-
tons Of Hitler's second army" but