The Wilmington morning star., 1944-11-03
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN

Last Friday Goebbe1s made AM
address to the German people in
which he admitted that in the past
three months "events of decisive
have taken place on
the military and political battle
fields" Though he h r w in a
phrase about how some of these
events were partly" in Germany's
favor" his purpose was to tell the
Germans that they have lost the
war, though the war is lost, they
should fight on. lit is certain"
said Goebbels, that We would
have only hell on earth to expect
if we were to lay down our arms"
Now, in SO far as Goebbes him
SET is concerned, he does not need
to worry about hell on earth. He
knows quite well that. the surren-
der of Germany would not mean
that he would i've in hell on
earth. If, as no doubt he appears
to be doing, he is thinking about
hell. it is not about hell on earth.
The personal position of Nazi
leaders like Goebbels is the con-
trolling fact in the present Ger
man situation: the Germans are
ruled by men who know that they
themselves cannot surrender. For
these men an armistice means that
if caught they will be arrested and
executed, or that they will be hunt
ed down to the ends of the earth
if they try to escape. Therefore,
since only by continuing the war
can they continue to live, they will
stop at nothing, rot even the hang
ing of their own generals, to pre-
vent the German Army from sur
rendering.
So what the Germans are fighting
for now is not for the difference
between hard peace and a soft.
they are fighting to give Hitler,
Goebbels, Hinmler ct al stay
of execution. That is all they are
fighting for. Thus the terms they
would get today are certainly no
softer than if they had laid down
their arms last July when the gen.
erals wanted to surrender. In the
interval they have bombarded Eng
land with the robots, they have
perpetrated additional crimes in
the occupied countries, and caused
more destruction. especially in the
Netherlands and in Poland. All that
they have accomplished by fighting
on is that the Nazi leaders have
now lived, say ninety days longer
than they would have lived if sew
era1 hundred thousand Germans
had not persisted in battle. But the
German people have not improved
their prospects for the future.
The one thing that can be said
with absolute certainty is that by
fighting on the German people can
only make their prospects worse.
What they dread is, of course ret
ribution and what they must hope
for is mercy. They will get mercy.
The Allies could never exact full
retribution for what has happened:
it is in the nature of things that
only some of those who are fla
GRAVITY and directly responsible can
be punished, that the great mass of
adult Germans who have connived
at their crimes and are morally
responsible will, because nothing
else is possible, be given amnesty,
and above all, that the sins of the
parents will not be visited upon the
children. The Germans who have
been Nazified may be unable to
believe this now They may be I'M
able to believe that since we are
not Nazis, we shall not and cannot
act like Nazis; we cannot punish
the innocent, the helpless and the
unborn, and even the guilty we shall
be able, able because it is indeli-
bic in our way of life, to punish on
ly when their crimes are OBVIOUS
and are fragrant.
By fighting on the Germans Will
not, then, make the Allies less
vengeful or more merciful. If they
make us fight in Cologne and
Frankfurt and Stuttgart, Hanover
and Munich, as they have made us
fight in Aachen, they will not, as
Goebbels is trying to tell them,
cause the Allies to say that the
terms Of surrender must be much
softer than they would be II we
did not have to fight filthy winter
campaign. But what will surely
happen at the end of the campaign
is that the German situation will be
so much worse that all the angels
of mercy could not save the Ger
man people from the terrible con-
sequences.
For winter campaign in Ger
poarv all that the GermanS can