Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-09-23
BY IRA WOLFERT.

INSIDE CONQUERED GER
MANY, Sept. 81 Delayed Their
are about $4,000 Germans in thi
area of "Aachenkreis" who now Off
cially are no longer Nazis but ar
living instead under the Allie,
military government. An over
whelming majority of them VIII,
''heiled Hitler" and cheered him OF
his terrible path began to feel ap
prehension when the United State
entered the war and then shool
their heads at the Nazis in silen
and quaking reproof when Hitle
began to retreat.
This is true of at least 80 per cen
of them and today SO and a fraction
per cent of them claim they never
were Nazis and point to the Naz
party rolls as proof of this.
And when 1t. Rene Biastre OF
Plainfield, N. j., and Staff Sergt
Daniel D. Brod of New York Cit,
went to the Brown House." at
Brand. which was the Official Naz
party headquarters there, and tori
down the pictures of Hitler, five
ca-etakers there followed them
around. watching, and rumbled
Gut! Gut!" with solemn approval
Thoroughly Divorced From Hitler.
In other words, these $4,000 Ger
mans have been thoroughly divorced
from Hitler. 1t is true the divorce
is not something they seem to have
asked for and the civilized world
had to sacrifice millions of its best
young people before they would
accept the divorce, but in the end
in the last hours, these people stood
up to the Nazis and refused to
retreat with them, even though
ordered to do so-some of them at
gun point.
They refused to continue the fight
against us and instead chose to stick
by their homes and let us do with
them as we pleased. AS such, these
$4,000 are representative of those
upon whom the peace-loving peoples
of the world must rely for the
eventual formation of stable, CO.
operative German government.
One can see most of them, at least
their homes and villages and farms,
from high point in the Siegfried
Line which we now hold here. stood
long time yesterday and looked at
a sight which was both sorrowful
and engaging. One could see Stol-
berg, Eilendorf and Aachen and back
to Brand and over to Busbach and
Freund and Mausbach and Fitch,
and way over to where Grossenich
and Schevenhutte Krewinkel and
Fleuth sat like little hats hung on
KNOBS of earth
Stolberg Burning.
Stolberg was burning And some
OF our tanks were burning there and
our dead in them were burning with
them in an awful silence. AT
Aachen German antiaircraft fire
was tearing at few of our planes
and our planes were putting their
little bulllike heads down anc
tearing back, the guns in their
noses flaring bright and sharp and
red-like teeth tearing at bloody
flesh.
From the sharp backbonelike ridge
behind Aachen German guns were
firing time-bursts at the point where
I stood, and the noise of these shell.
was very loud in my ears as they
raked across the blue air like steel
claws tearing something soft. How
very, very painful!
From behind the ridge which runs
across the northern outskirts OF
Eilendorf wall of smoke nearly a
mile long was standing straight ul
over the agony being inflicted or
the German soldiers by our guns.
Guns Bang and Boom.
Our men were dug in around the
last pillboXes of the Siegfried Line
there on top of the ridge while the
Germans were dug into the earth al
the bottom, sometimes only so feet
away and seldom more than 200 feet
distant. The Germans were work
ing to get back to the pillboxes and
dying in quantities at their work
but killing our men, too-killine
them or Gripping them for life-o1
at the very least making them en-
dure such aches as the average per-
son cannot comprehend or. for that
matter, should comprehend.
And everywhere for miles and
miles guns - mostly ours - banged
out their booms, bringing despera-
lion to the soldiers, while among
them lived the people like some
great cow absorbed stolidly in living
In the course of the last few DAYS
I have spoken to many of our Off
GERS and men responsible for gov
erning the part of Germany we al
ready have conquered and have been
in several towns with them watch
ing them at their work The people
they govern are mainly farmers and
small-town folk, almost all of them
owning property of some kind.
Not Strongly Anti-Nazi.
There is no militant anti-Nazi
feeling apparent among them. 1t is
clear that if Hitler had won the war
or even had not fought, they would
not have overthrown him in any
foreseeable future.
1t is clear, too, they do not like
him any more, though whether their
dislike began before he started los
ing and bringing destruction to
them, as well as other peoples of the
world is not so clear. They do not
express yet, at least in voices we can
hear, a sense of relief for being
freed from Nazi terrorism or a sense
Of guilt for having given the Nazis
the strength which made them the
scourge of the world.
They walk their streets and farms
quietly and correctly and rather