Evening star., 1944-11-19

.or!d-Wideban
On Ndzi Groups
fdvored Here
u. 5. Experts Urge
Preventive. Action
At Peace Conference
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
Plans for this Government to seek
. postwar ban on such international
organizations as those with which
the Nazis promoted Pan German
ism and racial hatreds throughout
the world are being considered by
Justice Department officials as q
result Of disclosures at the sedi-
ton trial.
These ofacials, 1t was learned yes
terday. feel that the subject should
be brought up at the peace confer.
ence, In the hope that the more
poisonous type of propaganda may
be avoided in the interest of a last.
ing peace.
They point out that the Nazis.
organized on worldwide scale in
the economic field through such de-
vices as cartels, spread their propa.
ganda on the same gigantic scale.
Since remedial action against cartels
is under consideration one officer
of the department commented.
should we not take steps to outlaw
the Na1 organizations spreading
Pan Germanism, with its theories
of Aryap superiority and hatred of
other races?
various Organizations Used.
The extent Of the German propa-
ganda mill was a surprise even to
some high officials in the depart
ment. Quite aside from the guilt
or innocence of the 26 persons on
trial in District Court-who are
charged specifically with conspiring
to undermine the loyalty of the
armed forces-these Federal law.
yers are interested in the founda-
ton which the Government laid in
trying to prove the alleged con-
spiracy.
A number of witnesses, some OF
them former NaH ofiicials. several
others leaders In the German.
American Bund, gave the propagan-
da picture.
1t was shown that the Germans
promoted their pan Germanism
through various organizations.
These were adaptations of the old
idea of Deutschland Uber Allies"
teaching that there were 100 0,OOO,-
600 Germans in the world and they
logically should rule it.
Not all the groups were originated
by the Nazis. Some 60 back a long
way. For instance, Chief Prose-
cutor o. John Rogge established
through German witnesses that
there was the v. D. A., the League
for Germandom Abroad, which
dates back to 1908, and the Fichte
Bund, which was organized in 1914.
The German Foreign Institute was
started in 1917.
Nazis Added Ideas.
They served their purpose in the
last war, and later the Nazis took
them over and filtered Fascist ideas
and anti-Semitism through them.
Testimony at the trial indicated
that the Nazis used the old League
ffor Germandom Abroad to spread
their doctrines among Germans and
persons Of German extraction in
various countries. Witnesses said
the Reich propagandists used the
30-year-old Fichte Bund to appeal
to native Fascists all over the world.
The German Foreign Institute.
another old-timer, became an in
strument through which the Nazis
spread their message of superiority
and hate to persons of German
origin living IN foreign countries.
The point Is, observers emphasize.
that these organizations kept right
on going after Germany was defeat
ed in 1918, and the Nazis found them
convenient media of expression.
Such societies, it is declared, might
lie quiescent for a time after this
war and then be revived by some
other militant group in Germany
or elsewhere.
It Is known that some of these
organizations kept card indexes in
Germany with names, addresses and
other pertinent data on millions of
Germans in other countries.
In addition the Nazis developed on
their own initiative the foreign
organization Of the NSDAP (Nazi
party to work with members
throughout the world, and World
Service, an outlet for propaganda
publications which had a tremen-
dou mailing list among Fascists.
those inclined in that direction and
others who never considered such 4
philosophy.
Those urging that such organiza.
t1ons be outlawed hereafter point
out that there is distinct difference
between freedom of speech, which
the democracies traditionally favor.
and the preaching of racial preju-
dice and hatred-the cartels of ideas
devised by totalitarians and mill
| tarists.
The Governments theory in the
historic trial is that the defendants
joined the worldwide Nazi move
ment in one form or another for
their own purposes. This the de.
PENDANTS deny emphatically, insist
Ing they did no more than exercise
the freedom Of expression guaran-
teed them by the Constitution.
Maj Erwin Davis Dies;
III Am