Evening star., 1944-01-30
Nazi Press Presents
PuzzIing Picture
OF Internal Germany
BY NAT A. BARROWS.


FOREIGN Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
STOCKHOLM, Jan. 29-Reading
German newspapers is like playing a
game OF anagrams or trying to make
a connected picture out of an in
sidiously scrambled jigsaw puzzle.
You search entire columns Of
propaganda articles and calculated
exaggeratiOnS or understatements
for one more letter or puzzle piece
that seems to fit into the pattern
OF Germany's internal life. A grain
OF truth here, an official statement
OF policy there-but by bit, emerges
something that checks with your
private sources, hints cleaned from
travellers tales, or dispatches to the
Swedish press.
Even when careful study of a
couple Of dozen city and provincial
papers seems to give another glance
into what Is really going on inside
the Third Reich, the question is:
How much Of this is sheer nonsense
and how much Is actually true or
nearly true?
Policy Is Mystery.
You wonder why Germany's highly
emclent and completely regimented
censorship has permitted such and
such a story to appear, knowing that
the Berlin plane would land it In
sweden and Switzerland and thus
make 1t available to searching Allied
eyes. ~
The German press, as we see It
mere, IN this northland CITY of
runors, whispers and deceptions
all mixed up with sound facts. is
only another pitfall for guillible or
unwary observers. Stockholm is
the last place in the world in which
10 Jump to hasty conclusions or
oeleve everything you hear or see
Yet, daily study of Nazi newspa-
pers does give more than one hint
ABOUT the secrets of Festung Eu-
ropa. We are able to learn. for
example, that Berlin has been
forced to employ a new system of
AFRAID warnings. This shows that
factory workers must spend every
possible minute at their benches
We learn that Germans are now
permitted to send only two letters
month out of the country. and
those only under rigid control
Nothing appears in the German
press about the fact that Berlin's
hre department is paralyzed during
Royal Air Force attacks of course.
But that the pressure is being in
creased for greater production to
onset the Anglo-American second
front In the air" is evident.
Invasion Discussed.
Along with growing seriousness
OF tone in speaking of Russian ad-
Vances, the German newspapers
soberly discuss the Allied invasion.
generally with assurance for the
home front that the Allies will be
defeated. At the moment, Propa-
ganda Minister Goebbels is irving
energetically to impress the German
nation with an appreciation of what
its fate would be if defeated.
Obviously, Goebbels is trying to
bolster faltering morale by soaring
the daylights out of the Germans
with fear Of the consequences of
defeat. Particularly If they become
Russian prisoners and are set to
work rebuilding Russian cities.
Royal Air Force bombers are plav-
Ing a nice psychological part in
weakening the Germans morale by
showering pamphlets into their
cities.
Some Of these British pamphlets
have fallen inadvertently over South
Sweden. In simple but excellent
German they recall the final davs
OF 1918, when capitulation saved
the Germans, but assure that "this
time there will be no rescue at the
last minute" -
Three million Germans are now
Dead" they state, "the German
armies are retreating, U-boats are
beaten and Americas millions are
marching up. Germany is being
battered by the immense air fleets
OF its enemies. Now will the an
inhalation of 1918 become a reality.
'' Germany stands before the
abyss. -" Time grows short.
1t Is now a quarter to r."
(Copyright, 1914, by Chicago Daily News,
Inc)