The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1944-05-02

/ Wotan.
There are innumerable cases
where the rank and file of the
German army have been guilty,
spontaneously, Of wholesale hor-
rors. Furthermore, recruitment
for the Gestapo or the equally
abominable S. S. formations is
not compulsory but an eagerly
sought distinction. These are al
most without exception guilty
hen. and their numbers run
into scores of thousands. II all
these SadistS were to remain
alive or at liberty, there would
be no prospect whatever of a
better Germany or peaceful
world. That is the problem that
we have to face squarely.
We should always begin by
looking at such problems from
the standpoint of Germany's
victims. Our thinking goes
wrong from the moment when
we took upon Germany's mani
fold crimes as if they were prin-
cipally, or even only, German
questions. They are not, for they
vitality concern Germany's vic
tins.
Too many eminent persons in
Britain and the United States
have spoken lightly of execut-
ing only some few hundred of
the more prominent Nazis. Such
utterances provoke indignation
and CONSERVATION among our
Allies. They point out that the
threat of "token" executions not
only defeats its own ends, but
acts indeed as an incentive to
further massacres.
The leading German crimi-
nails know that they are DOOM
ed, when they have lost the war.
Their underlings know that too;
but if the latter are assured in
advance that they themselves
will enjoy immunity in the
reckoning, they will Of course
proceed undeterred upon their
bloodthirsty courses.
Scores of thousands of these
underlings have already earned
execution. To spare, let alone to
reassure, them would be only
the beginning of the evil of in
sufficient retribution. The Ger
mans have a fixed policy to win
the war, even if they lose it, by
systematic devastation and de-
population. If we allow this pol
icy to proceed, there will be no
Europe left to rescue; for the
Germans have also decided to
apply this foul scheme-already
in operation-even more ruth
lessly when Anglo-American
forces invade the continent.
There is only one chance Of
stopping it, and that is to pro-
claim, in advance of invasion,
that every German participating
in "the policy" will be liable to
the death penalty, and to make
it clear that we mean business.
A drastic purge is coming, but
it is no concern of Britain or the
United States, since they have
not been invaded. Let Britain
and the United States concern
themselves, if they will, with
such childishness as trying Hit
Ter and his principal associates,
instead of handing them over to
the continent-if we ever get
them. But let Britain and the
United States beware of meddl-
ing in what, fortunately for
them, is none of their business.
Such an unwarranted attempt
would only lay up for them
generations Of resentment in
Europe.
What will, and should, hap
pen is this: BY virtue OF the
Moscow declaration, every mar
tyrized country will seize and
take back for summary judy
ment and execution those Ger
mans who have most grossly
butchered, mutilated, burned,
raped, ravaged, tortured them.
We may hope, for example,
that the occupied countries will
catch and kill a great part OF
the Gestapo before it can es-
cape. The rest must be follow
cd into Germany by the surviv-
ors and witnesses of their cruel
ty. The Gestapo must be hunted
down and exterminated. The
same fate must necessarily
await other equally vile cate
gories.
In all this sanitation. without
which there can be no sanity
either in Germany or the world
at large. Britain and the United
States have no more need or
right to criticize than they will
hav in tina other great combi-
nation of milder retribution.