Evening star., 1945-06-24
Urqes UNDERSTANDING
OfChristiun Germans

| 0sSs - ASsssS"
OfChristiun Germans
Churchman Who Opposed Hitler
Discusses Needs of His People
BY the Reu Martin Niemoeller.
NAPLES, June % (SpeciaD If it
is difficult at present to see clearly
and distinctly what has happened, and
what is going to happen in the in
nermost heart of our German people,
1t is even harder to analyze those
sentiments correctly respecting their
origin and meaning. But it will be
most difficult of all to reach even a
probable conclusion of how this mental
condition will develop and influence
the total spiritual life of central Europe.
interpretations already attempted
give evidence of how great are the
difficulties of judging and planning
some sort of just consideration SO
long as war-stirred feelings are not
calmed down to normal state of mind.
Therefore, I feel it my duty to con-
tribute some of my thoughts. which
may help at least few Christian
people to understand how we Chris
tian Germans see these things and
what our sorrows and hopes are.
In so doing, I cannot but include
myself personally and without restraint
in its misfortune and guilt. as well as
with the fate and destiny of my nation,
of which I have been and felt my
self a member through all the long
years of my imprisonment under the
Hitler regime.
Clearly must speak of my thoughts,
experiences are few and the news I
have had during the long years of
seclusion is far from complete; but
perhaps the walls and wires of prison
have not been able totally to withhold
| from me that atmosphere in which
my nation outside the concentration
camp was feeling and thinking.
| know that during the last months of
| the European war the roads of Germany
have been crowded and the towns over
| flowing with fugitives, all of them head
ing westward in fear and panic because
they had been subjected to Nazi propa-
| ganda claiming awful excesses and
cruelties committed by the advancing
Russians.
Concurrently. the population of the
western provinces looked out for the
American and British troops, vaguely
hoping that they might come to free
them from the yoke which they had been
unable to shake of by their own efforts.
| But when these troops actually ar
rived, they were not welcomed with en-
thusiasm. They found a people dumb,
dull, apathetic, still living, but not alive;
and yet dead, but bare of aims and
hopes, and, therefore, only moving
| corpses"
There may have been some rural dis
tricts left where life had preserved
| more normal appearance, but they are
few and small. The great majority are
stunned, just trying to keep up for the
present, not knowing nor questioning
what may happen tomorrow.
l have read of the Werewolves, and
have been asked whether this Is or will
become an underground movement. I
think the former is only the last trick
Of propaganda, and that the latter never
will take share nor gain Importance.
Some elements which do not have any
thing to win or lose may cause some
trouble for while, but they will disap-
pear.
| do not believe in general there Is
any hatred against the enemy" and
doubt whether there has been any dur
ing the war.
If there is any kind Of hatred, it is
against that kind of people who
throughout the whole world have dis
honored all which is called German,
and who have inflicted their inconceiv-
able cruelties upon their own people as
we'll as on foreign victims of their sad
ism and fanaticism.
We cannot forget-and the world
should not, either-that concentration
camps and determination camps were
not an invention of the war that began
in 1899, but of 1888, and that war
crimes" had their beginning many years
before the war began.
But this sort of hatred is deep-rooted
in the past and may be by no means a
fountainwell of energy. 1t only adds to
the general feeling OF misery and hope
lessness which is today the prevalent
trait of our mental condition.
On the surface, scarcely any other
common sentiment will be found. Never
theless, another does exist The struggle
which was fought by the German
Christian churches to maintain their
freedom of preaching and teaching, and
which seemed to have ended years ago
without success when the churches were
silenced so far as the public life of our
people is concerned, is struggle which
has not been without permanent effect.
For me, it has been the most delightful
and strengthening experience to read
the letters my wife has sent me from
young people at the front, many of
whom I did not know, letters proving