The Wilmington morning star., 1945-03-21
Writer Says Germans Wait
ForReuengeA gainstNazis
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Continued from Page One)
scale. Nonetheless the Germans
seem convinced that what they
have already suffered is only a
foretaste of what lies ahead.
Before the war, Germany had
$50 large towns. The majority Of
them now are rubble heaps. The
transport system has been large
ly destroyed. Practically all the
simplest necessities of normal life
have been exhausted.
The Nazi structure still holds to-
gether, but after the loss of the
industries of Upper Silesia, which
were Germany's principal food
reservoirs, the end is approach
ing with giant strides.
Why does the Nazi structure
still stand? Millions of Germans
would heave a sigh of relief on
being liberated from Nazi rule, not
to mention the joy they would ex-
perience when the mass killing
comes to an end.
But terror of the Gestapo and
concentration camps holds these
elements in checks just as stern
discipline holds great part OF
the German army that otherwise
would long ago have been scat
tered.
Commanding the Eastern Front
from Frankfurt on the Oder
through Saxony and Silesia, Col
Gen. Schooner has the reputation
of being more ruthless in demand
ing discipline than H i n h
Himmler. 1t is commonly said
Schooner conducts war by court
martial. Any soldier who fails to
stand fast simply is shot.
Hatred Of the Nazi party al
ready is so open and so wide
spread that one can expect the
final settlement to be bloody and
terrible. Even in top circlez peo-
pie are not asking today what will
happen to Hitler, but what will
happen to us?"
There are various explanations
why Germany is still fighting.
Hitler fights, one might say, be-
cause he is ashamed.
He does not wish to stand be-
fore history with the disgrace OF
a lost war. His advisers under
stand that they have reached dead
end. They have their backs to the
wall and seem determined to throw
the whole nation into the jaws of
the Allied offensives.
Since the tide turned at Stain
grad, Nazi propaganda h not
loosened it's grip on the German
people. Today it provides the main
explanation of why the Germans
still fight, although they know the
war is lost.
Day after day millions Of Ger
mans listen to Allied radio broad
casts urging them to surrender In
time. They understand the mean
ing of these broadcasts, but never
theless they fight and work on.
The German people know they
must pay for lost war and much
besides.
But with what are they to pay?
Most Of Germany's cities have
been laid in ruins until it is i'm
possible to estimate in figures all
that has been destroyed.
What is the use Of saving insig-
nificant assets which are left? The
population is asking.
The sufferings under German
occupation of countries such as
Norway and Greece, of the thou
sands of Greeks who have starved
to death, and the misery which
has befalIen the Poles and Rus
slams during the German Often
sives left the Germans who wit
messed them unmoved.
And the Germans at home new
err learned much about them. But
now, when the same misery is
threatening them, they are begin
ming to remember-and they feel
that what Germany must undergo
will be ten times as hard.
For years the Germans have
considered CONSUMPTION of millions
of foreign workers as slave labor
are terrified at the thought they
are terrified at the though they
may themselves be deported.
During the last few hard years
the German people have not had
many opportunities-nor any great
desire-to pause and think. There
were few Germans who understood
in the time of good fortune that
if Germany won the war the whole
Of Europe would have to work for
her but if she lost the situation
would be reversed.
Now every German is aware of
this fact. Now millions of German
workers are wondering: Twill we
be deported? Where will the line
be DRAWN"
Certainly, they argue, it would
not be worthwhile to put some
fat, unskilled Nazi party men to