Evening star., 1945-01-14
By Ed,Card 4. Harris

huSSld, perhaps more IerVenCly Cnal
the United States and Great Britain
hopes to see changes in the social anc
political structure Of defeated Ger
many. 1t feels that the basic objective
of the Allies in long-range control pro.
gram should be to tear down the Prus.
sian caste system, slice up the great
Junker estates and distribute them tx
the peasants, and help create a new Ger.
manic state that is not war-minded
and, incidentally, not antagonistic to the
Soviet Union.
While responsible American and Brit
tsh leaders have discussed a variety o1
plans to de-Prussianize and decentralize
the Reich, the force of the Russian de-
termination has given rise in many AL
lied quarters to the old suspicious of In
ternational Bolshevism Russia, it is
feared, will seek to clamp Communism
on weak, disintegrated postwar Ger
many, and thus spread the domination
of Marxist doctrines westward to the
North Sea.
1t is this emotional fear of Com
munism that may yet prove stumbling
block to Allied agreement on a program
for Germany. If distrust and suspicion
are fostered among the big three, as
Hitler succeeded in doing with gutteral
denunciations of the "red menace" in
the sorry days of Neville Chamberlain
and Munich, then the vision of inter-
national security will indeed be shat
tered and the foundations laid for World
War III.
Thoughtful people" said Vera
Micheles, dean of the Foreign Policy
Association, in a report on Germany's
future, both among Germans and non-
Germans, are beginning to realize that
changes should be made not only in the
form of government-that was osten-
sibly done in l918-or in government
tufe of the Reich.
Some Germans believe that there
can be no hope of weaving the German
people from militarism unless heavy
industry, the source of modern arma-
ments, is socialized, and large estates,
especially those owned by the Junkers
in Prussia, are either collectivized or
parceled out among small farmers, to
break the influence hitherto exercised
by big industrialists and rich landown-
ers over the government of the Reich"
The Russians are extremely hopeful
that red-baiting in America and Britain
will not destroy a practical peace plan
for Germany. They are well aware, as
are our own authorities, that dissension
and distrust among the Allies constitute
the Nazis chief hope that when they
lose the war they will win the peace.
1t should be noted" said a
recent editorial in Pravda, official organ
of the Russian Communist party, "that
the nearer the moment of final victory
approaches, the stronger is the deter
mination of the Allied nations and their
governments to take every necessary
measure to draw the fangs of the Ger
man beast and to deprive it of the pos
sibility of repeating its piratical aggres-
sion. The growing unanimity of the
Allies on this question is naturally the
in Europe
Soviet Opposes Soft Peace.
The Soviet has little patience with
those who advocate a soft peace in the
pious hope that lasting democracy will
be reborn in Germany after the war
There are no disparate schools of
thought on the subject in Russia, as
there are in the United States, Britain
and other countries. On the surface this
may be attributed to the controls over
public debate in the Soviet, but under
meath is more fundamental reason: :
The lands devastated by the Nazi war
machine, the staggering Red Army losses,
the scorched earth policy inflicted on a
people viewed by the Herrenvolk as wild
beasts. There is only one school of
thought in Russia.
Writing recently in Trud, newspaper
of the All Union Council of Soviet Trade
Unions, Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer,
said: ut is sometimes argued abroad
whether this is an theological war. We
are fighting because the enemy attacked
our land and insulted CUR dignity. You
can call this an theological war if you
hke-that is, if you regard cannibalism
as an theology.
I'm our eyes Fascism is a dangerous
plague and we want to put an end to
the contagion. Furthermore, we know
that plague cannot be confined to one
quarter of city. Disease spreads rap
idly. We have to put an end to militant
Germany, for it is the medium in which
various microbes flourish, and we have
to put an end to the microbes of Fascism
wherever and in whatever quantity they
may still be preserved.
I'VE are certain that this is what all
the Allied nations want, too, and for
which all mankind is yearning."
Bitter Toward "Poor Germans"
Already, said Ehrenburg. one can hear
the voices Of "lachrymose advocates
imploring that the poor Germans" not
be punished too severely. "As to the
cannibals themselves" he went on, iii
they regret anything at all, it is that
the furnaces of Maidanek and Trembl.
yanka were not big enough Mai
danek, the desert zone Babi Var ravine
Trostynanets, mattresses stuffed with
women's hairs that German kind.
heartedness? Very well, we1l soon be
having something to say about thi,
'kindheartedness Berlin"
1t is difficult for Ehrenburg and Other
Russian writers to comprehend how any
one in the United Nations can act a.
apologists for the German people. g
know that with the exception of ths
fifth column" he declared, "all freedom.