The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-14
':Pay The Slaves -
(This letter is reproduced from the New


(This letter is reproduced from the New
York Times)
Reports from towns, villages and farms
conquered by our armed forces have it that
many Germans appeal to our men to protect
them and their property against their erst-
while slaves. They still regard themselves as
the 'Herrenvolk." the master race. They still
regard all but Germans as belonging to an
inferior species. Conquered though they are
they ask protection by their conquerors
against their slaves.
Psychologically, the German, ostensibly
submitting to the conqueror, regards the con-
queror as an inferior and seeks service from
him. He seeks protection from those who have
unquestioned claim upon him, claims of muir
der and other crimes, and particularly en-
slavement.
Says Frederick Graham, The New York
Times correspondent: There seems to be
not the faintest spark of revolt in the men
and women who for four or more years were
slaves to the Germans" Emotionally numb,
physically exhausted, mentally BANKED out
all the fight taken out of them by the whip
hopeless, sick in heart and in mind, one
thought only seems to possess them. AS Ora
ham puts it, Go out of Germany"
Richard j. H. Johnston reports to The
Times that by and large German villagers
and small town people live in clover. And
why not? They fed, and feed upon what they
have robbed and what their slaves have pro-
duced. It is estimated that Germany enslaved
fifteen million men and women.
We refer to these as displaced people What
are we to do with them? What is more i'm
portant, what are we to do for them? And
what are. we to do with the Germans who
fed upon them and utilized their enforced la
Dor to bring havoc to the world?
We know that we and our allies will succor
and aid the displaced, the crippled in body
and broken in spirit, these victims of nazisrn.
But is it fair that we and our allies shall
bear the burden and let the Germans be
free from compromising for the damage they
have done to these men and women? Justice
pay these freed slaves for the work they ex-
acted from them, make good to them for
the injuries they suffered. 1t can be done,
not adequately but at least partially.
The United Nations should fix the compen-
sation to be paid to the foreign forced worker
by Germans who profited by his labor. Every
German farmer should be required to pay
his slave workers, now freed, the amount
fixed. If he can pay it in a lump sum,
that should be compelled. If not, the pay
ments should be distributed over a period of
years. The amount fixed as compensation
should be lien on the land and the ap-
purtenances so that he who buys the land
buys it subject to that lien.
What the German farmers are required to
do should apply with equal force 10 indus
trialists, to small and big business, to cartels
and other organizations. to municipalities, to
provincial and the central Government.
1t seems to me but right that even before
reparations to Governments, compensation to
the individual freed slave should be provided
Compensation to these victims is common
justice. However. it will serve another pur-
pose. The individual German on farm and
in town, in the after-war years. will be re-
minded every time he makes a payment of
the reason for the payment. 1t will bring
back to his mind the enormity of the brutality
that he and his fellow-Germans practiced
upon individual humans and upon mankind
as a whole.
What l here suggest is possible Of accom-
plishment Germans have records Of their
slaves The camps for the displaced can make
up records. Each country probably has rec
ords of those driven into slavery
Compensation to involuntary slaves must
be the first order of business of the United
Nations. These slaves have suffered They
have been made to suffer. They were prison
ers. They were whipped. They were starved
and the Legrees profited Let those who prof
tied pay-and pay to the limit of their ca
pacity. JACOB PANKEN,
Judge, Domestic Relations Court
New York
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