Evening star., 1945-05-15
Beyond the Pole

The cordial treatment accorded
Hermann Goering a few days ago by
two American generals has elected
from General Eisenhower the stern
rebuke it very much deserves. The
handShaking, the fine luncheon and
the al-around amiability surround
ing the capture of the Luftwaffe
chief cannot be justified, but must
be regarded, as the supreme COM
mander of the western Allies de-
clares, as highly regrettable error
directly violating long standing Or
ders against dealing with the NaziS
on friendly enemy" basis.
In past wars victorious generals
could with reason show special cour-
tesieS to defeated commanders, but
in this war-notoriously so in the
case of such men as Goering-the
Nazi leaders have done so much
violence to civilized standards that
they must be treated as criminals
are treated when they fall into the
hands of the law. Nor is their cul-
pability limited only to what has
happened since the attack on Po-
land in 1899. Long before that, from
the first day they began their march
to power, they set themselves up, by
word and act, as company of gang
sters, and they are gangsters still,
no matter how high their rank and
despite their unconditional surren-
der.
Goering, for instance, was second
in command to Hitler until his star
fell in the closing months of the war.
With the other top Nazis, he was the
brains behind the k-burnings,
the blood purges. the pograms, the
concentration camps, the destruc-
tion of individual liberties, and the
whole evil program of violent in
ternal represSions that converted
Germany into "monolithic state"
designed for total war And after
the war began, he was the man who
introduced the policy of indiscrimi-.
nate air attack, who let his Luft-
waite butcher helpless civilian refu-
gees on the roads of Belgium and
France, who looted the art treasures
of the lands he helped so much to
ravage, and who brazenly assured
the German people that he would
see to it that the rest of Europe
starved before he would permit them
to want for food.
The American people, the British
people, all the victimized peoples of
Europe, will applaud General Eisen-
hover for the prompt corrective
measures he has taken to guarantee
that such incidents as the Goering
luncheon do not recur and that no
Nazi or high German official is
treated as a friendly enemy" The
news should sober any of the de-
feated leaders who may think that
their crimes will be forgotten now
and that the Allied world will be soft
enough to let bygones be bygones
and that everybody, as the German
General Guderian hopes, will shake
hands, "just like after a football
match"
The war in Europe has not been
sport. 1t has been a savage struggle
against one of the most evil and
perverted tyrannies in the history of
mankind. And to shake hands now
with the broken tyrants would be to
shake hands with the sadists and
murderers responsible for such mon
strouS deeds as the leveling of Lidice
and the indescribably horrible things
done to hundreds of thousands of
human beings in death camps like
Buchenwald. General Eisenhower's
orders are very much to the point.
The Goerings and the Himmlers
have placed themselves beyond the
pale of civilization, and they must
be treated accordingly-with the
stricteSt kind of justice.