The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-04-05

when it wa: thought the Nazis would fold be- fore the snow flew, there was a whole shelf of plans made for deal ing with the German people. Some 1,400 people were trained in the OWI school outside New York City for variety of jobs in European outposts. But when the Germans didn't immediately throw in the sponge, the plans were kept on the shelf and the training school was closed. Now new plans will have to be made to meet changed conditions and OWI must do additional re- cruiting.
 The job apparently cut out for OWI in Germany will be entirely different from what it will be in any other country. Its function will be pretty much in the nature of com bined censorship and public rela- tions in connection with military government
 It will be part of the govern ment of occupation in a country where for the last 10 years there have been no privately owned news papers or radio, all international activities being run by the propa- ganda ministry of Herr Goebbels staffed with choice collection of grafterS, extortioniStS, and thugs. PERSONNEL PROBLEM
 DIFFICULT
 All these media will have to tbe restaffed and the Germans finally approved for the jobs will have to be handp:cked. The question is where to find the personnel. Prison CTS of war may furnish a few eligible candidates. Refugees want ing to go back may not be welcom- ed. Whom to trust in Germany is indeterminable in advance. There are bound to be many sad exper- fences.
 For time therefore, it is obvious that there will have to be an Amer ican sitting in every newspaper office, every radio station permitted to do business in the U s. zone of occupation. Furthermore, every book manuscript offered for publi- cation will have to be carefully cen- sored.
 The ability to re-educate the Ger man people through controlling their sources of information is big question for debate. While its desirability cannot be questioned such realists as Douglas Miller, who wrote You Can't Do Business Witt Hitler" long before the United States got into the war, are ex- tremely skeptical about being able to do much re-education. Miller, former consular officer in Germany and now head of OWIs German di- vision, b roadcasting regularly to Germany from Washington, puta greater hope in the possibility that enough good Germans will appear to do the re-educating job them selves.
 GERMAN SCHOOLS
 TO BE CLOSED
 Affairs Division of the Army. All schools will be closed at the begin- Scshools will be closed at the begin- ming of the occupation. An interest ing sidelight of the Soviet Army oc- CuPooAO11 Ol CdSCCAA 0Cluldlly L that the Russians closed all the schools but opened up the churches which were centers of Nazi resist. ance.
 Universities will probably be kept closed indefinitely. Elementary schools will be the first to be open- ed, for the big hope of the future is starting coming generation of on the right track as soon as pos sible. At first, it may be necessary to re-employ many teachers with Nazi records, but 1t is believed that they can teach safe subjects like arithmetic till the records oi enough new teachers can be investi. gated to broaden the instruction.
 One of the few nice things about the Nazis is that they have taught the people to accuse each other, and that has already helped consider ably in wedding out the most unde- sirable characters in German official life. With the plug-uglies of the old ministries of propaganda, enlighten. ment and education, there can of course be no truck.