Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-06-29
What Is Explanation
OF Nazi Atrocities?
Professor Says German
Government Remains at
Primitive Tribal Level

tribal culture, Theodore Abel, pro-
fessor of sociology at Columbia uni
versity, declares.
eff we are puzzled by German
conduct, it is not because of its exist
ence, but because it exists in the
10th century and is practised by a
nation which ranks very high in in
tellectual and cultural achieve
ments," Professor Abel points out.
"It is the anachronism which dis
turbs us. To wage aggressive war
fare, to desire the subjugation of
other people, to live under an au-
thoritarian regime - all this seems
to be out of tune with modern times,
in which tendencies are toward indi-
vidual freedom, growing interde
pendence of nations, and the need
for internationalism."
There is no single item on the
list of German horrors that is
uniquely German, according to Pro-
fessor Abel, nor does history show
us that Germany has been more
aggressive than other nations.
Every Nation has Prosecuted.
with the exception of Holland,
every nation of which part of its
population consisted of Jews perse-
cuted them at one time or another.
The records of England in the 18th
century, of Spain in the 18th, and of
Russia in the 18th are as black as
the German record of the Goth. The
sadiSm of the concentration camps
finds its match in the sadism of
the Spanish Inquisition and innumer-
able other cases of mass torture
throughout the ages.
"The comparative percentages of
years at war from the 18th to the
18th century for the countries of
Europe, as compiled by Professor
Sorokin of Harvard, show that
Spain heads the list with 81 per cent,
closely followed by Poland, England
and Russia. At the bottom of the
list Is Germany with 20 per cent. In
the wars Of 140O to 1900, England,
France and Spain, who were the ag-
gressor nations, displayed the same
qualities Of desire for conquest and
treacherous dealing that modern
Germany has evinced."
The failure of Germany to develop
as a modern civilized state forms
the core of the German enigma, Pro-
fessor Abel finds.
"At the close of the Middle Ages,
two lines of social development
were possible for the nations of Eu-
rope" he explains. First, a nation
could break with the past, discard
traditional values, develop new in
situations. This possibility was thor
oughly realized by France and Eng
land. Secondly, a nation could re-
tain its old values and institutions,
merely adapting them to changed
conditions. This possibility has been
most thoroughly realized by Ger
many.
Germany is not actually back
ward in its development is diff
ferent. Where the western nations
eradicated feudalism, dethroned no.
bility and the clergy, made the bour-
geoise the ruling class, embraced
capitalism and laissez faire as their
economic doctrine, and the four
freedoms as their social theory, Ger
many never had a social revolu-
ton.
Rule by Barons.
"The German state carried over
feudalism from the Middle Ages to
the 18th and 10th centuries. The
ruling class did not change. The
political doctrine of this class, fued-
al barons in modern garb, is the
monocratic state, based on allie
glance to a dynast or Fuehrer, and
an all-pervading hierarchy. Its eco
nomic doctrine is a patrimony, the
benevolent state-with economic in
terest subordinated to the political
interest of the state. Its social doc
trines are authority, duty, honor, and
the dictum that the individual is the
servant of the state"
This state of affairs has in turn
produced many forms of adjust
ment peculiar to Germany, Profess
sor Abel says. "The most charac-
teristic are ~ preoccupation with
status, conditioned by the HER
archical structure Of German soci-
ETY.; (2) subservience and political
Ignorance of the masses, fostered
by the authoritarian nature of the
German regime; and (3) a strong
ethnocentrism induced by a sense
OF isolation which accompanied the
divergence Of Germany from the
trend of social development in west
ern Europe.
Under the tension of war such
ethnocentrism becomes extreme.
Non-Germans are considered a diff
ferent species from the master race
and this permits their Icing treated
without the restraint of moral obi
cations. Here we witness not mere
~ case of the survival of feudal-
ism but q return to the primitive
forms Of tribalism.
Hay Fever, Asthma, Many
By Large Daily Intake of