Evening star., 1946-04-03
The Nuzis in Germany

Inc NoZlS IN germany
When Hitler died his ideas and the
mass of his followers did not die
with him. British and American
raids last week end rounded up about
1000 Germans suspected of a plot
to keep the Nazi movement alive for
an eventual comeback, but this num-
ber, as intelligence officers suggest,
probably represents but fraction
of the total still militantly attached
to the Fuehrer's doctrines. In all
likelihood there will be more raids
later on. The war crushed merely
the machine with which the Reich
sought to impose it's will upon the
world; it did not wipe out the phil
osophy of "Mein Kampf" or change
the hearts and minds of it's devoteeS.
This is clear enough from what
has been said at Nuremberg by such
once-powerful Nazi leaders as Goer-
ing and Won Ribbentrop. The Hitler
mentality still lives. Total defeat
has not resulted in total contrition.
The Goerings and the Won Ribben-
tropS who are now on trial have
shown-either by reasserting their
faith in Naziism or by trying to
justify its basic character-that they
are sorry for nothing except the fact
that they have lost the war. At one
time millions of Germans followed
them with blind enthusiasm and al
though many of these may have
learned lasting lesson, there can
be little doubt that a great multi
tude of them-especially among the
indoctrinated youth-continue to
think pretty much as Goering and
Won Ribbentrop think.
BY rounding up Germans engaged
in an underground conspiracy to
make the most of the mental poison
left behind by Hitler, the Allies can
do much, on a short-term basis, to
head off serious trouble and prevent
the Nazis still at large from ter
rorizing those who sincerely wish
to cooperate with the victors in an
effort to rebuild Germany along
democratic lines. But raids can
meet only one aspect of the problem.
The task of putting an end to Nazi-
ism is something that will take
years to accomplish even under the
most favorable circumstances, and
those circumstances do not now
exist. For example, although it may
be reasonably effective in many
areas, military government at some
points in the American zone is re-
liably reported to be bad not only
because of lack of manpoWer but
because In at least one instance it
involves personnel whose behavior
has been disgusting and criminal.
Conditions of this sort, which are
being attended to and which prob
ably exist in the other zones, can be
exaggerated, but even when they
represent only isolated cases, the
German people hear of them and are
not impressed by democracy, to put
it mildly.
Similarly inter-Allied disunity is
hardly calculated to discourage the
underground Nazis. There is some
reason, too, to wonder whether the
conspirators may not be helped in
the long run by present plans for
the drastic economic dismantlement
of Germany. The future cannot be
foreSeen, of course, but the situation
today has factors in it-psycholog-
ical and physical-on which the un-
reconstructed followers of Hitler can
thrive. Raids alone will not change
this. If the German problem is ever
to be solved, the Allies will have to
work together on it in the fullest
possible cooperation, acting firmly
and with vision to eliminate prompt
ly any condition likely to cause grief
five, ten or fifteen years from now.