Evening star., 1948-12-15
Stars, Men ond Atoms
Hitler Considered q God
Letter Collection Shows
Library of Congress Gathered Data
In Ransacked Reichchancellery
By Thomas r. Henry.

III Cne rainy 1eW Gays aIter american CrOOpB
first entered Berlin three years ago last July Z
there was q wild ransack1ng Of the bombed
reichchancellery and of the badly bombed build
ing across the square which had been the
headquarters Of the sinister DR.. Goebbels.
The soaked rubble was full of souvenirs.
Major generals and buck privates were on their
knees grubbing through fallen plaster. Both
buildings had Russian guards. Those were days
OF vodka-soaked good fellowship with our
noble allies" The sentries were most CO.
operative. All husky fellows, and having helped
themselves abundantly before, they always were
ready to lend hand with broad shoulders and
convenient burlap bags when the load Of loot
became too heavy for its collector.
Unfortunately, few of the soldiers were pro-
fessional sociologists or historians Even those
who may have been were more concerned with
more immediate values than were afforded by
the rooms packed with letters and documents
which told the story of mans creation Of O
god. OF inestimable value to social science
the basic elements of this story now have
been collected by the Library Of Congress.
Packed With Papers.
The six-story stone building which had been
the headquarters of the propaganda ministry
probably was hopeless from the first. Scores
of rooms were packed with papers-personal
and official letters, printed and mimeographed
pamphlets containing precise inside informa-
ton about every country on earth for the use
OF Naz diplomats and soldiers, maps, photo
graphs. But the building had been Quilted.
There were gaping holes in the roof through
which the cold rain poured on the piles of
documents. One climbed perilously from floor
to floor astride fallen rafters. The material
was in the utmost confusion, having been ram
sacked by both Russian and American soldiers
and war correspondents who had been drifting
surreptitiousy In and out of Berlin. There
was suspicion that vodka, or even more valu-
able loot, might be hidden in the chaos Of
paper.
The chancellery was different There some
of the file rooms had remained relatively I'M
disturbed. There was one large room in par
ticular packed with hundreds of thousands Of
personal letters to Hitler. They were arranged
in categories, according to writers and subject
matter. Nobody did more at the time than grab
up a few handfuls of them as souvenirs-and
most of these probably were discarded In few
days.
But even from the few specimens I have
at hand the general picture is clear Every
German with any kind of trouble wrote to
Hitler about it. Firmly in the national con-
sciousness was the idea that he was a mir
acle-working god. Bereft mothers wrote to
him seemingly with the glimmer of hope that
he might bring their soldier sons back to
them. Religious fanatics and paranofacs
poured out their delusions in twenty
epistles. Crazy inventors detailed their
ideas, with appropriate drawings for der
Fuehrer. Even crazier poets wrote odes and
epics clarifying him. Occasionally-quits
rarely, of course-somebody called him all
the vile names in the dictionary.
Never Read by Hitler.
Naturally, none of these hundreds Of
thousands of letters ever were read by Hitler
hmself-although many contained notations
that they were for his eye alone and heaped
imprecations on the head of anybody who
kept them from him. Apparently, however, .
special department had been set UP to take
care of them-presumably to sift and file
them and, in case a worth while idea did ap-
pear, transmit 1t to the appropriate bureau
for action.
All this might have been lost were it not for
the Library of Congress mission to Germany
shortly after the war. The library has Just
announced acquisition of 200 folders packed
with this domestic correspondence, which is
characterized as "of inestimable sociological
thousands Of poems addressed to Hitler. most
Of them described as "hideous."
The mission collected an enormous number
Of Nazi books and magazines. The historian
studying these would get an essentially false
picture Of German life during the war years,
and even of Hitler himself Especially under
totalitarian government, one doesn't pour
out ones heart very frankly on something
which is to be preserved In enduring type
and which must pass the eyes Of censors.
But letter was different. It was, to- the
writer, something between himself and Hitler
alone; and der Fuehrer, the new god Of
mercy and justice which had arisen on the
earth, would understand. letter to Hitler,
it may have seemed, was almost like bed
time prayer.
1t Is from this material, Library Of Con-
gress officials believe, that scientific socfolo-
gists may be able to locate the hidden forces
that raise an obscure individual to the status
of q dictator and menace to the world.
Questions and Answers