GERMANY AND EAST EUROPE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 28, 28 October 1942, Page 6

GERMANY AND EAST EUROPE

Centuries Of Oppression “We were often told, in the case of Germany, that apart from a few thousands of bad Nazi Germans, there was a majority in that country who thought and felt as we did,” said Count K. A. Wodzlcki, Consul-General for Poland in New Zealand, when addressing the New Zealand Club at a luncheon in Wellington yesterday. “We were told that except for the Nazi warmongers and Prussian military leaders, the bulk of the German nation was composed of peaceful workers,, quiet farmers, skilled scientists,. distinguished musicians and artists. "In the case of Japan .we were informed that if we could only destroy the influence of militaristic cliquesand clans, the deadly and hateful Bushido would die, and we should have to deal only with pleasant traders, hard-work-ing manufacturers, and educated scientists, animated with ideals very like those of their opposite numbers in the West. “IVe know today how superficial and misleading all such talk was.” Dealing with the case of Germany, which he explained he knew best, Count Wodzicki said that the manacling of 6000 British prisoners bad shocked people in this country, as elsewhere in the world. Quoting instances from history, beginning with the siege of Glogow by the Emperor of Germany’s troops in the twelfth century, followed by the "occupation” of Danzig by the Teutonic Knights, a religious order, in 1308, the count showed that the brutal excesses of the Nazis in this war were not something attributable to them alone, but. were condoned by the vast majority of the German people. It might be, he suggested, that the manacling of the prisoners was the forecast of a new criminal move against the United Nations. Or it might bo that the German nation, in which national megalomania and hate were officially promoted, needed this new injection. of hatred as it had needed similar injections before the rape of Czechoslovakia and the murder of Poland.

Count Wodzicki proceeded to give a brief survey of the methods used by the Germans to attempt the annihilation, within a few years, of the 35.000,000 people of the Polish nation. There were 3000 German members of the Nazi party in the team chosen for the work, army officials, scientists, lawyers, and even artists. Their methods were hundreds of thousands of collective killings, the sending of all leaders to concentration camps, the deportation of more than 1,500.000 people from the annexed West to Central- Poland, the sending of a similar number to forced labour in Germany, the destroying of churches, schools, colleges, and universities, museums and libraries, and the taking or commandeering of the people's property. Finally, organized starvation was used.

“The chief German murderer. Dr. Frank,” said Count Wodzicki. "was satisfied when be stated: ‘The Government General of Poland represents the best example of the system which will be introduced in the countries of New Europe under the direction of Greater Germany.’” The explanation of Germany's black record regarding Poland was that Poland was the key position which Germttnv had to reduce on her road to European and world domination.

Count Wodzicki emphasized that his purpot-'e was not to advocate vengeance. He advocated just retribution. but the punishment of the chief perpetrators could not exonerate the nation which had condoned the crimes, nor would it cure the nation of the vices of megalomania and worship of force.

The peace and prosperity of Europe, he urged, lay in the provision of greater opportunities for the

ItiO.tXiO.tXtO people who lived hi the broad belt of territory lying between the Baltic and Hie Peloponesus. They had been kept backward by the Germans and The population was too dense for purely agricultural occupation, and the need was for industrial development. Confederations between Poland and Cezchoslovakia and between Greece and Yugoslavia were pointing the way. If a solution was found for the problems of Central East Euroix?, inticit would lie done to remove the German menace and secure political stability.