WARFARE WELFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1941, Page 6

WARFARE WELFARE

HITLER’S ADVENT TO POWER HOW UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM WAS SOLVED. PREPARATIONS FOR WAR. LONDON, September 13. Facade; In the years immediately following Hitler’s advent to power the German army of unemployed steadily disappeared. The Nazis turned the floodlight of their propaganda on to this achievement and declared that for the first time in history a true Socialist State had solved the problem of work and bread for all. They advertised their Kraft Durch Fruede organisations, their Winter Hilfe and labour camps. But they gave no exact explanation of how the solution had been reached. Reality: The first two weeks of May, 1940, revealed the truth. The Nazis had spent six years building up a war machine unrivalled in size and mechanisation. Owing to their shortage of foreign exchange and their desire to hide their plans from the rest of the world they had made an extensive use of ersatz materials, creating industries within industries. These in addition to road and factory building programmes and prolonged military service had seen absorbed all available labour. War, not socialism, had cured Germany's unemployment problem. SHORTAGE OF WORKERS. The Nazis are faced with another difficulty. They cannot find enough human cogs in Germany to keep the machine they have created in firstclass running order. "As a result of the strong development of war and of the armaments industry requirements, other trades such as the building industry, internal shipping parts, the textile industry and artisan workshops had to be disregarded. Even more serious is the fact that not enough young people are going into agriculture and mining.” (Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, August 24, 1941). Calling up the conquered: Everwidening war had taken thousands of German men; most of the German women had already been called up. Men from occupied countries were roped in to work for the machine that destroyed them. “The Dutch must now adopt a new policy regarding sending labour to Germany. The interest of the German State must decide —labour must go where it is wanted.” (Kolnische Zeitung, July 1, 1940). THE OLD STORY. The Germans brought unemployment to each country they invaded. They are still profiting by unemployment to recruit labour for their industries and agriculture. After a few weeks’ experience of misery, war leaves in its trail a certain number of their victims ready to .take any work. The Nazis seize on such acts of despair as examples of the realisation on the part of foreign workmen of the inestimable benefits bestowed by Nazi Germany. “It is appreciated that in comparison with labour conditions in France and many democratic countries the Reich is a worker’s paradise. In addition the Reich worker and his foreign fellow-workers enjoy the benefits of many admirably organised social institutions, which by their free services appreciably raise the real value of wages which are higher than elsewhere.” (German broadcast to LatinAmerica, April 10, 1941). Actual conditions of conquered labour: But these are lies. The foreign worker in Germany soon learns exactly how much his Nazi master cares for his welfare. Contracts. are altered. “A circular of July, 1940, promised allowances to all married workers who. after enlisting, found that these allowances were only given in the building, the military and certain metal industries. All others had signed under false conditions.” (Ringkebing Amtstidende, January 23, 1941). DENMARK. “Wages in fact differ substantially from those advertised. Payments are subject to many deductions, amounting in some cases to up to 30 per cent of the wages” (Einer Neilsen, Danish Trade Union Congress Secretary, in the Social Demokraten of November 2, 1940), Working hours are long and arduous. “Lately we have been working from 7.20 in the morning to 6.20 at night. Most of us work ten hours, and when wq come home we have to cook our own food." (Paul Barre, Danish subject employed at a Junkers factory, in a German broadcast to Denmark, December 28, 1940). Opportunities for recreation are few. “After work when German workers go home to their families, our people remain alone, and home-sickness and boredom sometimes lead to unhealthy distractions.” (Declaration by M. Hendriks, General-Director of the Belgian National Labour Exchange in “Volk en Staat,” June 10, 1941). . Free thought and speech have to be

sacrificed. “German labour fronts have been compelled to act not only as a trustee for foreign workers but as their educator, teaching them that what at first was felt as compulsion is really for their own good.” (Niederheinische Zeitung, May 28. 1941). Once in Germany the foreigner must stay whether he likes it or not. “Dutch workman who had been sent to jobs in Germany gave them up and came homo. Thereupon he was refused unemployment relief.” (Deutsche Zeitung in Den Niederlandern, November 8, 1940). BONDSMEN IN PERPETUITY. The Nazis, as they drain manpower from their vassal states into Germany, are aiming at two purposes: They are feeding their insatiable war machine and at the same time are planning to make it for ever impossible that any country in Europe can rise again to the status of a first-class power. As a Czech who worked in Germany expressed it: “The whole scheme is designed to sap the existence of the nation.” And this is not all. The Nazis intend to keep large armies in existence after the war. "Responsibility for Europe, which the Reich assures with proud developments, will, apart from other considerations, make it necessary to keep the military striking power of the Reich permanently in action." (Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. December 8. 1940.) Their demands for labour will, therefore, be imperative, “Will the conclusion of the war bring about an improvement in the human balance sheet? That can hardly be the case, not ever if one docs not take into consideration the accumulated demand for industrial products, the maintenance of a strong armaments industry, the tasks of the German coalmining industry in the new Europe and the extension of building." (Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, August 24. 19-11.) Were their plans to succeed, it would be the miserable fate of those who work for Hitler to see (heir own countries devitalised and ruined, to see Germany growing ever move impregnable, and to see themselves turned into the tools for forging the chains of their eternal disenfranchisement.