Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943. HITLER AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943. HITLER AND THE GERMAN PEOPLE.

TT is not often that even a fragment of truth is heard from Hitler, but in his first broadcast to the German people since last March he appears to have been entirely sincere in the indignant regret with which he spoke of the downfall of Mussolini and of that deflated dictator having “been dealt with as if lie were a common criminal.” That Hitler has for once and to tins extent been sincere no doubt is explained by his perceiving in the fate that has overtaken Mussolini a clear indication and assurance of his own impending doom.

There can be no question of accepting his allegedly “firm belief” that what had happened to the Duce could not possibly happen to the Fuehrer. It is of some interest, however, that Hitler admitted plainly, by implication, that his hopes of continuing the w'ar are contingent upon his ability to keep the German people in subjection. On his own showing he believes himself to be secure against the fate that has overtaken his Italian accomplice because the German Command is “a fanatically united community.”

Suggesting as it does some element of honest faith, the phrase “fanatically united” by no means accurately describes the relationship existing between those who are now leading Germany to disaster. Nazi gangsters and German militarists of the older school bear in common the guilt of atrocious.crimes against their own nation and many others, but the dominating fact of the relationship between these two equally abominable factions seems to be that the Nazis by a superior mastery of intrigue and of ruthless terrorism have gained the upper hand over their military associates. The question of whether the generals should make use of Hitler or Hitler make use of the generals appears to have been settled long ago in Hitler’s favour.

As to the position at large in the Reich, what appears to be a typical and well-supported opinion was expressed some time ago by an anti-Nazi exile, Paul Hagen, in his book: “Will Germany Crack?”

As long (he wrote) as there are airplanes and special S.S. divisions to keep down the mass of soldiers, even if their morale weakens, and to terrorise those decent and honourable officers who are left; as long as the regime can mobilise new reserves to maintain its own position, just that long will its last strength be used to prevent a popular revolution.

An acceptance of the view that the rank and file of the German Army and the German people, are held in subjection by the Nazis and their military accomplices, no doubt accounts for resolutions like that in which the British Trades Union Congress last week, by an overwhelming majority, declared “that the Nazis, and not the whole German people, should be made responsible for the war.”

This may be very well where guilt for war crimes is concerned, but any post-war settlement would be fatally defective which did not take full account of the readiness with which the German people have time and again allowed themselves to be led into brutal aggression against other nations. In the characteristics of her people, as well as in the atrocities of Nazi gangsterdom, there is a measure of the control that must be established over Germany if secure peace is to be established in the world.