REGION OF TERROR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 November 1943, Page 3

REGION OF TERROR

ESTABLISHED IN GERMANY BY HIMMLER HUNDRED EXECUTIONS A DAY. FOR ACTS OF DEFEATISM. LONDON, November 18. An absolute reign of terror exists in Germany under Himmler, the Gestapo leader and new Minister of the Interior, according to the Turkish newspaper “Yatan,” says the Istanbul correspondent of “The Times.” Quoting what it describes as unimpeachable sources the “Vatan” reports that the executions for acts and words of defeatism total 100 a day. The majority of the offenders are executed for trifling offences. The punishment is obviously not meant to be in proportion to the offences, but as an example to inspire terror. The Nazis do not trust either the army or the police, and the Gestapo storm troopers are entrusted with the protecion of the regime. Scarcely two persons in 100 believe in a German victory, and even the story of a secret weapon with which Britain would be destroyed overnight is derided. Even jokes about the German Army’s “elastic” retreats are now regarded as treasonable and punishable by death. The Berlin radio has quoted Herr Buschmann, editor of a Stettin newspaper, as saying, "The years of success have spoiled us. We fancied we could end the struggle without even feeling the scourge of war in our own country. We at present see things quite differently from when our troops were approaching the Nile Delta and the mouth of the Volga. It is no use indulging in illusions about the gravity of the situation. Much more territory may be lost, but even if the war must be fought on German soil and many towns are razed, there cannot and must not arise the slightest sign of weakness.” The German radio also quoted this from a leader in the “Mansheiraer Zeitung”: “We are experiencing with increasing profundity the reality' of what the war means in practice. The number of families who have lost sons, fathers and brothers is growing, and only now do we really know what the war means.” The correspondent of the Stockholm “Dragens Nyheter” reports that three Germans, man, wife and sister-in-law, were executed in the north German town of Nordstaemmel for refusing to shelter a bombed-out family from Hanover.