GERMANY'S HOME FRONT

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21194, 17 August 1940, Page 11 (Supplement)

GERMANY'S HOME FRONT

United In The War :: People’s Changed Attitude

Diplomatic Correspondent of the Manchester Guardian

Q.ERMANY HAS COME through the first months of the war better than was expected, wished for, or even believed possible by many observers at the cutset, and this in spite of the numerous and often serious difficulties which actual war conditions brought in their train. The home front is more solidly behind the military and political leadership of the National Socialist Reich today than it has been at any time during the last four years even when full allowance is made for the War-weariness and Distrust that exist here and there r,mong the population, as a result of the difficulties caused by war-time economy, the almost unbearable hardships suffered by many individuals from arbitrary Government interference in the field of production, the rigorous rationing of everyday necessities, and the extremely hard winter. In spite oi all these things the Government is able to count today, much more than when the war actually began, upon unified and resolute support from the German people. Yet at the outbreak of war the mood of the people was the worst possible from the point of view of a Government determined upon military adventure. Of the non-Nazi elements of the population a considerable portion was totally opposed to any idea of war. This opposition was based not so much upon moral or ethical principles as upon a lively distaste for the horrdrs of war and a deep-seated belief that by embarking on war Germany would be signing her own death-warrant. Years of Nazi propaganda had failed to convince the mass of the people of Germany’s overwhelming strength. The memory of the last war and of the post-war period was still sufficiently vivid, at all events in the minds of the middle-aged, to make them recoil from the prospect of a new war.

over and over again, even in confidential conversations with non-Nazi Germans, that the present war was forced upon Germany by England, that Germany’s right to live was denied, that premeditated wanton aggression was practised upon, and not by, the Reich. The envy, fear, and distrust shown towards Germany by the outside world are adduced, even by non-Nazis, as the explanation or justification of the present position. Germany’s criminal aggression against Austria and Czecho-Slovakia is conveniently forgotten or excused or pushed into the background. We hear instead wild accusations, repeated from official propaganda sources, against England and, to a less degrees, against her Allies. The official Nazi version is, broadly speaking, accepted by the German public. Many middle-class and conservative intellectuals have now taken up an anti-British attitude which Rings a Great Deal Truer than the violent anti-Nazi postures they were at pains to exhibit (in private) a year or two ago. The people who are sometimes referred to as “the better Germany” are today largely behind the Nazi policy and programme, partly from conviction and partly as the result of pressure. National Chauvinism has, by force of circumstances, become the central element in their creed. The process of national cohesion the reconciliation of many formerly hostile elements with the existing regime are noticeable among all classes. Among the workers, in spite of grumbling at the hardships of war-time, there is little questioning of the absolute necessity of fighting against the “British plutocracy.” The German working class has been persuaded, almost hypnotised, into identifying the struggle against the West with the fight against embattled plutocracy. Victory, they have been taught to believe, will mean for the workers material gain from the looted citadels of wealth. These propaganda tactics have been successful both with the German workers and with certain sections of the lower middle classes. The belief that in this struggle the German people are also fighting for a “new social order” is 'consciously or unconsciously present in the minds of the majority. The slogan “against the British plutocracy” has another important function: it helps the German people psychologically by providing them with an external objective on to which they can unload all responsibility for the hardships they are forced to endure. The pact with the Soviet Union, apart from helping to exorcise the spectre of a war on two fronts, has raised the workers’ hopes of a Socialist society as the sequel to victory. The fact that the workers have come to see in the war a “social purpose,” a means to enlarge the “living space” of their class, provides the Nazi leaders with a useful lever for swinging towards themselves Forces Formerly Hostile and sensibly decreases the internal difficulties which the Government might otherwise have had to face. A decreasing minority of the working class, still politically opposed to Nazism, still imbued with its old ideals, sees the present state of affairs as a transitional period leading to Socialism of the Marxist variety. Another group, drawn mainly from former trade union quarters, regards the present situation in Germany . the first stage of a process leading to social, political, and economic chaoa.

On the other hand, the Nazi bureaucracy, the fighting formations of the party, (the S.S. and S.A.), and the Hitler Youth see in this war simply the continuation of the militant heroic policy of German expansion which they themselves have always supported as a logical step towards the goal of German world dominion. Nevertheless, taking the country as a whole, the position in September was difficult and dangerous, while today, in spite of difficulties, national unity behind the regime has been achieved and the resolution of the people is high. Enmity against the Nazi regime was bound to weaken as soon as the country was at war. Apart from this, and apart also from the Steadily Growing Belief in Germany’s military superiority, there are two further factors deserving of attention. One is that the political and police control of the “home front” has been thoroughly organised and is functioning well. During the last eight months the enormous police apparatus built up by Himmler has had its testing-time and has proved its value for the job it was designed to do. The other factor is the development of national cohesion since the outbreak of v.-ar. Discussions with Germans of every class indicate that the bulk of the population is determined to regard this war as a war being waged for and against Germany and not for and against the Nazi regime. Whether or not this opinion reflects genuine conviction or is merely the lesuli of clever and sustained propaganda, it remains true that we meet the view