What Shall Be Done About Germany?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 243, 18 February 1944, Page 12

What Shall Be Done About Germany?

A CORRESPONDENT from Milton, Otago, has asked us to find space for this very interesting questionnaire from the "Christian Science Monitor." According to the "Monitor" the US. Council of Democracy has already sent this questionnaire to America’s National leaders, When the leaders will answer we of course do not know, but we pass it on to our readers partly as an intellectual exercise, but partly also to illustrate the difficulties involved in punishing Germany formally and legally. It is hardly necessary to add that it is not printed in "The Listener’ to encourage people to think that the task of so dealing with Germany is too difficult to be attempted. It is printed to help our readers to clarify their own thoughts. * * * OR practical purposes, the question "What Shall Be Done With Germany After the War?" has been subdivided into the following specific topics: 1. Punishment. 2. Reparations. 3. Form of Government. 4. Disarmament. 5 Re-education, 6. Relationship to rest of world. It is urged that these questions be considered from a purely objective, un‘emotional point of view. The problem is -not what we might like to do to the Germans, or what the Germans deserve. It is-What treatment of Germany is most likely to produce the kind of world we want-10, 20, 50 years after the war? 1: PUNISHMENT (Considered always from the objective viewpoint) A. Why Punishment? 1. Effect on Punishers .. . (a) Would quick blood-letting relieve pent-up emotions in invaded countries, thus permitting a calmer approach to the main problem of the Peace? (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) (b) Would harsh punishment of Germany give us a guilt complex later on? Viz., Anglo-Saxon conscience after the last war, which through sympathy for Germany contributed to permitting Germany to re-arm. 2. Effect on Punished ... (a) Will punishment act as an example-deterrent-cure? (b). Will it convince Germans (and others) that Nazi philosophy of aggression and race hatred does not pay, or (c) Will it root permanentiy in the German soul the desire for revenge? B. Punishment-for Whom? ' 1,The whole German people? 2. Army ' officers? : 3. Junker class. 4. Government officials? 5. Members of the Nazi Party? 6.Leaders of the Nazi Party? 7. Gestapo? C. Guilt-How Defined 1. General responsibility? 2. Personal responsibility for particular crimes? 3. Determined by what judicial codes? ' 4. By whom tried. (a) Anti-Nazi Germans? (b) Allied Powers? (c) Courts of invaded countries? (d) Neutrals? D. Form of Punishment? 1. Death? 2. Imprisonment? (a) Where? (b) How long? 3. Forced labour. (See also Reparations.) 4. Fines, deprivation of. property, of civil rights, etc.? 5. Withhold food or other supplies from Germany at end of war? 6. Any diminution or cancellation of punishment for those who aid us between now and the end of the war? Il: REPARATIONS A. Desirable in Any Respect? B. Amount 1. Fixed? 2. Indefinite? C. Method 1.In cash? 2.In kind? 3. By.furnishing labour and materials for reconstruction in Holland? Belgium? France? Russia? Great Britain? Norway? Ill: GOVERNMENT A. Divide ("Balkanise") Germany int> Pre-Bismarckian States? B. Do Not Divide, but: 1.Stipulate form of government? 2.Let the Germans decide without interference? 3. Let the Germans decide but by referendum with voting supervised by the Allies? 4.If a strong Communist movement develops in Germany, what shall we IV: DISARMAMENT A. Military-Guns, Tanks, Planes, etc. 1. Total? 2. Partial? 3. How supervised and enforced? B. Economic 1.Eliminate heavy industry from Germany? 2. Control the use of certain strategic materials, such as alloy metals, which are necessary for armaments? C. Political 1. Shall we or shall we not allow Germany to contribute its share to hypothetical international police force?

V: RE-EDUCATION A. Can the Spirit of Nazism Be Wiped Out (broadly speaking)? 1, From all Germans? 2. Only from Germans over 35 years of age? 3. Only from the young under 12 or 15? B. Methods 1.Leave "re-education" entirely to Germans? 2. Leave to proven anti-Nazi Germans? 3. Take it over ourselves? 4. Leave it to the Germans, under our supervision and control? 5.If under our supervision and control, do we: (a) Select teachers? (b) Specify courses and contents of text-books? (c) Control the censor — press — radio — publishing? VI: RELATIONSHIP TO THE REST OF THE WORLD A. Economic 1. Equal access to raw materials? . 2.Control of rates of foreign exchange? 3. Loans to Germany for food, rehabilitation? B. Political 1. Shall Germany be admitted to the Society of Nations? (a) At once? (b) After qualifying for membership? (c) If so, what qualifications?