SEEKING A JUST BALANCE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 247, 17 March 1944, Page 14

SEEKING A JUST BALANCE

WHAT SHALL BE DONE ABOUT GERMANY?

N a recént issue we reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor a questionnaire on "What Shall Be Done With Germany After the War" which had been sent out by the Council of Democracy to representative Americans. From the same source we now take a number of the replies that were received. The majority favoured some sort of punishment for German leaders responsible for starting World War II, but the severity of the sentence to be meted out ran all the way up the scale from leniency to capital punishment. Count Sforza, Italian anti-Fascist and former Secretary for Foreign Affairs, who is' now in Italy, where he is prominently mentioned for a position in the new democratic government when it is set up, would not punish the whole German people, nor the army officers "as a mass." He would confiscate the estates of the Junker class and pumish government officials both in Germany and Italy, also the Nazi and Fascist parties, the Gestapo and Ovra. Guilt would be determined by the German and Italian Codes "prior to Nazism and Fascism" with sentences pronounced by "supreme courts appointed by the new provisional governments." "Why not-sometimes?" he asks regarding the death penalty. He asserts that forced labour "does not work," and concludes "what is needed is justice, quick justice." Here are some other representative opinions: *Prof. J. Anton. de Haas (Harvard University) T is obviously impossible to punish "Germany." It is possible and desirable to punish the more prominent leaders. This punishment should be based

solely upon the basis of the actual ascertainable crimes committed, not on the "philosophy" they have accepted. Sidney Wallach (New York) AS to whom shall be punished, I would say all of those in your list should have a measure of punishment. The German people, in terms of deprivations of a national character; the others on a graduated basis depending upon their provable responsibility. . . . The form of punishment will vary depending upon the intensity of the personal participation and fanaticism. Hans Ernest Fried (New York) (GERMANY should be admitted to the Society of Nations after Germany has fulfilled her obligations (indemnities, extradition of all war-guilty ones, Nazi criminals, etc.) and when a reliable postHitler regime is firmly entrenched in Germany, and when, therefore, the "era of peace" is being declared. Paul E. Gropp (Exeter, N.H.) AM certain that with goodwill toward Germany the German people will respond provided that they feel that they are accepted as equals. ... If the future government in Germany does not constitute a danger to the peace of the world, either economically or otherwise, it ought to be given aid and assistance by us. *Prof. Hans Kohn (Smith College) N Germany’s interest we must be hard, and just, and true-then Germany will re-educate itself. *Perry Dunlap: Smith (Winnetka, III.) T seems to me that we have got to build up the German’s faith in himself and convince him that he really is (continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) one of the most valuable members of our present civilisation, and that we all like him and want to have him join us in making a better world. I feel very strongly from my visit to Germany in 1935 and 1936 that they are suffering from a tremendous inferiority complex and are pathetically anxious to be diked and appreciated. I think if we build up on that side and tear down on the military side we may be able to get somewhere with them. Of course, I think also that it would be important to eliminate absolutely the fanatical members of the Nazi Party. *Lewis Mumford (Stanford University) EPARATIONS are demanded by the law of equity. Stolen property must be replaced, looted mines and natural resources must, as far as possible, be restored with equivalent materials, and damages should be repaired. The moral damage is irreparable and cannot be assessed or made good. .. . If one divides Germany one can unite Europe. *Clarence C. Little (Bar Harbour, Maine) S regards the outstanding leaders of* the party, provided these men are still alive at the end of the war-e.g., Hitler, Himmler, Goring, and similar officials, I would think that treating them as ordinary prison labour would be

much more intelligent and devastating than trying any system of exile such as that granted to Napoleon or Kaiser Wilhelm, *Harry W. Flannery (Los Angeles) ] DO not believe we can institute a new form of Nazism, or rather antiNazism that controls and censors the press, demands text-books perverted as completely, according to our ideas, as the Nazis had distorted them to their ends. The press should be free. The school books and courses must, so far as possible, seek to tell truth. Teachers should be selected, not because they are anti-Nazi, but because they have proven themselves fair and unbiased, the kindso far as possible-that incite a zeal to know the truth. Frederick M. Stern (New Rochelle, N.Y.) EATH punishment on a large scale cannot be avoided. All property must be taken not only from those who belong to the robbers themselves, like Hitler, Goering, etc., but also from those who took their opportunity in buying Jewish, French, Dutch, Polish property for a scrap. ...I am strongly in favour of dividing but not into a score of Lilliput states. I would propose at least three states cutting off Southern Germany (Bayern, Wurttemberg, Baden), which may be united with

Austria in one state, the remaining Western Germany (including the Ruhr) in a second state, and Prussia for the rest. Hiram Motherwell (New York) WHY not poll public opinion as to the appropriate punishment. Any trial of war criminals is a publicity stunt and (continued on next page)

(Continued from previous page) a necessary and useful one. Let us get that through our heads right away. Make it dramatic. But don’t let us kid ourselves that we are God, executing divine justice. ... Let us forget the wrongs of the past. The Hebrews cancelled all debts every seven years. Let us use all our ipfluence to persuade people to cancel the memory of this historic nightmare, and concentrate everything they have to building the new world of plenty. Any kind, or thought of, reparation will only obstruct reconstruction. . .. We might try, for a change, letting the Germans solve their own problems, instead of subsidising their militarists and reactionaries as we did in 1919. Charles Christophe (New York) E must take charge of Germany by a thorough occupation, which must last until there is no question of the German attitude. . . . I believe it will be possible to re-educate most Germans under these circumstances and to use our own teachers and other experts to help in German schools and industry, if we avoid exploitation. The policy of understanding that in a minor way we’ve followed with China and South America should be our cue there. Alfred Baker Lewis (New York) : T would be emphatically unwise to dismember Germany. Such a policy would poison the politics of the newly "Balkanised" German states for several generations, or until they were reunited, for the power of nationalism as a principle is so strong that the efforts of the German people to reunite politically would certainly be the dominant factor in the politics of those states and would tend to rekindle and keep alive German resentment against their conquerors.