News from Inside

Real news no longer flows out of Germany; it drips. Most correspondents have departed, and those who remain are fettered by ever-tightening censorship. Last week the drip of news became a trickle, perhaps the last in many a day. Home on the West Point were 118 U.S. diplomatic and consular officials, many of whom had been stationed in Germany until three weeks ago. Though closemouthed on orders of the State Department, they let fall these items of conditions inside Germany: ^ British bombing has been effective, not only in Hamburg but in Cologne. Thousands of women and children have been removed from Hamburg; its harbor has been almost cleared of shipping. In Cologne the great Gothic cathedral stands over a shambles. The center of the city is in ruins, and a terrified populace huddles nightly in a huge shelter under the public square.

^ The Europa and Bremen were reported to have been "completely burned out inside by saboteurs."

^ The controlled press's hatred of the U.S. "has found no response in the German masses. The German people . . . have good memories, stretching back to 1917."

^The Russian war is unpopular. The people are increasingly anxious over its outcome. From other sources, some of them official, came further trickles:

^A neutral traveler from Germany to Turkey told correspondents in Ankara that 20,000 casualties (excluding, of course, the killed and captured) returned from the front each week: 6X20,000= 120.000.

^The American Iron and Steel Institute reported that Germany's steel output fell off 1,467,000 tons in 1940--to 28,150,000 net tons (U.S. production in 1940: 66,-993,000 tons).

^ Das Schwarze Korps, organ of the Black Shirts, published this revealing paragraph, showing how Hitler's crusade has backfired: "It is absolutely wrong to assume that Germany is fighting Russia to liberate Europe from Bolshevism. . . . We are fighting, not to save culture, civilization or democracy, but merely to save Germany."

^And this, which might be read as critical doubletalk: "Some stupid Germans dare to ask why Hitler suddenly discovered that Stalin and Molotov were criminals, whereas only two years before we had signed a friendship pact with Russia. These Germans also remark that German propaganda should make no mention of the cruel bloodshed at LwOw, Dubno, Vilna and Riga, maintaining that Germany is responsible--having given these territories ... to Russia. These regrettable Germans, with their uncrushable ideals of impartiality, unwittingly become solicitous for Churchill and we must deal energetically with them."

Weary Worker. Most revealing of all was a letter published by the Manhattan Communist weekly, New Masses. The New Masses said the letter was written by a skilled German worker and smuggled out of Germany. The straightforward style of an intelligent, high-grade workman was supporting evidence of its authenticity.

Excerpts:

"Dear Friend: What is going on inside Germany? I don't believe anyone knows. Everyone knows a little, but no one knows the whole story. I know what is going on in my neighborhood, in my shop, in the house where I live, but I could hardly tell you how things are in any other part of the city.

"I feel weary, and that is the mood of all the people I meet. Weary of war, weary of work, weary of the thousand phrases we hear every day--weariness all over and a growing resentment inside.

I work ten and often twelve hours a day.

I hardly ever go anywhere. I'm so knocked out that I'd just like to sleep for a whole week and not have to work at that terrible speed. That's been going on for years, and ever since the beginning of the war it has become altogether unbearable. . . .

"We can't compete with the industrial productivity of the Americans. They can overtake us in arms production, because in our country the people are growing more and more tired and machines are being worn out. . . .

"As a young man I myself went into the last war full of enthusiasm for the Kaiser and the Reich, but how changed I was when I returned. That's exactly what's going to happen to many young people today whom Nazi education has so affected that it is often impossible for us fathers to understand them. There are already many indications of this. . . .

"We are holding all of Europe in our power, but they are all waiting for the time when they can jump at our throats and take vengeance. The world could not keep defeated Germany down permanently; who can believe that we can keep the world down permanently? What have we got to offer the people outside? Things are getting worse and worse for us here; how then will they get along? We have to bear a lot, but what can be done with them? I don't want to generalize, but believe me, I've seldom met anything among my fellow workers and acquaintances but sympathy for them out there. ..."

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