THE GERMAN TRIALS
Sm,—May I offer some comments on your discriminating article on The German Trials? I `spent the month of July in an .extensive visit to churches in the British and American Zones of Occupation in Germany and in Berlin, and was made aware how deeply many Christian congre- gations feel about our handling of the internment issue. I am sure that much that is said and repeated by the Germans is exaggerated out of all proportion, and I found little realisaion of the grim complexity of the whole problem of denazification. On the other hand, I am convinced that many churches are concerned with specific cases of real injustice, where deep suffering is caused to the families of innocent men, and one felt that again and again the human element had been submerged in the administrative and legal procedure_ In the nature of things there could be no immediate practical expression in the Germany of 1945-7 of those high ideals claimed by our Allied leaders and used in our propaganda to the Gernians. It is the more necessary that, where we can, we should act swiftly to remedy injustice in accordance with our high traditions of freedom. It is no excuse that we have handed this, and other trouble- some " babies," to the Germans.
I am sure that more thought and planning have been given to this sub- ject and to the whole problem of re-education than is often realised, but I am also sure that petty officialdom is able to turn the best schemes into yet another source of bitterness and resentment. I was able to pay a short visit to the Community Settlement near Bremen, which is in the nature of an experiment. I am not competent to pronounce any opinion en conditions in this camp for " dangerous " Germans. I. can say that the men in the camp spoke with respect and affection for the British colonel in charge of the settlement. The conditions bore no resemblance to the concentration camps with which they are linked in malicious rumour, though the sick bay left a good deal to be desired.
Yet there can be no doubt at all of the bitterness and the resentment of these men. They are interned by reason of their official position during the war, and no doubt there is good reason why most of them should be under supervision. But as one of them said, " We are not the Big Bugs, we arc only the Middle Bugs, and yet we know that many of the Big Bugs have got free." It seems that their cases come up once a year for revision, but it is difficult to see how real fresh evidence can be shown that they are "less -dangerous " or are " becoming more democratic." Petty and restrictive censorship close at hand has a far deeper psychological effect than any long-term scheme of re-education, and, without being unjust to fine work that is being done, or minimising our Allied problem, I am convinced that some kind of re-education is needed in the bureaucratic and military conception of truth and freedom among our own authorities. The change-over from propaganda to truth, from despotism to democracy, involves risks, and both in Germany and in England it is greatly to be desired that our governors should refresh their minds by a re-reading of
Milton's Areopagitica.—Sincerely yours, Gomm Ruts'. Richmond College, Surrey.
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