ALLIES INSIDE GERMANY
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
SIR,—A few weeks ago, on June 16th to be exact, the B.B.C. had arranged a most timely broadcast, the purpose of which was to warn
the British public of the great dangers wnich spring from erroneous desire and hope to win the war by means of a revolution inside Germany. The speakers, Major Berry and Dr. W. A. Sinclair, of Edinburgh Uni- versity, proved to listeners that there is no hope whatsoever for an internal collapse inside Germany, but that there are, on the contrary, definite signs that the Germons are growing even more ferocious and
brutal. "And that ferocity will go or.," Major Berry said, "until they (the Germans) suffer a resoundins, military defeat. Then—and then only —they'll collapse as they did the last time, but the military defeat will have to come first."
It was an admirab!e and very necessary broadcast. Unfortunately there are still some people about who are trying to weaken the war-effort
by fostering the myth that a large section of the German people are our potential Allies. The exhibition "Allies Inside Germany," which is widely publicised and was his; opened in the centre of London, is perhaps the greatest effort undertaken so far to make the British public believe this dangerous myth.
The whole exhibition is in rather bad taste. First of all, I was horrified to see the waste of paper which is going on among a certain section of the sponsors of this "Free German Movement" The Minister of Information told the House of Commons on June rith that their weekly paper, Die Zeitung, consumes alone ten million pages of paper yearly! At this exhibition we can see a host of other Free German pub- lications, such as Free German Youth, &L. I know from personal bitter experience how urgently every ounce of paper is needed at the moment for educational purposes alone. The Free German Youth and other branches of the Free German League of Culture would be well advised it they gave some of the paper which they seem to have to spare for better purposes than long leading articles by a gentleman who styles himself "Chairman of he Free German Youth in Great Britain."
But this is Jnly a relatively minor criticism. A century ago Carlyle wrote: "Unhappy Emigrants! They are ignorant of much that they should know : of themselves, of what is around theml " Today Emil Ludwig writes in his latest book, The Germans, of the "homesick re- fugees." It is not for me to decide whethcr this untimely exhibition is the result of ignorance, homesickness or definite political activities. It is in any case an attempt to persuade us that we have a considerable number of Allies inside Germany. Which large group or people forms this mythi- cal opposition, one may well ask? The sponsors of the exhibition will answer: "The Church and the Social-Democrats, above everything." Allow me to deal with these two groups as briefly as I can It is true that a minor group of German Christians oppose the anti- Christian movement strongly. But this is merely an internal dispute of church doctrine. In a sermon which the Bishop of Munster preached recently (much advertised by the Free Germans) he had the admirable courage of attacking certain anti-Christian tendencies very strongly, but he ended his sermon by praying for a German victory, for the German Army, for the German nation, and his great Fiihrer. With all due respect, I should hesitate to refer to such people as potential allies.
The alleged opposition of the Social-Democrats is even more blatant— and :much more painful. Two well-known German politicians, Curt Geyer and Walter Loeb, have described in one of the frankest pamphlets ever published, Gollancz in German Wonderland, the, shameful militarist and aggressive policy which the German Social-Democrats pursued from 1914-1933. And when Hitler arrived in 5933, the German Socialists approved of his policy. The leaders of the German Trades Unions sought
outright " co-ordination " and offered wholeheartedly their collaboration with the Nazis. Indeed the German Socialists used most shameful methods in order to stop any criticism of the Hitler regime abroad. On
March 31st, 1933, the Manchester Guardian reported: "The German Socialist leaders are leaving the Labour and Socialist International because the latter did not comply with the request of the German Socialists to call off criticism of the Nazis." The Trade Union report of 1933 speaks on page 429 of the attempt by Hitler to blackmail the entire Labour Press of Europe. On May 17th, 1933, Hitler's policy was accepted unanimously in the Reichstag, and in the words of The Times, "even the Socialists supported it."
Where have in ics years of Hitler in Germany any of the 65 million Germans ever shown the spirit the whole of Czechoslovakia, Greece, Norway, Yugoslavia, Poland and all our other Allies are showing?
Where has ever a German inside Germany shown thc heroic greatness of the unknown judges of Heydrich, the hands that stab German officers and soldiers daily in France, Norway, and so forth—where has there ever been inside Germany an organisation which attempted a real war against their enemies as all the occupied countries are having at the moment?
To try to persuade people that there is anything like a real and organised opposition inside Germany is not only untrue, but it is danger. ous. In order to win the war we cannot possibly reckon upon any help from within Germany, but Germany must be beaten and lefeated in the field. To plead already now foi some mythical Allies inside Germany will do as much harm to the winning of the war as it will to the winning of the peace. Admittedly, it would make both—the winning of the war and the peace—much easier if there was really any active opposition alive inside Germany. Unfortunately it is not true. As Emerson says so rightly: "God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both."—Yours faithfully, 16 Warwick Street, Rugby
PETER F WIENER.
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