Nazi War Prisoners in U.S. Take a First Look at a Free Press
Nazi War Prisoners in U.S. Take a First Look at a Free Press Gerhart Seger Writes Editorial Letter To Thousands of Captured Germans By GERHART H. SEGER fbj> uaue of the S'eue Volkszeitung is...
...What about the 400,000.000 of India...
...But the Hat Worker, for example, is extremely worried about a "plot" to use the A. F. of L. as a fifth wheel of the reactionary Republican chariot in 1944...
...Bat base a prisoner is no fun—even with the |a*l treatment and under the meet decent sheaaisUnres...
...Immediately large orders began to come mroagh...
...Yon »¦ •|aB, on the other hand, that we are pemreb/ concerned to give you a straight account of things that have happened daring the past ten years...
...But in a democracy evils can be openly discussed, and any man or group of men can stand up and demand that they be brought to an end...
...And why would he want to toss the election to somebody who would ultimately cut his throat...
...It may be the pence of exhaustion...
...We drew your attention to it now ¦erely to assure you that you will not be »et in these pages by n wave of hatred...
...But there are prisoners and prhoners...
...If you work outside your camps, ma will have occasion to meet American farmate, tad ether citizens...
...This happened anpite my re-election on March 5. I was held far nine months under "protective arrest," three snaths in the prison of Dessau, in my home hstriet, and six months in the first concentrate camp of the Nazis, at Oranienburg...
...Begin the reading of our paper as Gf rmaiis—and we shall soon be using a comtnon language, the Itagnsti of real German* who love ft teuton as so many of our forefathers did, at so many o f oar best poets and thinkers have loved it: "Rather death, than a life of slavery...
...Lippmann show that this would not be the outcome...
...In this day of the airplane, how far west and how far east do the outer fringes of Russian security lie...
...one of the leading liberal journalist, ia the country pointed oat, with specific illustrations, that the thesis ef "U...
...said a minw, "we strike...
...The International Ladies Garment Workers' organ, J net ice, feels differently about the prospect of Lewis' return...
...offices...
...From now on the Volkszeitung will as new part It is appropriate that we I welcome Our new groups of readers with a special message of greeting and explanation...
...The danger is that the A. F. of U wight mm tare a. oo a* align i one it Lewis' way, in which ease s post-war drive on the steel, automobile aad robber anions might assume the shape of e pincer movement, with the employers attacking from one direction and the A. F. of L. from another...
...iSo^ere are other reasons why it is very easy sMS to imagine ourselves in your places...
...Your own...
...Take a First Look at a Free Press Gerhart Seger Writes Editorial Letter To Thousands of Captured Germans By GERHART H. SEGER fbj> uaue of the S'eue Volkszeitung is the frit one to go i n Urge numbers to a new group •f readers...
...What of Germany...
...The rulers are only human and are subject to all the human limitations...
...And what of Prance, Italy, Spain and Turkey...
...Lippmann* Four-Power Alliance is that it would not provide room for the orderly growth of the . world and its peoples...
...Perhaps all the differences between the two pairs of arsenal states—in outlook, in state of material development, and in language—could be bridged...
...She is fighting the German lerernment whieh, starting with Austria, •meed the world with war and sought to ewlave it This is a complicated subject •hieh we shall discuss in detsil in future ^hWa...
...She is get fighting the German language and Ger•aa culture...
...Critique IN this concluding uttisa ef Ferdinand Lundberg's essay, the argument against Walter Lippmann's proposals for American foreign policy is continued...
...In our Rages you will find, not only article...
...is impossible...
...But in this you will fin< precisely the mark of difference between a de mocracy and a dictatorship...
...The alliance would, it is obvious, break down at some point, not too long in being reached, under the potential threat each member arsenal-state offered to the other...
...We are convinced that yea will soon make an important discovery...
...We don't pay him to be oar adviser in polities...
...Russia and China will have their hands full for a long time to come with taueeaUwIion and further development...
...At the moment of writing, Lewis ia pre-, foundry disgusted with the Republican Party: it has no issues, he says, and it has no leader- - ship...
...But unless Roosevelt himself goes against the labor movement, the miners wont act on Lewis' personal antipathy...
...As the alliance weald be cpmaaitted to preserving peace, it would naturally he committed to repressing dissidents both within and outside its home territories...
...Owing to the similarity of -their general aims, language and traditions, there would be a good prospect of an Anglo-American alliance holding together...
...To begin with, tehat was to be done with District 60, the "catch-all" organisation that was originally formed to organise workers ia coke and coal by-product plants...
...We must serve the needs of all our read ers scattered over the western hemisphere...
...Immediately, thousands of suhseriptkme came koto it...
...So far as this country is concerned, you will am opportunity to make up your own minds...
...With Lewis at his side, Hutcheson might play at least a disruptive role in 1944...
...What guarantee would a Four-Power Alliance offer against a repetition of this general debacle, in which the civilian community becomes more involved than do the armies...
...Tho autonomy of the various A. F. of L. unions is s guarantee against any labor "dii1ajhw*V arising in the old "house of labor...
...Englishmen who have experienced the Blitz, Russians who have^ felt German might, and Germans and Italians who have been through the Allied bombing raids, would unquestionably be inclined to agree with this...
...District 50 hes many anas, most of them illegitimate, bat some of them | necessary if the power aad scope ef the labor movement ia to increase...
...The miner's explanation is the measure cf Lewis' strength and weakness...
...Those Nasi youths, msay hitter, stubborn, defiant, many puzzled, bewildered, weary, are taking the preliminary, halting atopa in the "re-education" process for democracy...
...As a Isoal...
...VI know, yon will see from this, how the world looks when yon gaze at it through * the barbed wire...
...Under a dictatorship, as you know, this sort of thine...
...N.r^!!lbe,U' "Nene Volkszeitu.i,»the German Soei.l-DeUoer.tk omsfcly published in New York...
...We ask you, then, jw*T you have listened to the Nazis for ten Jfars, to pay attention for a change during ¦» coming ten months to men who have an tejeion different from that of Hitler and his jPrty...
...With the ripping of only one seam in this straitjacket the structure of world power would be disturbed and peace would again be jeopardised...
...As each grew stronger the other two members of the alliance, England and the United States, would prudently seek to nurture power elsewhere which could be called upon— in ease...
...TUSZ...
...When John telle us to strike...
...Democratic member of the German Itkhstag who fought for the German Republic sad against Hitler's dictatorship, I was, with ¦say others (though I am, incidentally, not a Jew) srrested on March 12,1933...
...We are not National Socialists...
...They have told you that the otesacrsciea of the world—and among them the United States—are no good...
...You •hm spent these last ten years under the regime of National Socialism...
...In either sfo...
...To claim that in a democracy everything is perfect would be as silly as it would be false...
...Consequently you will Jpftr from us something entirely different from »h*t the Nazis told you...
...We pay him to know when it is good for as to strike...
...Tea will find that they have painted a false phtam of the democratic peoples...
...Pi are a democratic American paper printed ¦ the German language...
...Russia and China, one might suppose, would be interested from the standpoint of their own economic well-being in seeing human and material resources, particularly those near them, developed to their maximum...
...So, at the conclusion ef this | its ling we wish to give expression to a wiah...
...And owing to the relative similarity of their state of development and their geographical contiguity, there would be a good prospect of having Russia and China work together...
...But America is est at war with everything German...
...Two of the participants in the alliance have by no means reached the limits of their technological, development—Russia and China...
...But, then, what about other groups of peoples...
...Lippmann and many others would like to see...
...About this ¦Jfat we need say little in our paper...
...What of Central Europe and the Balkans...
...Nevertheless, as the negotiations between the miners snd the A. F. of BB ran on, everyone began thinking long ' eeeenY thoughts...
...The clearer it becomes that there it a difference between Germans and Nazi* the better will be the prospects for a better future in Germany...
...these events, Lewia might "go ajeag...
...It would attempt— and the attempt would not succeed—to lock the world into a straitjacket...
...which they originally helped create by deserting the old Knights of Labor to throw in with Sam Gompers a couple of generations ago, Lewis will not necessarily succeed in ousting the present Green hierarchy from office...
...You will soon see when you read this papei that it is not specially produced for you...
...It will be read by thousands cf German soldiers who are prisoners in American ajapc...
...With What of the vast number of Arab Mohameach year of peace each would be growing stronger and stronger, and more determined to make their views accepted by the surrounding world...
...I fas man have come to America as prisoners from a country at war with the United States, f e, who came earlier and have become Amerkss citUens, know that you will be humanely seen with...
...with our very first words—that we have s fall understanding of your situation...
...The A. F. of L., jays Justice, is a pretty storm-proof body, with as many exits as entrances, and besides, no union leader can arbitrarily control the vote of his follow-, rng In national elections, as the failure of the Lewis 1940 bid in behalf of Willkie proved...
...Under such circumstance*, there could be no peace...
...It is true that in the past occasional oafes have reached these men...
...mendang...
...The life is often hard to teste...
...They have told you that the German Republic from 1918 to 1933 was a "cursed system...
...The by-product plants which are dependent on the product of the coal mines ought to be unionised...
...To be held as prisoners is, at best, n» agreeable fate...
...But a book such as Mr...
...By JOHN CHAMBERLAIN WHEN John L. Lewis first applied far W entry into the A. F. of L-, William Green beamed and said: "Isn't it wonderful...
...And if England and the United States are to supply these peoples, along with others, with their manufactured goods', would England and the United States permit them to develop their own industries...
...The tact that we can address you in oar German mother tongue is in itself significant...
...There is little likelihood, however, that thh alliance will ever see the light of day or that if it does, it will have a very long Ufa...
...It is the argument of Justice that strengthening of the A. F. of L. by the return of the miners might pave the way for an easy rapprochement between Philip Murray's unions and those of William Green...
...5 ****** below' the text ef an artielTby •T^J^r.^* » 'XZ**' to **• GtTmtn Prisoner, who are now re.di.gthe ^hme Volkszeitung," s leading liberal-labor Gerwaa-laageage, and the oldest snti-Naai ¦oner in the country...
...On the Labor Front How Dangerous Is John L. Lewis...
...But now the flhir ~ of War Division of the War Department has placed our paper on the official list ef American publications permitted in the steppe...
...This testimony I can bear as a result of experience in Oranienburg...
...But unity, to be fruitful, must come about as the result of free negotiation, not from fratricidal warfare to the death in the labor movement If the miners do succeed in returning to the fold of the A. F. of L...
...It is true that the Amerirss friesii barracks are no Nazi concentratiso camps...
...I have come in bottsvs ilhaES* Lewie, who ia a supreme realist, can only * ' he realty harmful U the natiom if <a) hamwaaa won want ha apply the -mvieoftxin gand market-control of the Cuter > (b) if democracy is fouadoriag and dictatorship ia ia the offing...
...m But the mere return of the miners to the A. F. of L. will hardly do any harm from the long-term point of view, provided the District 50 raiding menace can be liquidated...
...LJ"1^ /* °f w * N*W Uad*r ** °* tet^-led fat seeing what these young ¦J-r...
...we don't necssssrU...
...What, they well may ask, do England ana the United States propose to do with the other peoples of the world ?' Who, in the first place-, will have them as customers for their goods?*Who gets the Indian market, and who the Latin American market...
...Amalgamation might eventually be effected without the admission of Communist elements in the OJuaw* to newly chartered unions in steel, autoflassnVsf and rubber...
...Vt For myself...
...In this section the author goes on to indicate some of the basic problems of wsr snd peace in our time which Lippman has overlooked...
...It is unlikely that the whole A. F. of L. wouhf line up to support sn antiNew Deal candidate, but a diversion in labor's ranks would be worth the candle to Hutcheson...
...Should say group, denied demands which it felt were legitimate, elect to disturb the peace, then the alliance would crack down on them...
...Lippmann's book, recently published, is an American beat-seller, and is now being widely read, too, in Great Britain...
...T*HE argument runs this way: Big Bill * Hutcheson of the carpenters, the man whom Lewis once knocked down, is the labor "front" man of the most benighted section of the Republican Party...
...Willkh ia ffce •icfare 4ad Tbote Leyo...
...The ancient dislike at Roosevelt smoulders in Lewis, and presumably* always will...
...And the fact that we, who were born in Germany, we who are naturalized American citizens, can stand up here and, in the speech of the nation against which we are at war, say what we consider right is a striking proof of the inner strength of that atonorracy which was represented to yen as weak and decadent As an American paper printed to the German language and addressed to person* of German descent throughout this hemisphere, we ore •naturally interested- in doing what we eon to encourage to Germany after the war the begin - - ning of a new and healthy life...
...The basic appeal of Mr...
...In the meantime...
...Lippmann's alliance is a gone goose before it ever ge% -into motion...
...If it is ever put together, it will soon fall apart again...
...And it tells in (ust a few sentences why there need be no great fear of Lewis' behavior if and when he returns to the A. F. of L. 1 " 'f THOUSANDS of captured Nasi soldiers, prisoners in U. 8. war *** reading, perhaps for the first time, a free democratie press, with news columns and editorials uncontrolled by Goebheis and the Gestapo...
...Lippmann's solution can be only to those elements, particularly in England and the United State*, who are committed out of self-interest to keeping things very much as they are, undisturbed either by modern wsr or by a more equitable method of distributing the benefits of modern technology...
...If the outer fringes of American security are those outlined by Mr...
...do it...
...S< it is manifestly impossible for us to fashioi our reading-matter with the special purpose o: propagandizing German prisoners of war...
...But the very terms of the New Order as laid down by Mr...
...Lippmann Way nee the long peace he yearns for, ami witheat the aid of an alliance...
...Personally, I would like to see unity between the Murray and Green organizations...
...Lippmann's can do the people of the United States a great disservice by diverting attention from sounder solutions to the problem of peace and war in the world of modern technology...
...We are in America, and this country as at war with Germany...
...It is therefore, no propaganda paper designed to in ffuence you...
...For it is highly doubtful that the world and its people* ran ia wee ueatary wage more than two wars such as If 14*11 and 1939-194...
...So it must be clea: to you that so far as this paper is concernec you are not the targets of any sort of one-side* political propaganda...
...on* ASKING such questions — and many more might be asked — shows that Mr...
...and nevjqjitems about Germany and Europe but also, naturally material about the Unite* States—just as you would in any other Amer ican paper...
...S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic" was contradictory, inconsistent, and historically incorrect...
...What of Latin America...
...In the A. F. of L., Lewis would only have his trntetifahw power...
...But Lewie undoubtedly wants to hoop District 50 as a ' Weapon te be ased against Philip Murray and the C.LO...
...He writes regularly for these pages...
...But whoa John tell* us to vote for Willkie...
...the Republican, and Lewis, the RooseveltSo goes the fear of the Hat Worker...
...Yoi are simply invited to join the circle of reader: of an old respecteed Ameriecean paper publisb.ee in the German language...
...experiences will be more impressive than any , pK far as Germany is concerned^ we want ?ateke a special request...
...This account will, of course, be quite different from one which the totalitarian propaganda of a totalitarian government found it useful to give you...
...Lost week Mr...
...From the start of this trouble we have drawn the attention of our readers and of the American public to the fact that a line moat he drawn between Nazis and Germans . Again and again we have pictured how Hitler with hit Gestapo and bis concentration camps, with all of his dictatorial and terroristic machinery, has tfiiienetil the Germans even worse than the peoples of .other lands which he has overrun...
...Tea will have contacts with American officers s*e soldier...
...be could hardly hope to be ihnsaja |m» his own person as Green's successor...
...Mr Lippmann's proposal runs counter to the heeh nological realities, which obviously 4rmftrf a closer rapprochement of the peoples of the world on die basis of mutual sharing, help.aad trust...
...Lundberg...
...You know the good dd German saying: "One man's word is no aan'j word until both sides a fellow has heard...
...Many of these articles will astonisl you, for they will be critical of our country anc of our government...
...And where are those of the British Commonwealth ? The principal objection to Mr...
...Lewis is off Willkie, whom he calls a "pudd'n-head," but he is not disposed to champion Brieker, McCormick or any of the antiWillkie Republicans...
...But because the people who are sbhr ic win their way to power in all countries are, by the nature of the struggle to power they must wage, not equipped to see or understand this it will probably be a long time before the work gets down to sensible procedures...
...Circulating such a paper would bi contrary to the Geneva Convention concerninj the treatment of prisoners of war, an agreemen which the United States government conacienti ously observes...
...no • Will Lew/t Dkrwpt What...
...We want to tell you—in this very first ssmber...
...If it were the aim of the Four-Power Alliance to give all these other peoples the material benefits their own people were enjoying, then we might be in for the long era of peace that Mr...
...The Neue Volkszeitung is a paper which eir culates throughout the United States, Canada and fifteen Central and South American coun tries...
...Lundberg is the author of "Imperial Hearst" and "America's 60 Families...
...Lippmann, what are the outer fringes of Russian, English and Chinese security...
...Lundberg on Lippmann — The Trap of Power Politics And the Myth of a 'Great Alliance' to Keep Peace By FERDINAND LUNDBERG II U7HATEVER value sovereign nationalism had ™ before the advent of modern technology, it is clear that its value is now somewhat tempered...
...The moat important move in this direction came.when the War^ Depstethwant recently decided to permit German prisoners "L^'u^S...
...Dp to now you have heard only what the Nazis plated you to hear about National Socialism md democracy...
...The basic purpose of the- alliance would be to enforce peace, we may concede, but only in order that its principal fruits might be enjoyed by the "arsenal states...
...The writer of these lines spent a ssmber of months behind barbed wire...
...Minors Jh^S for 1944, what can Lewis do to throw the nation into the arms of the Republican reactionaries...
Vol. 26 • August 1943 • No. 35
