Books and Writers
Books and Writers The Future of the European Economy By RUTH FISCHER JS9LBGACY OF NAZISM: The Economic and Social Coneequeneee of Toflitmrieinism. By Frank Munk j^TjKlt'S analysis of the economic...
...The industrial countries are annexed, dominated •bsolutely by the mihttary authorities...
...Ary-anization and dekulakization have many similarities not only from the external point of view but slso from the political point of view of the enforcement of the political power center of both countries...
...European currencies are "ghost currencies" which will crumble in the moment of panic, for they are bolstered only by the power of the German state...
...Thus, terror has reshaped Europe's economy, completing the inherent economic trends of the last two decades, but in the perverted, anti-democratic forms of Nazi policy and serving the goal of the establishment of the master-race empire...
...Ths importation of foreign workers into Germany it an illustration of the de-industrialization of Europe Under German rule...
...The comforts of daily life are available ryot through the purchasing power of money but as equivalents of the efficiency of labor or as an expression of social status...
...A heavy "commodities intervention" by the United States, recently worked out in the conference for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the United Nations, can be nothing more than a transitional phase to a new independent snd self sufficient Europesn economy...
...their non-Jewiih neighbors . . . Jewish shsring in communal non-sectarian work . . . Bending every effort toward making our democracy function to the greatest advantage of all . . . Publicizing, in proper ways, such fscts ss redound to the deserved credit of the Jewish citizenry . . . Discrediting anti-Semite* and exposing of their motives . . . Conducting educstionsl program* among Jews to eliminate objectionable traits which evoke dislike and contumely . . . Overcoming misconceptions about Jew* . . . Building resistance to rumors . . . Planning special project* for the express purpose of...
...Valuable though many of Fineberg'l suggestions sre, there is s slight dsnger thst some resders might overestimate the importance of certain rules of conduct given by the suthor without the explicit wsrning that, at best, they will perform the function of palliatives, easing, perhaps, but certainly not curing the disease of Judaephobia...
...Norway...
...THE title of the book is misleading...
...The super-cartels of the Reich are without doubt the economic framework of Europe's war economy...
...he ought to have witnessed the transformation of the "geniiltliche" anti-Jewish bias of yore into a "deliberate manipulation on a worldwide scale for specific political end* and purpose*, into one of the major political technique* of ths twentieth century," *a s contributor to The Antioch Review recently put it (Dsvid W. Petegorsky, "Ths Strstegy of Hstred...
...This kind of technical thinking is the arch-enemy of democracy and of all those, who are concerned with the development of the power of labor and the labor organizations...
...It should have * been called: How to appease the snti Semite* through good behavior...
...It is just this economic situation that will give Stalin his chance in post-war Europe, because he offers a planne deconomy with a more "acceptable" ideology than the ideology of the Nazi master race...
...The events of the psst decade ought to hsve taught the » linn that anti-Semitism is not merely a prejudice or a dly, but a Machisvellisn mean* to secure power snd consolidate power...
...Munk discusses various methods of dealing with the future of German industries...
...Under Nazism, monopolization and farm cartels serve German war industry...
...226 pages, 12.00...
...The economic system is organised, actually, in three "rings...
...Munk is somewhat hesitsnt in sccepting this plan, in saying that Einzig may be right in arguing that military disarmament without economic disarmament would not provide adequate safeguards against military aggression...
...In describing the totalitarian economy of the Nazis in such an uncritical and fatalistic manner and in giving the correct picture of post-war Europe without any attempt to give an outlook for the possible anti-totalitarian and anti-terroristic forces, Munk pleads implicitly for a "Russian solution...
...But isn't it doubtful whether a manual of etiquette ran solve s problem so deep-rooted, so complicated ss is anti-Semitism ? How can snybody maintain poise under constsnt pressure...
...Munk's statement that the "Europe of the textbooks" has disappeared, is quite correct It was * Europe dead even before the Nazis' stukas dropped their first bombs...
...Munk argues rather vehemently, as a Czech, for the restoration of national states, declaring that the idea of the national state is neither dead nor contradictory to a united European economy...
...The ruthless crushing of any possible opposition as well as the forced mass migration of millions of work-fr* and peasants w»s the principal item in Stalinist policy in the early thirties...
...Munk avoids carefully answering the question by whom and how the legacy of Nazism should be taken over, administered and'developed...
...The economic function of terror is described by Munk, but inadequately so...
...sstion and public control of German key industries may turn out to be the essential controlling mechanism of a wsr-economy...
...A real satisfactory analysis of the similarities and affinities of (ierman and Russian economy, taking fully in account the difference in historical origin and certain structural differences, remains one of the most important tasks of all economic interpretation to-day, without which a rebirth of an independent European labor movement is impossible...
...Agriculture in most European countries is also organized into a sort of farm-Cartels...
...These trends reach their culmination in the Nazi economic system whifh Munk describes as the terroristic organization of such • restrictive economy...
...Munk remsrks somewhat doubtful that "German productive capacity will be needed and international...
...Around this German "industrial heartland" there exists a belt of partly industrial, partly agricultural countries organized on a basis of complete dependence on German industry...
...This emotional approach to the question of national states is one of the non-economic sections of the book and avoids carefully the question by what organizational or political means this Europe should be united...
...France had a short, lively boom for a while, during which tanks, trucks and munitions were turned out for the German war machine, but this boom ended in the middle of 1942...
...In this orbit too ire the giant workshops of Sweden and Switzerland whoa* industrial production is dictated by Germany...
...Then the factories were dismantled ,and transported to Germany...
...Planning alone without a system of political democracy and without an independent and powerful labor movement has led only to the construction of a slave-society...
...Munk speaks about the partnerships of the bank director and the Gestapo as a "unique phenomenon," possible only under German rule...
...by Paul Einsig, going so far as to ask for the stamping out of all industries, permitting In post-war Germany practically only handicraft shops, comprising not more than twenty workers...
...The worship of the "plan" is a basic distortion of the socialist idea and will lead, in its consequences, only to a propping of all totalitarian tendencies inside Europe...
...The price mechanism has lost its function, far rationing tickets sre the expression of real wages...
...Industries today are concentrated in the heartland and every fourth worker in Germany is a foreign worker...
...But as a clue to the future structure of the Bwopean economy—which is the major problem ahead—Munk's book is defective because of his failure to analyze the Russian economy, to see the extent to which it parallels the Nazi state and to understand which of the elements common to both will survive and dominate Europe after the political downfall of Nazism...
...Munk's book is, more or less, a contribution to the apologetics of Stalinism, because he attack* Nazism and Nazi terror methods, without discussing the real issues of our time: planned economy, terror and the role of labor...
...The plan of German-dominated Europe is closely linked to the growth of a German monopolistic economy ind German imperielism...
...Indeed, there is nothing objectionable in Habbi Fineberg's, twelve-point program of immunising ths soul of American public opinion againit anti-Semitiim: "Maintaining a vigorous, wholesome Jewish way of life and the strengthening of Jewish institutions . . . Establishing friendships between Jews snd...
...There are proposals, e.g...
...To a large extent, Germany's political program of Germanization corresponds to the economic order...
...Ths degree of "de-industrialization" is the subject of discussion...
...It is obvious that the destruction of Germany and German economy is at the same time the destruction of Europe's economic "heartland" and that Europe needs another industrial region around which the reconstruction can take place...
...Fighting Anti-Semitism By ALFRED WERNER OVERCOMING ANTI-SEMITISM: A Study In Public Relations...
...The first method would consist in s transfer of effective control to the hands of a reliable international body, leaving more or less intact semi-public and* public corporations and converting the German war industry, unbroken as an economic unit, into a European peace industry, serving the reparation of the war damage...
...The third ring consists of the agricultural regions, mainly the Balkan countries and sections of Eastern Europe...
...By Frank Munk j^TjKlt'S analysis of the economic legacy of Nazism has the merit of being a comprehensive ""maalysii °{ the economic changes of Hitler's Europe...
...Unquestionably it contain* clever suggestions on how an individual Jew might, with some success, combat verbal anti-Semitic attacks...
...This process has been defined by Munk, but he stops short...
...Here is the war industry of Czechoslovakia, Hungary (more recently industrialised out of the need for auxiliary workshops), France, Belgium, Denmark...
...Deprived of its po-litical-socisl sspect, anti-Semitism, if existing at all, will not be stronger or more dangerous than ths slight antagonism between Englishmen snd Scotchmen, or Northerners snd Southerners which, by now, exists chiefly in the reslm of jokes...
...Cartelization and monopolization have reached such a degree that the fusion between the state and industry has become almost complete...
...building good will . . . Furthering a confident, optimistic attitude among Jews so thst they will take proper steps to combat anti-Semitism without fear or hysteria . . . and: Maintaining national and local civic-protective agencies...
...Grain, fats and other farm products are exclusively handled by state agencies, and any free manipulation of food stocks is subject to severe penalties...
...In destroying the Nazi system, the subjugated population will look for a new balance between the social groups and classes, and the trend for a planned economy will be only increased by the gigantic devastations of the European war and the tremendous poverty and misery of its last phase...
...Hy Salomon Andhil Fineberg...
...Here all German bask industry is concentrated...
...Russia's economic system, growing out of a different social and political soil, has many features in common with the Nazi economy, especially in the function of terror...
...The author who correctly called anti-Semitism a "social disease of colossal proportions," should have elucidated point 4 of his program ("Bending every effort toward making our democracy function to the greatest advantage of all") which seem* to be as important as all other point* together, e The reformation of our social order will put an end to the discrimination against the Jews in the universities and in business and the eitablishment of's Jewish homelsnd sbolish both psychologicsl snd economic pillsrs of snti-Semitism...
...An economic analysis which overlooks this "Russian trend" is basically incomplete and therefore insufficient as premises for all "post-war planning...
...The oppo*i te method, proposed by many expert* in Europe and in Allied countries advocate* the de industrialization of Germany to a considerable degree...
...The myth of the plan, ite identification with "Socialitm," the apologetics for the Russian terror in terms of thexr efficient economic results is the major disfiguration and disaster of all so-called socialist thinking today...
...The signs, ware odviuus: me giowm of atoaopolistie restrictions, the destruction of internal jnirkcts, growing state intervention...
...The inner ring ii Germany proper with the addition of certain highly industrialized conquered territories...
...Historically, it has been the forerunner and model of the well-known Nazi "gangster-methods...
...The whole continent *•« nhvinnar the <rrn«rih ————___________________________ wai In tramition...
...Munk concludes his book with s chspter desling with the economic structure of "a better world" pictured in the best engineering style, describing technical possibilities of our era of super-industrialization...
...New York: Harper it Brothers...
...And even if tone strong-willed individuals ran perform that miracle, is it fessible to meet poison with poise...
...In this gigantic European workshop, irreparable damage has been wrought on the institution of private property...
...So far, so good...
...Hut the partneiship of the trust-director and of the GPU if the outstanding baeie of Russian economy and one major tecret of ite • amazing efficiency in the war againit Germany...
...The Bajkan countries and Slovakia and Croatia are "independent" semi-vassal states...
...These suggestions are of no avail when hoodlums attacks you with a knife or an iron pole...
Vol. 27 • February 1944 • No. 7
