I Was Never a Nazi Department or "The Reconversion of Uncle Max"
"I Was Never a Nazi" Department or "The Reconversion of Uncle Max" (The following piece was translated from the "Frankfurter Rundschau" of January 29, 1946. It was written by "Fridolir") IKNOW la...
...How does it happen that yon have a car to ride around in...
...aha bridled...
...But sometimes discration is strained to the breaking-point...
...When the war was over, Uncle Max said: "It's a dirty shame...
...You did that in 1933 too, I said to myself...
...There is danger that it will give a false impression of the policy which is being pursued in Germany by your Army...
...But the troops at leaat live in Germany...
...Now take me—but that's another story...
...I took my leave...
...It's quite true that he's neither social, nor Christian, nor democratic...
...Several such copies have been slipped to me, and they were not without humor and point, but 1 have always been struck by something indecent about the whole procedure...
...I am against military monopoly of atomic energy secrets...
...The last, time he had struck such a dramatic attitude had been just about twelve yeara ago...
...When we use the word we sometimes mean middle-class Germane and sometimes proletarian Germans...
...This revelation made me a little dizzy, but as a coolheaded philosopher I restrained my emotions, and upon examining Uncle Max's argument- objectively I found that he was not so very wrong...
...True, it may have slipped his mind i h»t ha bad not exactly grown poorer in the years of suffering, end that ration cards were something he knew only by hearsay...
...1 was "with the Prussians" for eight long years and am as poor as the proverbial church mouse...
...The American liberals here inhabit \>uly the tight little world of their pwn prejudices...
...It ie that there are rarioue kind* of Germane...
...Nevertheless, I was proud to have so democratic an uncle...
...You never know how useful that may turn out to be...
...He looked pretty down in the mouth when I ran across him in those early days...
...Well, that's the way things go...
...The American propagandists, in bunching all Germans together, are a source of ronfusion and danger...
...The Wthr-r.tarht simply folded upt So that's what we fought and suffered for during six long years...
...I waa always anti-Nazi," my 'uncle remarked offhand...
...You don't look as though you had a thing to worry about...
...Right down to May 1945 he waa indispensable and "4-F...
...How did you get back oh top...
...It ia "anti-Fascist," bat with each a harden of complacency, narrowness and political stupidity that many have long since despaired of any constructive moral influence on the part of the Americana in Rnrope...
...The Army line hss been merciless in its altitude toward Germany...
...And by the way, he waa never a Nasi at heart...
...THE ATOMIC ENERGY COMMITTER of the Senate has moved to give the Army and Navy a voice in the control and use of our new power source- -and Henry Wallace calls upon the people to ''rise up in their wrath...
...Hello, Uncle Max...
...No one knows the Uncle Maxes better than their own nephews...
...My wife was silent for a moment...
...While the republication of such tales as the one by "Fridolir" would give one the notion that the American authorities are acutely distinguishing between genuine German democrats and obvioua frauds, the truth is that no such distinction is made...
...You have no idea of the pressure I was under...
...Still ami all, I felt kind of sorry for Uncle Max when the new era started aume time ago...
...How are things...
...Thie might quite well be interpreted as a first sign of rebellion against tyranny, as support for a free Germany, etc...
...That the Army political indoctrination has been a 'failure so far as the average GI Joe is concerned is not a tribute to Joe's political acumen...
...The official line ie Va»tit~ in, litl, and in the catechiem of the troope on occupation politic* it ie presented with a pertittent hypocrisy which ie nothing lest than fanatical...
...But in addition, provision is now made for a military hoard which will function belou- (he policy-making leveL This board will be kept informed of proceedings of the civilian commission...
...I drive the spokesman of my party around," ha replied simply...
...Besides, I realise the errors of my past...
...I'm an elderly student of philosophy, married, with a growing flock of children infesting my emergency quarters...
...But their meet important point—namely, the recognition of deceit "by the tier mans in the German press"—la lost on their American distributors...
...Perhaps that is why Uncle Max never had to serve in the field...
...These parodies of the conversion to anti-Nazism have undeniable truth...
...Then 111 devote my full energy to the task...
...I have talked with them and argued with them, although the point at issue is very simple...
...Perhaps you, gentle reader, have an Uncle Max of your own, and know the answer...
...J thought Nasis weren't supposed to get licenses...
...It was written by "Fridolir") IKNOW la isn't considered proper to discuss one's relatives in public...
...A few months have gone by since then...
...Not a shred of hope is conceded —not even for the Germany which is under control of the military government...
...Sometimes we refer to opportunists and Fascists...
...They will make a translation and have carbon copies passed around...
...You're back in a party...
...DonnerwtU ter...
...I said nothing, for honestly, I don't know...
...Just what they should get wrathful about is a bit cloudy The new bill as adopted by the commit tee .irawn to set up the civilian commission as originally planned...
...Even then it will have no power except to appeal any, disputed derision to the President...
...We must rebuild a new democratic Germany...
...I said...
...I was forced to do it," he said...
...After all, Uncle Max had evaded armed service for the Nazis, thereby unquestionably withholding his support from the Third Reich...
...But he's anxious to be all three of them...
...He's quite enthusiastic about it...
...Uncle dear," I asked him, "why on earth did you ever join the Nszis ? Why did you become the local farm Filhrert Wes It really necessary...
...The end of the Hitler era has made it possible for the first time in our generation to distinguish these "German ies" and to make it possible for them to distinguish themselves...
...The oaVial propaganda, aa dispensed by the keepers of "information and education," has been far me a sickening variant of totalitarian policy...
...but I am happy that the defense of America and democracy is not in the hands of Henry Wallace, Max Lerner * Company.—W.E.B...
...This would be far from the truth...
...Today I told tha story to my wife.' "Tha miserable bum...
...Ya nsil I .irl .sin - A in<'Ms-aii Version By Matthew Low A member of the staff of the New Leader prior to his entry into the Army, Matthew Low is now in Germany I SEND the above story on to American readers with some hesitation...
...But what do women know about politics...
...He's neither social, Bar Christian, nor democratic, nor anything else that makes sense...
...He's got the money—my uncle—and I've got my philosophy...
...When I again ran across Uncle Max a few days ago, he was beaming, and he greeted me in his old jovial and condescending manner...
...It will act only in case it deems some proposed action inimical to the military safety of the country...
...Uncle Max gave me a superior smile...
...Everything exposes Germany and the new German line...
...This is the sort of thing appealing in German papers which the Americans here are simply delighted with...
...I exclaimed unwittingly...
...It is rumored the General Eisenhower and Admiral Nimit.z are hack of this new set-up, which Wallace denounces as having "the potentiality of Fascism...
...Then she asked: "Do you think he will ever be a democrat at heart...
...I took a close look at Uncle Max...
...Now take my Uncle Max, for example...
...It is not so bad, actually, to have military men on guard over the most powerful weapon in the world, especially with the Red Army moving against Iran, Turkey, and Iraq...
...Haven't lost much time, I said to myself...
...For my own part, I look to the Germtn democrats for hope in Germany...
...One might gather from reading it that our men here are keenly aware of the, sort of deception which goes on and that they are, therefore, carefully distinguish irg between hypocritical ex-Nazis and genuine German democrats...
...It didn't look so good for Nasi*—seizure of property, closing •f plants, perhaps even arrest—all these were possibilities Uncle had to reckon 1 with...
...Uncle Max heaved a sigh...
...Please," I triad to calm my wife, "you're speaking about a relative of minet" For I'm still studying to be a philosopher, and I'm determined not to be carried away by my paasions...
...Indeed, I want a step farther...
...It is tragic to the point of absurdity for Americans to re-consign them all to a new Third Reich unity...
...How else do you think I could have stayed out of the service all those hard years...
...You mean Uncle Max, Inc., don't you, I said to myself...
...I guessed at once that he was back in the swim...
...He's a well set-up gentlemen in his forties, a former Nasi Party member, gentleman farmer and industrialist, and an time-generate bachelor—the epitome of all that waa beat in the prewar, war and postwar period...
...Of course my wife, who is generally given to sharper judgments in such cases, would simply have said: "Uncle Max is a coward and a slacker...
...Small wonder there's such a gulf between us...
...And again we may have in mind helpless snd unheroie liberals, or unconscious, victimized masses or ant i Nazi activists...
...Just wait until I'm Gemeinderat...
Vol. 29 • March 1946 • No. 12
