THE PEOPLE'S FORUM
¦ ¦ ¦ THE PEOPLE'S FORUM ¦ ¦ ¦ Hesseltine's Error Dear Sirs: Just because I fully agree with Prof. Hesseltine's conclusion, (issue of May 7), that the reports about the atrocities committed by...
...3. It is undoubtedly true that many Germans did not believe in the terrible crimes committed against humanity in these camps...
...Milton (I hope he won't object to my calling him by his first name) was right there when it happened...
...Don't we wish...
...Alex J. Lazes Brooklvn...
...to forgive divine," isn't it, Messrs...
...It seems some are ignorant or don't want to inform themselves as to the true facts...
...I am not a Jew or colored person, I am (and here is where I hesitate) what one terms a "Christian" but I too was left high and dry after having ordered a taxi, when some other "Christians" snapped it away while I was not looking...
...And I said to myself, I said, after all these people are dead...
...Read his recently published book Democracy is not Enough...
...The question asked by Mr...
...Scott Nearing in his monthly "World Events" fulfills the wish expressed by Mr...
...One must have a heart of stone to be able to contemplate mounds of human debris, the remains of helpless, tortured people, and not be profoundly moved...
...Her face becomes Animated as soon as she commences speaking...
...Law-son has nothing but that picture to go by, he wouldn't recognize Mrs...
...J. H. Blazej Chappaqua, N. Y. m. c. otto's great article Dear Sirs: Max C. Otto's great article on peacetime conscription in your Apr...
...guenter reimann Forest Hills, N, Y. * * * American Atrocities Dear Sirs: The people who get so aroused over the German atrocities should read the March and April issues of Cosmopolitan and get some first hand information on conditions in our own veteran's hospitals...
...There is "A Swift for our Time" —he who points the way to the pathway leading out of chaos to a "peaceful and orderly world," if we would but pay heed...
...If the American people don't rise higher than the present moral level they are on, the outcome is doubtful...
...The authenticity of these dossiers was not doubted, but they remained unpublished because it was feared that publication might impair friendly relations with the Nazi government...
...We are told that these are Nazi crimes and they no doubt are partly to blame...
...There is nothing superficial about Isabel La Follette...
...Those of us who are not belligerent by nature don't mind at all if others prefer to be that way...
...Like attracts like...
...Are we condemning others for doing things we ourselves would do under similar conditions...
...of Wisconsin Madison, Wis...
...Now, really—is Mr...
...A tricorn and veil completed the ensemble and the effect was most pleasing and has until now remained in my memory...
...Take me off your mailing list...
...How quickly we would be restrained and told our men were no better than the rest and that somebody had to fight the war...
...But we should also recall the fact that there remain few working class families in Germany who have not had at least one member of the family killed, tortured, or temporarily held in concentration camps by the Gestapo...
...I shall describe her appearance: She wore a white (or off-white) dress-blouse of some silk material which looked, from where I sat, as if it contained metallic embroidery...
...Sometimes the truth hurts, and so they want you to quit sending The Progressive...
...Down with the Fascists and Nazis ! Oh, excuse me...
...she is determined and substantial...
...Oree...
...It isn't anti-semitism, it isn't race prejudice that's at the bottom...
...And the more tense circumstances become the more Nazi-like we too become...
...It's downright fear and greed...
...It was from the man in Battle Creek, Mich., who was incensed at something he read in The Progressive and demanded that you cancel his subscription forthwith...
...Because one man, who obviously lacked intuition and keen perception, failed correctly to interpret the actions of these women, and the causes for their actions, bellows his disgust — must others applaud his narrowness of vision and condemn all women...
...Any momentary attraction would shortly end in repulsion...
...Barnes writes: "Indeed, it may be that women's influence for war is greater than that of the male...
...Emma Schroeder Milwaukee...
...Would it not be wiser and more appropriate to follow the admonition of St...
...Ever since I saw Isabel La Follette in person I looked upon her picture with a different eye and have since been an ardent, silent admirer of hers...
...Latzko and Barnes only lay themselves open to ridicule by making and pointing out such a statement...
...Who are these women whose lust for power, greed, and personal aggrandizement precipitated this or any other war...
...And yet, what I am going to say, will perhaps arouse anger and misunderstanding, but I think it should be said...
...EDITOR'S NOTE: "It's a deal...
...Some of us in Madison have repeatedly complained about this sour caricature, which grows worse and worse with successive reprintings...
...La Follette at a political symposium sponsored by the Milwaukee Court and Civic Conference at the Hotel Astor in Milwaukee, Wis., a number of years ago...
...Those who do dwell on virtue influence all within their sphere of living to a very marked degree...
...Not only that, he committed this atrocity in a darkened movie house...
...Thank God that societies, individuals, the press, and other agencies are doing all they can to help build and sustain the morale of our loved ones as they bravely endure the hell of war...
...All we modestly ask for is a likeness...
...With the Gestapo there was none...
...Metamorphosis of character is a slow process...
...And who knows how many are trying to be...
...Lawson —"Why not let her smile a bit...
...Some men never find such women...
...16 issue of The Progressive...
...The very incident happened to me only a few days ago...
...Now, is this wise or is it foolish...
...Sgt...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today american swift Dear Sirs: The letter in your issue of Apr...
...wants digest form Dear Sirs: In my opinion the contents of The Progressive are of enduring value and interest...
...I lived under Nazi rule until 1938 and I know from personal experience that the reports about inhuman cruelties committed by the Hitlerites were true...
...After all it would be using Hitler's technique of brute force if we punished those responsible for the gas chambers and human furnaces...
...Not as ostriches sticking our heads in the sand to escape notice of evil but endeavoring, by thus contemplating, to aspire to the heights of altruism...
...It is not a thing one just signs on a piece of paper, lightly—and often with hidden reserve...
...It may be a good lesson for those associated with the regime in any way, to witness the scenes of the Nazi crimes...
...It will make good your loss of a reader and at the same time improve The Progressive...
...And above all, it must be prepared with love, not the vitriolic hate the world has gone mad with...
...forceful mrs...
...Therese H. Koscherak New York, N. Y. * * * Renew Your Subscription Today 'it's fear and greed' Dear Sirs: The Mar...
...R. Calvert, Jackson Heights, L. I., titled "A Swift for our Time" is of timely interest...
...In content it is desirable to preserve for future reference, in form it is most difficult to do so...
...Meyer and Mayer...
...What large part do they play in international schemes and intrigues which bring about war...
...Our' protests have done no good...
...Let's show the butchers, who made lamp shades out of human flesh, which was not very nice, that we forgive them...
...To doubt even today the truth of the authenticated eye-witness reports is a saddening attempt to lessen again the moral obligations of the Western powers, if not to construe an excuse for the Nazi criminals...
...Renew Your Subscription Today 11 years too late Dear Sirs: Like many people, I wept when I saw the pictures of the unqualifi-able Nazi atrocities in their prison camps...
...Ida Warsech Catawbat, Wis...
...It seems to me it would be well worth while to print The Progressive in some form such as the numerous "digests" on the news stands...
...Everyone knows our ideals and beliefs spring from our training and experience and are conditioned by our associates...
...I'll say she's not...
...We are on the verge of writing a peace, that peace so ardently longed and prayed for these many years...
...To be militaristic is to possess a warlike nature...
...What woman, or group of women, started this war...
...The catalogue of similarities is long: Racial prejudice, nationalism, and master race complex, intolerance, Gestapo police, conscription, concentration camps for C.O.'s and others, labor draft, etc...
...sent them off to war, and were glad to see them go" is to be taken as a criterion that such is the true feeling of all women under similar circumstances...
...Latzko trying to tell us that all we women have to do is scream and protest and our men can stay at home...
...The beastly methods of torture and inhuman treatment of political prisoners were known to political observers abroad for many years before the war...
...F. Janusch Eagle River, Wis...
...Patriotism is love of one's country...
...In our search for justice and truth we must not depart from the path of recognizing facts as facts, whether we like them or not...
...What could be gained by tearing from them their highest concepts of womanhood and picturing women as bellicose and probably the instigators of war, particularly, at this time...
...I regret that those pictures were not shown, on a far smaller scale then, in the first year of Hitler's reign, rather than at this time, when the reaction to them by the masses everywhere will be so violent as to blind them to a more sober reason...
...Love and war are incompatible...
...But some are...
...If this were true I can say without fear of contradiction that even the most cultured women would let down and make a "holy show" of themselves along with the millions of protesters...
...Mayer to add this incident to his story in order to make it complete...
...The desire to assist in redressing a wrong or to preserve the peace, according to the dictionary, in no way indicates a fighting spirit...
...It was a taxi incident between a family of whites, a Jew, and a family of colored people...
...This view is Nazi to the core, and I take exception...
...So let's get off to a good start after the war...
...The Editors have the last word, of course, but readers have some lights, and one of them is the right not to have to look at j that libelous mood-depressing travesty of a portrait...
...As a matter of fact most of the prisoners of these camps were Germans held because of anti-Nazi activities or otherwise "politically unreliable" for the regime...
...retrogressive Dear Sirs: Discontinue sending your paper...
...2. Readers of the reports now published about Buchenwald and other concentration camps must certainly have received the impression that mostly or exclusively foreign, non-German prisoners were interned in these camps...
...Naturally we choose people whose views and temperaments do not too seriously conflict with our own...
...I hope the Otto article can be made available to millions of Americans...
...So we bravely and cheerfully smiled—and threw a kiss or a rose —while our stomachs came up in our throats and then took a tail spin...
...One must have at least a semblance of a chance of success of saving one's life...
...But "it is human to err...
...June Hennessey Minneapolis, Minn...
...Barnes further quotes the Austrian lieutenant: "No general could have made us go if the women hadn't allowed us to be stacked on the trains, if they had screamed out that they would never look at us again if we turned into murderers...
...Charles Young Charleston, W. Va...
...Hesseltine's conclusion, (issue of May 7), that the reports about the atrocities committed by the Nazis should "not furnish a rational basis for sadistic retaliation on prisoners of war or for enslaving the German people . . . ", I feel compelled to protest against the tendency of his article to "prove" that the atrocity reports of 1945 may just be as exaggerated as those of earlier wars...
...Quite a morale builder...
...Yes, I suppose the atrocity stories do sound pretty bad...
...Portland...
...M. C. Otto Univ...
...She is an individual in her own light...
...Here's my idea...
...A deeper search for truth reveals an instinctive urge toward self-preservation in all humanity and a willingness to unite with fellow-countrymen and women to defend and preserve the inalienable rights' of all...
...We should not retaliate against prisoners of war because our ethical concepts are higher than those of the Nazis regardless of the depth of criminality to which they sank...
...BARNES' next statement where he makes the positive assertion that "women's influence on males makes the latter more bellicose and the more loath to resist bellicosity," can be taken as a direct insult to womanhood...
...We just resent their telling the world that we're that way too...
...Hans Lamm New York, N. Y. * * * The Atrocity Stories Dear Sirs: Evidence now being published of Nazi atrocities in concentration camps may easily lead readers to false conclusions unless the following facts are also known: 1. These concentration camps existed for many years before the war began...
...Certainly it is the perfect answer to the propaganda put out by the militarists...
...Give A Friend The Truth Send Him The Progressive Today A Protest To Barnes Dear Sirs: In courtesy to and on behalf of all decent women everywhere I submit this reply to the article, "Feminism And War," by Harry Elmer Barnes in the Apr...
...9, from Mr...
...Most of them were constructed immediately after the beginning of the Nazi regime...
...And we can make our mea culpa, so that we can make a just peace, the only possible lasting one...
...And so I say, this indignant world of today, 11 years too late, bears a moral responsibility which should make it pause in its ruthless condemnation of perpetual punishment and hatred of all Germans, good and bad...
...I enjoy every bit of it...
...But ALL can feel confident that if this is the type they are searching for — and fighting for — they can —and will—find them...
...Evidently he would have our men and boys believe that the more chances they take and the more glory they can achieve, bringing back medals, bars and ribbons regardless of what might be missing in the way of eyes, arms, and legs, the happier we are, thus branding us as inherently cruel and heartless...
...We merely have more fortunate economic and geographic conditions...
...Second, the type of women he chooses to associate himself with...
...And, believe it or not, she can smile...
...Consult our own annals if you will—how we maltreated the Indian and to what brutal and inhuman treatment war prisoners were subjected during the Civil War...
...His fundamental argument, that democracy and militarism place a premium on altogether different human values, will be endorsed by any American GI who has had a chance to think of his own experiences...
...But, possibly, they overlooked what the results of such folly would be...
...Today, all we can do is to see to it that every German is made to see these pictures...
...And how do fear and greed get a start...
...Apparently afflicted with intellectual conceit, Mr...
...This applies, too, to Buchenwald...
...I, for one, lay more blame to the war than to the inhumanities of the German people...
...Were we pressed for existence as are our enemies, would we exhibit any more humanity...
...Take for instance the recent atrocity stories now presented to our attention with the intent to cause more hatred against the German people as a people or a nation...
...Barnes holds would have on our fighting forces who are making such heroic sacrifices that we can continue to press forward toward the highest ideals cherished in the hearts of all mankind...
...I personally know other enlistees who made the same request of those near and dear they left behind...
...Calvert that "there might arise among us some American Swift who could write equally as inspiringly and unflinchingly...
...Isabel La Follette is made of the material which improves with age...
...We must not be emotional I know...
...World peace depends on friendship between the Big 3. Your policy, like Hitler's, of "anti-communism" lays the basis for World War III...
...I couldn't stand it...
...Our Own Nazi View Dear Sirs: Because I am fundamentally opposed to the whole principle of the Nazi philosophy, I am forced to raise some questions about things here at home which are heading us in the same direction...
...There were representatives of the various political parties present...
...Good luck to you all...
...Your anti-Soviet bias beclouds all your columns, no matter who the writer is...
...For what IS true heroism but self-control under the most distressing circumstances...
...Her poise and composure are outstanding...
...Countless numbers of men and women the world over could reiterate: "Women's spirit IS against war...
...Democratic Emotionalism Dear Sirs: It was very difficult for me to keep my emotions under control after I read the articles by your humanitarians, Meyer and Mayer, who spread their sweetness and light on the poor, misled Fascists and Nazis who must not be mistreated when the war is over because they'll get mad at us...
...The second picture showed "a revolt of his Storm Troopers, in 1934"—followed by a blood purge...
...I would like Mr...
...For our men did not start this Armageddon any more than the women did...
...IT IS THE MEMORY of the mothers, whose sublime fortitude and courage have inspired the noblest aspirations in men, that sustains our fighting forces...
...and if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things...
...The Progressive is retrogressive...
...So I took my dog out for a walk just so that I'd be in the "progressive" frame of mind to write about Buchenwald, Nordhausen, and the Bataan march of death...
...Are we really concerned with abolishing Nazism or are we merely concerned about abolishing the German version of it in favor of our own...
...The Western powers have on their shoulders a heavy guilt by refusing to listen to these reports as long as those crimes were committed "only" against Jews or leftists...
...Keep up the good work so that before long we will have a 3rd party, like the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada, in power...
...MR...
...Are we so superior, so righteous...
...Karl A. Beitner Allentown...
...It would be so undemocratic...
...But we should not blind ourselves against the large-scale crimes organized and carried out by the Nazis...
...J. J. T. Camp Claiborne, La...
...This is not written merely because I, as only one out of many, was righteously indignant when I read it, but rather to offset as far as possible the demoralizing influence such an opinion as Mr...
...Harry Barnes must have taken an opiate to deaden his consciousness as to what effect it would have on both us and our fighting men when he dug into the past history of a less civilized age and dragged out the skeleton of the days when women lauded and rewarded their "brave warriors" who brought back the spoils...
...Then let us think on THESE THINGS...
...for the same reason we will refuse to enslave the German people...
...La Follette if he met her...
...Mrs...
...I am sure," he says, "Isabel B. La Fol-lette is not as stern looking as her picture in The Progressive...
...The whites were rich, the colored poor...
...30 issue is the best and last word on the subject...
...One must construct it carefully, prepare for it, like a mother for a wanted child...
...N. Y. * * * Truth Hurts Dear Sirs: I enjoy every bit of The Progressive and the People's Forum...
...as politeness and modesty prohibit Isabel La Follette from defending herself, a sense of fairness compels me to come to her aid and I express my personal reactions thus: I carried an impression similar to that of the California writer until I saw and heard Mrs...
...However, we don't insist on a smile...
...Because Andreas Latzko has written in his book Men ln War, that "women are horrible" because they smiled and threw flowers as their menfolks boarded troop trains, going off to war, does that mean that his limited viewpoint in assuming their women "gave them up...
...Elsa Hegmann San Francisco, Calif...
...She is a forceful and convincing speaker...
...Get another picture of Isabel B. La Follette and I'll get you a new subscriber...
...goes unheeded...
...Mrs...
...It was at the time when the vogue for blouses was beginning to reassert itself that I saw Isabel La Follette...
...It is all very well to say "why didn't they revolt...
...Sure, the Nazis have committed atrocities, but didn't Admiral William "Bull" Halsey commit an atrocity against a 9-year-old girl...
...That all women are not so inclined we must admit...
...What is so distressing and vexing about the whole affair is that we are such good people and they are such bad people...
...they so wicked, heinous...
...To substantiate his opinions Mr...
...Max Kagan Milwaukee, Wis...
...The whites got away with everything and the taxi, the Jew said nothing, the colored people were left high and dry without a taxi...
...The job they were facing required true heroism...
...Had this same world then, right in the beginning, done all in its power to show its disapproval (instead of the general apathy universally prevalent), and helped the democratic forces inside Germany 'to overthrow the monster some shortsighted fools had voted into power, these millions of corpses would not be today...
...Women are obviously as patriotic, militaristic, and bellicose as males...
...Messrs...
...Only a very few can have the superhuman courage to face certain death against impossible odds...
...Moreover, it brands him as arrogantly opinionated and clearly indicates two things: First, his own inherent bombastic bellicosity, by which he judges others, regardless of sex...
...The process of reeducating a whole people is vital, and cannot begin too soon...
...Rather strange that the world should only now be so aroused by crimes which, before they were perpetrated upon the Poles, the French, and all the other conquered nations, were first perpetrated upon the Jews and their own Aryan political enemies...
...Let's analyze this...
...So, you grab it quickly even if the piece is bigger than your teeth could possibly chew...
...Paul, Philippiuns 4-8: "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report...
...You can't expect reasonable people to swallow such stuff as "Compare Yalta to Munich" and "Substitute Stalin, Churchill, and Daladier...
...Will not The Progressive some time please its readers with a better picture of this noble woman who is not hesitant about speaking her convictions...
...They demanded the same of us...
...In fact, if Mr...
...The British and French Governments both had dossiers with detailed reports of these atrocities before and during the "Munich era...
...Well, I want to back up Mr...
...If their influence for peace has not been felt to any appreciable degree since woman's suffrage has been achieved I, lifting my voice for all women, ask, "How many women hold positions where their influence might obtain to prevent or oppose war...
...Why cry over spilt milk...
...My subscription has expired and I thought you would stop spewing treasonable and anti-United Nations poison at me then...
...By mama teaching us it's bad manners to take the biggest slice of cake but if you don't grab it, the others will...
...She might truly be a real daughter of her worthy and courageous father-in-law, "Old Bob", for she possesses that same fighting spirit...
...Please excuse noe while I take my dog out again...
...Knowing that parting is painful to loved ones, my son, when leaving, requested: "Mother, please don't cry...
...I guess it's time to take my dog out for a walk again...
...Law-son's plea...
...Isabel La Follette far outranked each of the other speakers on the program...
...Another letter in the same issue gave me an idea...
...After all, didn't Robert E. Sherwood declare that if we are to continue believing in our professed principles of democracy, Americans must be prepared to forgive the Japanese (and the Germans too) their atrocities after the war...
...When Ezra Heywood said, in 1866: "We need women in government for their spirit is above war," he spoke a literal truth...
...sour caricature Dear Sirs: It's a long time since a letter in a magazine has given me the rare satisfaction John D. Lawson's did, printed in your May 7 issue...
...She can even laugh, and heartily...
...millions of Jews, Catholics, Protestants having been tortured and murdered...
...The only thing that I don't like about The Progressive is that there are not enough people reading it...
...Let bygones be bygones and let's be friends...
...la follette Dear Sirs: The letter from a Los Angeles Calif., writer, in the May 7 issue oi The Progressive, referring to Isabel B. La Follette's "stern-looking picture", was read by me with interest...
...Paul Brinkman, Jr...
...The New York Times published a week ago cartoons of Hitler's career, by Low...
...That was 11 years ago...
...A mild-mannered man or woman could not tolerate the pugnacious, contentious type of partner, friend, or acquaintance...
...Not Enough Readers Dear Sirs: To prove to you how much I miss The Progressive, I am asking you to kindly send me another copy of the current number which I lost before I had the opportunity to read it...
...26 issue of The Progressive brought an article by my favorite, Milton Mayer, entitled: "They Are Standing Here Waiting...
...I must say...
Vol. 9 • May 1945 • No. 21
