OFFICE OF STRATEGIC OFFICIAL DISPATCH SERVICES       
 
                     OFFICIAL DISPATCH                      
 
 
DATE: 8 December 1944
 
FROM: Berns
 
TO: DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES
 
#250
 
 
                                                            
                   RECEIVED IN PLAIN TEXT                   
 
 
GERMANY
 
The 
Neue Zuercher Zeitung
 of today has a long and interesting article from its Berlin
correspondent on Germany's power of resistance. I give here a rather
full summary of this article, as it seems to me to reasonably express
the present situation in Germany.
 
 
Germany's power of resistance is still strong.  It has survived three
great crises -- Stalingrad, the loss of Italy, and the smashing of the
Atlantic Wall, all of which seemd at the time to be mortal blows -- and
yet Germany was able each time to summon new forces and continue the
fight with fresh energy.  This is a riddle, and what follows is an
attempt to explain it.
 
Imperial Germany gave up the fight after the defeat in France in 1918.
The German position today is perhaps  still more dramatic than it was
then.  The German armies have been thrown back to the frontiers in the
East and West, The Reich would be fully justified in quiting now.  But
insupernbly more robust than the politicians of the Kaiser, and are
determined  to continue their resistance to the bitter end.  They know
no such word as quit.  It is their logan that no one is licked as long
as he refuses to admit defeat.  Hitler and his aides have no
inhibitions about sacrificing the lives and property of the German
people.  The cost does not count.
 
Last summer there was no sign of weakening in the High Command.  Troops
and staffs may have failed here and there, but the reaction from above
was immediate and severe.  Marshall Model, known for his energy, was
placed in command of all endangered sectors.  His predecessor, von
Kluge, disappeared under mysterious circumstances.  Dr. Goebbels was
put in of total civilian mobilization.  The revolt of July 20 was
brutally crushed and sweeping measure were taken against all opposition
elements.  Again, the catastrophe was averted.  The Nazis were forced
to take the most ruthless action.  No 
privileges were respected
 (?); no individual was able to escape the claws of total warfare.
 
Such Draconian measure are only possible with Germans.  They