2 This time the pro-Germans do not even wait for the end of the war and , while our boys are being killed,while Germans are murdering American prisoners of war, a campaign-to "salvage the German people" and to differentiate between the bad Nazis (who probably came from the moon)and the good,misled German people-is in full swing. Councils and committees,backed by powerful industrialists,clergymen, universify professors,leading liberals,writers,ect.are being formed, actively engaged in a struggle to obtain: 1.That Germany should get the benefits of the Atlantic Charter. 2.That the political and economic strength of Germany should be maintained. 3.That the productive power of Germany must be preserved. 4.That the German people shall be given a peace which they can regard as Just. For example,such policies are being advocated now by the Council for a Democratic Germany,led by German refugees like Paul Hagen, Hermann Budzislawski,Paul Tilltoh etc.and by American liberals such as Dean Christian Gauss,Prof. John Dewey,Reinhold Niebuhr,Dorothy Thompson, Hiram Motherwell,Robert McIver and many others. Since the country is at war,many pan-German groups have cleverly wrapped themselves in the national flag,eagerly waiting for the day when they can strive again to alienate us from our erstwhile comrads-in-arms,and resume the drive back to isolationism,just as after World War I. All the abovementioned activities combined,if not checked,might result in the winning of the peace by Germany. Is it not for our self-interest,as well as the duty of every democratic organization, to warn the world of the danger to humanity embodied in a strong Germany,nourished upon the Pan-German principles which have been the basis of German Kultur for so many generations and have brought so many tragedies upon the world? Must not our paramount consideration be our own security and should not every approach to the German problem be based primarily on the need for that security? In one word,are we going to let history repeat itself or are we going to protect ourselves by studying this problem,understanding it,and insisting on its solution? |