. 11 7 srman fascist hordes. a new and higher level. beration movement. ugoslavia i YUGOSLAVTA, where the guer- rilla movement has attained a Ss character and stubborness, guerrilla detachments, uniting o big formations, have for the st time launched successful of ive operations against the Ger- m and Italian invaders, and iimst the Ustasi traitors. Leaders of the Yugoslay guer- las, realizing that the time to rike in the invader’s rear, the me to attack them resolutely, is yw, when the Germans are tied ywn to the Soviet-German front, ive struck hard. suerrilla warfare has spread to : very German frontiers and has 7rered the whole of Slovenia and /considerable part _of Croatia, snia, Herzesovina, Montenegro, imatia and Serbia. The occupa- nists were compelled to bring up 5, fresh reserves, to dispatch new isicns to Yugoslavia. In some “ces—in Slovenia—the sierrilla aachments had to withdraw. But ‘ Suerrilla movement Erew eled in the fire of these offensive >rations, : territory it has liberated. Successes of the fSuerrilla move- nt have already affected Hitler’s ‘ellites. Nedic, head of the so- led Serb government, was com- \led to “hand in his resignation.” <=, whe was routed by the guer- as, had to do the same. reaRMCEe NEW feature in the guerrilla movement is the fact that errilla warfare is beginning to ead to countries where some Hi - Wazis mistakenly thought srrilla warfare impossible. this refers particularly to France, ere the beginnings of a guerrilla Vement started this summer As 5 only small armed groups are srating there, primarily in the big ieS, including Paris and its sub- 3S, 2S well as on the communica- ns Catering to the Germans. “ithough the French guerrilla wement has just come into be- = the German invaders are 2atly disturbed by it: for they ll know that under able leader- {p the guerrilla movement can tead by leaps and bounds. Phe French guerrillas have blown military depots, derailed German litary trains and taken their ven- anee on the Nazis and their con- nptible agents from the Petain- val gang for the crimes they ve commited against the French ple. A special illegal paper, france d’Abord,” is issued to give idance to and consolidate the errilla groups, to establish ties ween the guerrillas and the peo- fand to ensure all-round support the people. Phe guerrilla movement is be- ining to take shape also in other antries of western Europe, par- ularly in Belgium and Holland The Wazis are well aware that The national liberation movement in=the occu The German fascists had reckoned that a military success | the Soviet-German front and the absence of a second front the-west would lead to despondency among the masses. At @ same time they also aimed at intimidating and to a consid- able extent physically exterminating the active elements, id thus completely disorganizing and crushing the national How they have failed in their aim is iown by the following review. ® AIODAY, when Europe is on the threshold of the fourth war winter it is absolutely clear that the Nazi imperialists have failed in their movement in the ocupied countries has been strengthened and. has spread in proportion to the growing r Kurope Ready For Revolt Watts For Second Front plans. The anti-Hitler esistance offered by the Red Army to the pied countries has not been destroyed, but, on the contrary, all Signs indicate that the movement is rising S the development of guerrilla war- fare undoubtedly strengthens the position of those in Britain and the United States who insist and demand that the second front be immediately opened on the Huro- pean continent. WN OUTSTANDING feature of the new phenomena which to- day distinguish the anti-Hitler lib- extended its base and | ntinues to hold the main part of | e Croat “Generalissimo” Kyater- | eration movement in western |Burope is the mass political strike | which is being resorted to on an jever greater scale. Strikes had | talsen place in a number of occu- | pied countries before, but they were of an isolated nature and 2 rare occurrence. This summer and fall have been marked by big mass striltes for the Diary of a Nazi Murderer first time since the beginning of the war and the Nazi occupation. The strike movement started with the general strike of the Luxem- burg workers and was followed by a big mass strike of the workers of Greece, where famine is rampant. The French workers were the next te go on strike. In France, the strikes started in the occupied zone, in the suburbs of Paris, in Boulogne-Billancourt, where the workers of a big French Renault war plant downed their tools. The strike spread to a big } war plant in Alstom. | In answer to Laval’s attempt to forcibly send French workers to Germany, the strike movement |spread far and wide and covers practically the whole of the unoc- eupied zone, including such big cities like Lyons and Marseilles. Sections of the population which formerly participated in no activi- ties are now joining the anti-Nazi movement. Anti-Nazi political figures in France, stunned and disorientated by the countrys defeat and the Laval-Petain government, for a long time occupied a Waiting position. But former political leaders who do not want to lose their ties with the masses are taking the only correct path, that of moving together with the broad movement against the in- vaders. This was indicated by the stand recently taken by Herriot and Jeanneney, leaders of the jRadical Party. One of the striking factors showing the growth of the anti- Wazi movement in France was the action of the French bishops in openly opposing the savage de crees issued against the Jews. Even the high clergy, headed by the Catholic Church, saw fit to come out against Petain and Laval for a perfidious policy which has led to virtual isolation of the Vichy gov- ernment. There is every reason for be- lieving that despite the bloody terror and the absence of the sec- ond front in the west, the struggle of the people in the occupied countries is gaining momentum. There is no tranquility in Hit ler’s rear—there is not even a semblance of “consolidation” of ‘Today Levee Snot Sik... The Ditch |s A\\ready Full By ILYA EHRENBURG B= ORE me I have the diary of Friedrich Schmidt, secretary of the secret field police of the 626th Group of the First German Tank Army. Schmidt kept his diary in Budenovka, near Mariupol, and here is what he wrote: February 25—Yekaterina Skoroyedova, a Communist, expressed her disapproval of the Russians who are collaborating with us. She was shot at noon. ... Old Saveli Stepan- enko and his wife, from Samsonovka, were also shot . About 4 p.m. four 18-year-old girls were brought to me. They had crossed over the ice from Yeisk. ... Then six young men and a girl were brought in. The six young men are obedient. Four of them are students, real beauties. . . . The cruelest whipping is of no avail. The girl did not shed a single teats = . “Three miles north of Budenovika, the gendarmes caught five 17-year-old lads. They were brought to me. I put my whip into action. I actually broke the handle to bits. Two of us did the whipping. As a matter of fact the muscles of my right arm ache. : “March 1—At 4 p.m. I was suddenly invited to visit General von Voerster in a cafe. ... “March 3—Five from Yeisk were again brought to me. As usual, they are very young. And again I used my whip. The weather is becoming milder. “March 7—Life is good. We are getting butter, eggs, chicken and milk. I vary my menu every day. - “March 8—NCO Sprigwald and Serau Reidman returned from Mariupol. They brought mail and a written order to Groszek about executions. . . . Today I have already shot six, - “March $—Today I have the job of killing 30 captured youngsters. At 10, two more girls and six fellows were brought to me. ... 1 had to do some ruthless flogging. .. . Then the mass execution began; yesterday 6, today 33. “TI can’t eat. Woe to me if they catch me. I no longer feel safe in Budenovka. The ditch is already full to the top with bodies. How heroically they die, these Bolshevik youths. Some of them, particularly the girls, did not shed a tear. This is indeed valor. They were ordered to undress (for we sell the clothing). “Due to pressure of work I have not written home for a long time. Actually I have no desire to write home. Today I ordered 17-year-old Lyudmila Chukanova shot. I must kill the young people, perhaps because I suffer from a nervous condition of the heart._ “March 17—I began the morning by ordering the fifth Russian parachutist to be brought from the hospital and immediately shot him in front of his srave. Took an after- dinner promenade. “March 19—Splendid pig we had. Ordered sausage. “Wiarch 21—Never before have we had such a horrible day in Budenovka. Last even- ing a Russian bomber appeared and dropped flares and 12 bombs. One can well imagine how I felt. “March 20—Today I questioned two lads who had tried to cross the ice to Rostov. They were shot. “April 10—Again I flogged a few girls and boys for not reporting for registration; among them was the elder’s daughter. Nightfall brings unpleasant thoughts of bombers. “April 12—Every morning I have hot milk and an omelet for breakfast. There is less work now, for we only act on a local scale. We usually mete out punishment by flogging or shooting: “April 16—Today it is quiet. I settled a quarrel between the elder and the chief of the militia and then flogged three men and one woman. Yes, I did beat one elderly woman, because she confessed to having been a nurse. At last Groschek has recommended me for the second degree cross and sword for meritorious service. “April 17—Flogged two girls right in my apartment, whipping their bare... . “April 18—A rainy, dreary day. I summoned many girls who had voiced disapproval of the secret field police and flogged them.” It was an ordeal for me to transcribe these terrible lines and comments. It seems to me that world literature never portrayed a more terrible, contemptible criminal. He shoots youngsters, but fears a plane. His sleep is disturbed by the fear of bombers. He has fully merited a decoration for meritorious service, for has he not displayed daring in tort- uring Russian girls? He even bravely killed a four-year-old child. He is devoid of even a semblance of human feelings. He has no love for his own relatives. Not a single tender word for his native, accursed Germany. True, this is not the first diary of a German soldier to contain entries about murd- ers and tortures. But those were dry records. Here the German shows himself in this true light. I have a request to address to all foreign journalists: please convey this diary to the newspapers of all the freedom loving countries. And I also ask my readers to carefully read these entries. None can read them without being filled with hatred for a vile enemy. the notorious “New Europe.”