ing their gains. But the
joeratic Party leader-
h commanded influence
‘Jargest section of the
4 the trade union move-
ulsed all overtures for
we union and political
fainst the fascists. And
Hal allies of the working
peasantry, long since
tied by successive social
wg: policies which had
bei the big landlords,
“od passive or else were
: by Hitler's lying

ce

inti-Fascist Unity Con-
‘d in Berlin, July 10,
simann declared: ‘‘The
e | of the United Front

iscism is a question of
soe German people.’ In
‘91932, Thaelmann con-
; address to the Com-
tty conference with the
} words:

ie must develop prole-
Prmationalism as against
#nistic spirit stirred up
masses. The Commun-

ef Germany fights
var preparations and
# e war policy; it de
+ the billions that are
4% t upon the Reichswehr
9¥er to the fund to help
#ictims and the unem-

30, 1933, the negotia-
between the German
the finance magnates
iscists ended with the
= appointing Hitler as
silor of Germany. But
$ could not yet consoli-
Political position, and
2d of Some provocation
ii help isolate and com-
+ Communist influence
sections of the Ger-

47 the sky was crimson
Games in the dome of
tag. The Reichstag was
ier declared: “It is the
od. Now we will strike
mmunists.’ Eyen then
wires were busy telling
that the Communists
the Reichstag and that
d been found ‘for a
,

§ cists themselves fired
stag. The torcHes were
| by Goering. And the
(4 hand which first fired
tag has never ceased to
Pillage, rape and ruin
eples of Europe. The
#ichstag lit up the path
iscists to the bloodiest
) brutal autocracy ever
pihe world. The most re-
the most chauvinist,
OSt imperialist sections
Capital had seized a
of political power in

t savage blow fell upon
the Communist Party
fade union movement.
Campaign of persecu-
remmenced against the
jace and culture came
axe, Millions of books,
ets_ of the most ad-
ads, were lit in bonfires
¢ Germany. And many a
class mother’s heart
as she heard the
‘sirens of fascist trucks
+ working class districts

Bb

and drag her sons and daughters
off to jail. Hitler let loose the
dregs of society in storm-troop-
ers uniforms, who with whips and
revolvers set out to smash the
militant sections of the German
working class with an unprece-
dented mass terror.

At the same time Hitler at
tempted to give a legal face to
his monstrous farce. Indictments
were prepared against Ernest
Thaelmann and other working
class leaders. To make more com-
plete their conspiracy the fascists
arrested Georgi Dimitrov and

ERNST THAELMAN

two other Bulgarian Communists,
who were at this time resident
in Berlin, and charged them with
“complicity in the firing of the
Reichstag.”

TANDING alone, the left wine

labor movement, led by Thael-
man, was unable to prevent the
establishment of the fascist dic-
tatorship and suffered a severe
defeat. The gigantic working
class organizations built’ upin
decades of struggle were destroy-
ed.

The surrender of the large body
of trade union leaders, and the
erayen fear of most of the Social
Democratic leaders to undertake
struggle against Hitler, kept the
German working class disunited.
Those leaders who fondly imag-
ined that it was only the Gom-
munists who were to be eliminat-
ed as a political force, were soon
disillusioned. One by one, Hit-
ler crushed the working class or-
ganizations He then turned on
the most of his allies of yester-
day, who also suffered from the
strange thought that Hitler would
Share political power with them.
They too were smashed.

HE rulers of Germany have
since hurled Europe back to
the dark, barbarous, terrible twi-
light of the Middle Ages. They
have reared in their army a pack
of cannibals, beasts of prey, whose
savagery is unsurpassed in the
annals of society. They have bru-
talized, corrupted, nazified and
bribed large sections of the Ger-
man people. They have reared the
German youth on national chau-
vinist poison. They have ruined
and undermined the great cultural
traditions of Europe.
And this scum has been
spawned in the political gutters
of civilized Europe, at one time

OPLE LIES
TO HITLER

the world famous centre of cul-
ture, which has given to the world
masters of science, music and art
—Harl Marx, Frederick Engels,
Liebknecht, Luxemberg, Mendel-
ssohn, Bach, Handel, Wagner,
Beethoven, Hegel, Kant, Fuer-
bach, Goethe, Einstein, and Heine,
Schumann and Schubert.

Ue aeeerep are the atroci-
ties which the German army
have visited upon the Russian
people. The Roman persecutions
of the Christians, the cruelties of
the Torquemadas of the Inquisi-
tion, and the Black Hundreds of
the Czarist Russia, pale into in-
significance compared with the
unspeakable deeds of the Hitler
fascists,

The following are common or-
ders of the day in the German
army: “Stamp -out of your soul
all feeling of pity or compassion,
kill every Russian, every Soviet
citizen. Do not falter even though
an old man or woman, a girl or
a boy stands before you,’ as
stated in the “Handbook for the
German Soldier, written by Goeb-
bels. Or: “It is necessary to in-
culeate a feeling of pitilessness
into the German soldier: No mani-
festation of soft heartedness in
relation to anyone whomsoever,
regardless of age or sex is ad-
missible.”

Inspired by such documents, the
Commander of the i3th Army
Corps on Nov. 29, 1941, ordered
his two-legged beasts to: ‘Exter-
minate all boys and girls of 12
to 16 years of age.” Such is the
face of fascism—cold, calculated
mass murder of all who stand in
the way—terrorism, rapine, plun-
der.

4 pees interests of humanity de-
mand the destruction of Hit-
ler fascism. For centuries, at
every crucial stage of historic
conflict between progress and re-
action within Germany, the strug-
gle has always been decided in
favor of reaction. The anti-demo-
eratie forces have always retained
State power and dished out piece-
meal the measure of democracy
and progress which the German
nation were to enjoy. It depends
upon the German nation itself
whether they will take this his-
toric opportunity to once and
for all rid themselves of such re-
actionary ruling classes.

ODAY the German people

stand at the cross roads. One
road leads to new depths of dis-
honor and national degradation
through continued support to the
fascist adventurers which have
violated their country and the rest
of Europe; the other, with the as-
Sistance of the United Nations, to
the overthrow of this monstrous
gang.of child killers, and the re-
turn of a wider form of democ-
racy to the German people than
has ever been enjoyed.

Let the German people remem-
ber the stirring words of Karl
Liebknecht:

“Tet thousands of voices shout:
‘Down with the shameless exter-
mination of nations! Down with
these responsible for these crimes!
Qur enemy is not the English,
French, or Russian people but
the great German landed propri-
etors, the German capitalists and
their executive committee’ ”

Germany under Hitler is now a vast prison camp where
prisoners such as these are forced to work under condi-
tions of semi-starvation and under the most brutal

supervision.

We Pledge...

Below is the text of a pledge
read to a great Massey Hall meet-
img in Toronto last week by Tim
Buck. The pledge, Buck declared,
would be taken at hundreds of
similar meetings across Canada.

es EH, 3,000 Toronto citizens,
pledge ourselves anew to
devote all our energies to active
support of the speediest launch-
ing of the urgently needed in-
vasion of Europe, as promised by
Premier Churchill, President
Roosevelt and Premier Fong; -
“We undertake to help clear the
decks of Canada for action, by
vigorously supporting the policy.
of the offensive and ruthlessly
combatting the saboteurs of vic-
tory, the obstructors and the ad-
vocates of delay;

“We pledge our fullest support
to the men of our Army, Navy
and Airforce; we greet our men
in Britain under Canada’s Mc-
Naughton; we will work untir-
Ingly to increase the flow of arms
and ammunition to them;

“We denounce the attempt of
certain circles of Big Business
and its agents to disrupt national
unity and imperil the earrying
through of the offensive. These
elements, through the Canadian
Manufacturers’ Association, are
seeking to defeat the adoption
of collective bargaining lezislation
in Ontario, and to provoke 3 wave
of disastrous strikes at the most
crucial moment of the war; we
call on the people of Ontario to
unite the press with all their
vigor for the adoption of a demo-
cratic labor-relations Act by the
Ontario Legislature;

“We greet the stand of Premier
King in condemnation of the Gar-
din-Chaloult quislingism in Que-
bec; and urge the Government
to strengthen democratic unity
by lUfting the ban on the Com-
munist Party. of Canada;

“We pledge ourselves to fight
for the unbreakable unity of the
United Nations, and in particular

for unity in common fighting ac-
tion with our glorious Soviet Ally,
whose heroic sons and daughters
are still bearing the brunt of
nine-tenths of the murderous
Nazi war machine—a unity which
must and will be expressed in
joint action on the battlefields of
Europe, in the speediest invasion
of the Nazi-held continent and
the joint victory and peace which
shall be ours.’