GUIDE TO GOOD. READING

German magnates behind Hitler
are now supporting Adenauer

IN THE West German election
campaign which concluded last
Sunday with return of the Aden-
auer regime, Chancellor Konrad
Adenauer received the full and
frantic backing of the Ruhr bar-
ens and the Americans.

Only 20 years ago there was
another election in Germany.
Less than two weeks before that
election in March 1933, Hitler
and his Nazis were by no means
assured of victory.

Goering invited 20 leading in-
dustrialists and bankers. to a

-speecial conference to meet Hit-

ler, Hitler told them of his plans

te restore German militarism -

and appealed for their financial
support.

Schacht, later to become Hit-
ler’s “‘financial wizard,” told the
assembled industrialists: . “We,
on this table, must raise a fund
of three million marks.”

Among those at the table were
a representative of Kruppps and

CURRENT FILMS

a certain Baron von Schnitzler,
representing the monster chemi-
eal combine of 1.G. Farben.

Von Schnitzler went back and
reported to the board of wirect-
ors of.1.G. Farben. As a result
they put up 400,000 marks, the
largest: single contribution to
Hitler’s campaign.

Next day the Reichstag was set
on fire and blamed on the Com-
munists. Using the fire as a pre-
text, Hitler started the reign of
terror in Germany which ended
in the-holocaust of the Second
World War.

The story of how I. G. Farben
helped Hitler to power and help-
ed plan his aggressive war is

‘The Cruel Sea’ ignores
aim for which war fought

CONTRARY TO what one
might have expected, American

‘and British films about the last
‘war in recent years have told us

less and less about the war.

Instead of expanding to ex-
plore different aspects previous-
ly overloooked, they have nar-
rowed down to a rigid formula
to fit the needs of cold-war
propaganda. ‘%

For all its sharp,° direction
superb photography and, for the
most. part, high-quality acting,
The Cruel Sea is no departure
from this trend. .

This British film of Nicholas
Monsarrat’s best-selling novel is
concerned with the men—main-
ly the officers — of the corvettes
and frigates of the wartime con-
voys.

For once there are no extrane-
ous American characters and no
American actors disguised as
“Canadians.” Yet this film of the
Royal Navy fits . precisely into
the formula of recent U.S. war
propaganda films. ,

Like its U.S. counterparts it
says nothing at all about why
the war is being fought or the
reasons which inspired the men
of the convoy: escorts.

And its central theme, again

in the U.S. manner, is that of
the larger-than-life commander
whose greatest act of heroism
is to overcome his own human
scruples and order some ‘utterly
ruthless course of action in
which inhuman means are justi-
fied by military ends.

These things are not. false in

themselves. Sailors did_ not dis-
cuss their war aims at every
meal. _Commanders did have to
take ruthless decisions. But false
emphasis distorts the picture.

The distortion is by no means
fortuitous. If courage and endur-
ance are ends in themselves
they may be called forth as
readily in a bad cause as in a
good one. If we understand how
hard, but how necessary, it is
for the commander to be inhu-
man we may be all the readier
to obey commands which out-
rage our humanity.

Donald Sinden, a newcomer to
films, stands up well as the first
lieutenant to the skipper of the
experienced. and efficient Jack
Hawkins. But few of the other
actors, skilled as they are, are
allowed much chance to give
depth to their performances.

—THOMAS SPENCER..

HOME OF
UNION MADE
MEV'S WEAR
and
PRIENDY
SERVICE

"WHAT — HE: TRIED: T0 SELL

YOU A SUIT THAT DIONT FIT?

7RY THE HUB, MY BOY, ANO CET
YOURS. WITH EASY. CREDIT /" k

45 EAST HASTINGS
~ VANCOUVER 4, B.C

told with breathtaking simplicity
in Generals in Grey Suits, by
Josian E.. Dubois.

This is the story of the ‘in-

vestigations which led up to the,

trial at Nuremberg of the 24 men
who headed I: G. Farben, and of
the trial itself. It is told by the
man who prosecuted them, the
U.S. Deputy Chief Counsel for
War Crimes and’ Chief Prose-
cutor in the Farben case.

The meeting between I. G. Far-
ben, Krupp and the rest with
Hitler took place in February
1933. Today, in 1953, the men
who. plotted then are free and
powerful in West Germany.

* * *

Dubois seems to be one of
those American liberals who
think it necessary to subscribe
to the current anti-Communist
hysteria in order to get his point
over. Nevertheless this book is
a searing exposure of the sort of
people U.S. policy is supporting
today.

The empire of this chemical
octopus included more than 880
firms throughout Europe,, Africa,
North and South America, East
and West Asia.

I. G. Farben stands for Inter-
essen Gemeinschaft Farbenindus-
trie Aktiengesellschaft, which
means Community of Interests
of the Dyestuffs Industry, Incor-
ported. ;

This harmless name concealed
mass murder, the planning of
war and support of fascism and
reaction in every country where
I. G. Farben had a representa-
tive.

The indictment against the 24
directors of I. G. Farben when
they. appeared before the Tri-
bunal at Nuremberg included
the following ‘charges:

Preparation and waging of
aggressive war:

Plunder of the industries and
economies of other countries;

Enslavement, maltreatment
and murder of human beings,
including medical experiments
on enslaved persons.

By 1941 I. G. Farben had had
assigned to its plants by the Nazi
regime some 10,000 slave work-
ers. By 1945 the figure was well
over 100,000—many of them in
a special Farben plant in the
notorious Auschwitz death camp.

The men who planned this and

who profited to the tune of mil- .

lions from it are free and power-
ful today.

Perhaps the reason for this
lies in the fact that at one time
53 U.S. companies were linked
directly or indirectly with 1. G.
Farben, as Dubois points out,
and we do not know what secret
arrangements and understand-
ings have been arrived at since
the end of the war.

As Mr. Dubois says, the sen-
tences on the, I. G. Farben di-
rectors were “light enough to
please a chicken thief, or a
driver who had
run down a pedestrian.”

“Not a word of disapproval
went to the 15 directors. who
had approved the Auschwitz site,
who had appropriated all the
money for all the projects dur-
ing the four-year terror there,
who had started the first modern
European slave market.” :

This book must be read by
everyone who wants to know
what is happening in West Ger-
many today. It gives details of
what some of the “not guilty’
I. G. Farben directors are doing
today.

And two of them, Dr. Ter
Meer and Dr. Otto Ambros, have
been acting as ‘advisers to the
Adenauer regime. :

—SAM RUSSELL.

irresponsibly .

Canadian writers in Moscow

the

The chairman of the Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society,
noted scientist-author Dyson Carter, with his wife Charlotte Car

ter,

are seen here in Moscow, pictured against the background 0 lotte

new~Lomonosov University which was opened August 31.
and Dyson Carter are making ano
are reporting to’News Facts, th

ciety’s publication.

ther. tour of the Soviet Union an
e Canadian-Soviet Friendship

Char

’

The new university, a 32-storey air-conditioned building,

said to be the largest in the world.
overlooking Moscow and will accommodate some 10,

lt is situated on the Lenin ie
000 studen

t is named after Mikhail Lomonosov, 18th Century Russian Pe”

CHANGES INTRODUCED

USSR developing great
polytechnical school plan

SOVIET schoolchildren start:
ing a new year of study, are find-

ing that important steps” have

- been taken to .strengthen the

practical side of their lessons.

The importance of linking
theory with practise has always
been stressed. by Marxists, and
has run like a red_ thread
through. Soviet educational
methods from the earliest days.
As long ago as 1920, for example,
when the land was in the throes
of civil war and its industry in
sorry state, Lenin urged that
schoolchildren be taken on ex-
cursions to power stations, fac-
tories and state farms.

It is to give young people
greater freedom in choosing
thejr trades that the polytechnic
trend in schools is being further
advanced.

Considerable importance has
always been attached in Soviet
schools to teaching children
about electricity and the plans
to electrify the whole country.
In our day when the overwhelm-
ing majority of machines used
in the USSR are run by elec-
tricity and when vast plans for
building new power stations are
approaching their fulfilment, a
knowledge of the modern ap-
plication of electricity is par-
ticularly important for the future
worker. :

This applies no less to country
districts than to the towns. Be-
fore long all the main proceses
of farm work, including field
work, will be done by electricity.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 11, 1953 —

School

But polytechnic
must also include making ip
pupil acquainted with the ™
scientific principles and the 27,
plication in practise of methor
for treating materials of all sor
mechanically; with the 1M" ii
combustion engine, with soil §
ence, industrial chemistry-

It is fully realized, of cour
that if modern man is to My
himself the master of technole rn

he must be equipped with 2 3 a
. eral education making

hi

of
literate and civilised memb®

society with a thoroug ature:
edge of ‘the laws of ne
authorities have,

warned — against
This, however, 0° te
mean that teachers are wv pils
limited to classroom work. hae
in the sixth and eighth 0?” 1o-
for instance, will be take? i in

‘ eal factories for object less?”

mechanics.
easure’

educatio®

terna™

Kn0 wl ; ‘a

These and ‘similar ™*°" No ©

are being taken gradually. oy
abrupt change in educatiee it
methods is contemplated. 4 8
the Soviet Union is engage ook
the biggest secondary 5%” pe
building program ever us a
undertaken’ and the MY tne
proach is having its effec ‘
designing and constructl?
new buildings. Thus PreP®” sund
are being made for the al a and
development of the physio viet
moral qualities of the |.
people as an essentia ie com
ary to the transition R.
muni —RALPH pare
pace

t00 a
jon

A ir (

i