EB teft Warsaw with a

feeling of satisfaction:
we had seen that our forces
had grown, that the peoples
would not -be caught un-
awates by a handful of vil-
lains and madmen, that a
high authority fer the pro-
tection of life had been cre-
ated — the Peace Council.
Three months have passed.

We were not mistaken-in our re-
joicing: tha peace movement is
growing and spreading. . Ever
more often and more insistently
honest Americans are raising
their voices, warning their fel-
low-citiaéns of tha dangerous
game their rulers are * playing.
But the stronger the movement
for peace, the madder. the loath-
some game becomes. '

The instigators of war are,;in
a hurry; they are seared by the
awakening of reason and con-
Seience.- Korea to them was 2
rehearsal. _ Failure jhas not
brought them to their senses.
Men who are not in a mental

* ‘hospital, but in the legislature of

of a big country, are demanding
openly and unblushingly, the
bombing of Chinese towns, the
employment of the atom bomb,
the precipitation of a third world
war.

They are prepared to drive into
the shambles not only their own
youth, but the flower 6: Europe.
They are buying human flesh in
the world markets in much the
same way as their grandfathers
bought wool or ore. »

The international organization
which has the offspring of the
courage of the Soviet people, of
the valor of the guerilla fighters
of Europe, of the intense effort

of the common people of Britain

.. and America—the organization to

which five years ago the peoples
of the world looked with ho
they have turned into a provincial
theatre ‘for unfastidious specta-
tors from Mississippi and Okla-
homa.

We have seen men who crossed

‘= the ocean with evil intent and

.

drenched a far-off foreign land

~ with the blood of children, crying:

“Help, we haye been attacked!”
One might think that it was a
party of American school boys

> that came ‘on an excursion to Kor-»

‘ea and were molested by their
wicked hosts. One might think
that the Chinese had seized San
Francisco and dropped bombs on
Texas.” One might think that the

_ River Yalu flows through Michi-,
gan and that defenseless Ameri-

ean girls who were reclining on

- its banks were assaulted by sa-
~-vage Chinese — be

This is not funny it is revolting.

The instigators of war are trying

‘to use a blue rag to hide their

**\ Knife, red” with the stains of
~ blood. In the preparations they

-

~” “are making for an unprecedented

bloodbath, they stop at nothing.
they mine German bridges and
. pressgang Columbign down-and-

~ outs, they test atom bombs in

Nevada and test the loyalty of

‘their European sheriffs in Brus-

“gels, they clothe themselves in

~-* $heep’s skins arid hasten to coerce

aud

~" prowbeaten Chileans and Dutch

to appénd their signatures to in-

_ dulgences to genocides.

‘ The president of the fascist
Deutsche Reichspartei in Bruns-
wick recently said: “To , testore
the honor of the SS is the prime
duty of the German people. No

one can condemn us any more, —

now that General MacArthur's

’ troops are annihilating villages

together with their women and
children.” Yes, the American in-
stigators of war have. resurrected
Hitler's deeds, Who, after this,
can be surprised that they want
to resurrect Hitler’s army?
e ;

It is not only the Germans that
are concerned about the destiny.

oe ts

:

rym vvmiu sei mmr 2 TT Pi)

EHRENBERG

Ae et Pir te ee Te ee ee

of the country in whose capital
we have gathered. On Germany
are fastened the eyes of the peo-
ples of the world. This might
be explained by geography: we
have before us a country situated
in the heart of Europe which has
been arbitrarily split into two.
Beyond its borders lie two worlds,
the possibility of whose peaceful
coexistence the instigators of war
deny; and one half of this coun-
try has already been turned into
a base of military operations.

This interest in the future of
Germany might also be explained
by history: Germany has too of-
ten interfered in the destinies of
other nations, her soldiers have
too often crossed into foreign
lands. People ask, “what will the
Germans do?” or “what will be
done to the Germans?” Wherever
they may be living, people know
that if Germany is drawn into a
military coalition, the threat of
war will grow. *

People also know that if Ger-
many remains outside the game,
the instigators of war will think
twice before they pass from the
threats to the first fatal shot.

I may be asked why I talk of
Germany as a single entity. Af-
ter all, there are two Germanies,
one distinct from the other. Yes,
I know very well that the people
who head the German Democratic
Republic do not resemble the peo-
ple who have proclaimed Bonn
the capital of another Germany.
I know that at the very time

the Berlin parliament passed a

Peace Defense Act, the ministers

of the government locateq in

“Bonn were negotiating for the in-

clusion of Western Germany in
a military coalition. z
And if I nevertheless speak of

the destiny of Germany, as though |

ignoring temporary boundaries,
it is because I cannot separate the
destiny of a state from the des-
tiny of its people. The inhabi-
tants of Frankfurt-on-Main and
Frankfurt-on-Oder have shared
the same periods of rise and de-
cline, have created the’ same

values, committed the same blun- %

ders, lived one common life.

‘This natton was not born yes-—

terday, nor did it only yesterday
become conscious of its unity. As

in every country where social

contradictions still exist, Germany
has its internal boundaries. It is
not along the Elbe or any other

river that they lie; they are to be

found in every city, they separate
the mansion of Herr Krupp from
the homes in Which his workers
live.

But are there not two Frances
oa the one that signs military

pacts, and the one that demands
peace? I therefore, take the lib-
erty of speaking not of the des-
tiny of Frankfurt-on-Main or
Frankfurt-on-Oder, but of the
destiny of Germany.

We have heard the controver-

_ sies of. diplomats, the wranglings

of international jurists, the argu-
ments of politicians. I am neither
a diplomat nor a jurist nor a
politician. I want to speak of the
German question as a man who
has lived through all that other
people of my age have lived
through. TI shall. speak bluntly,
casting aside delicacy, which is
sometimes more offensive than
the truth.

The problem of Germany's fu-
ture is, a complex ang painful
one; it is like a tangled skein of
hair clinging to a still suppurating

wound. Here we have the fate

of German adolescents who grew
up amid sirens and ruins, amid
torn-up maps of “Greater Ger-
many” and meagre food rations,
amid alien soldiers and home-bred_
marauders, amid talk of canned
food and atom bombs. Here, too,

PRPRPRPTC A CTT MC ITC IC LL

we have the fate of those Ger-
mans of all ages ang all walks
of life who drained to the dregs
the cup of shame proffered them

by the Third Reich, and who,-
recognizing the depth of their
fall, rose up and began honestly .

to work and to think and to
strive for brotherhood and) chari-
tableness.

In the tangled skein of which
I speak, we have the fate of other
peoples, those who knew the bit-

‘terness’ of. Nazi invasion — the

fate of the Poles, the French and

‘the Czechs, the fate of the mil-
lions of Men and women of the —

Soviet Union, the fate of the peo-
ple who have built or are build-
ing new homes on the ashes of
the old, the fate 9f widows, or
pnans and mothers parched by
tears, the fate of the people who
knew the horrors of the death
camps and Gestapo dungeons, and

‘of their comrades and near ones,
the fate of the soldfers, who have ©
“not forgotten and never will for. crime.
get what they have been through. _

In thie tangle of hair on te

unhealed wound, we have the fate

“army. But who are the

of the men of many nations who
during the war cast in their lot
with the heroic resistance to fas-
cism. The war between the Nazi
aggressors and the peoples of Eur-
ope was not a knightly tourna-
ment, nor a conflict between two
dynasties or two concerns. Diplo-
mats, jurists and politicians may
weigh the legality or expediency
of resurrecting Hitlers army; but
the peoples :have @ conscience,
and that conscience cries:
“Never!” :

The American commander-in-
chief, who recently came to Ger-
many looking for a consignment
‘of human flesh, hastened to mor-
ally rehabilitate Hitler’s army.. Tf
we recognize this moral rehabili-
tation as correct, then we must
condemn the heroism, the self-
sacrifice, the sacred indignation
of the guerilla fighters of Byelo-
russia, Poland, France. To them,
as to all honest men of Europe,
the war against the Nazi aggres-
sors was not only a patriotic duty;
it was a war in defence of hu-
manity’s ideals.

The men’ who are setting Kor-
ea's cities aflame with jellied pe-
troleum, the men who are slaying >
old folk andebabies in this un-
happy country, may, of course,
rehabilitate the men who burned
down thousands of Soviet villages,
who marched through Lidice and

_ Oradour, who worked the crema-.

tories of Oswiecim. But never
will the honest people of the world
call infanticides soldiers.

‘When General Eisenhower came .
to Germany he said, “Let us bury
the past.” These words sound
noble enough if you don’t stop
to think about them, But if you
do stop to think about them, they
sound criminal.

No one has ever accused the
Russians of bearing grudges.
Vindictivaness is not in our nar
ture. My people have extended,
the hand of fellowship t@ the
Germans who have turned to 3 —
peaceful and honest life. But ours
are not maiden memories—we 40
not forget. .

To forget what the fascists did
to Europe would be betraying 2 t
only the graves we cherish; it ~
would be betraying our children
Memory is a high faculty—it dis- _
tinguishes the life of man from |
the ‘life of a moth, To forget the
crimes perpetuated by Hitjer’s
army would be betraying not only
the French and the Poles;
would be betraying Europe and
the whole world. rig

‘{ do not think it would help
the German people to forget; on:
the contrary, it would be dange™
ous and tragic for them to do BOF
To rehabilitate Hitler's’ arm™Y
would mean for Germany retrac”
ing the terrible path from Jan-

/uary 1933 to May 1945. To forget

the past would be’ going. pack:
at first, to the military parade
and then to the military cemeter
ies; it would mean first seizing
the towns of others, and then seer
ing the ruins of their own towns.
‘Tt is not the Wehrmacht 8°
erals the:--German people ,
to rehabilitate, but their ow?
name; not the SS men, but :
man’s honest and peaceable work:
ing folk; not the storm-trooP ai
visions, but’ German towns, tf
schools, their libraries and mus
eums. sgt Se
The American new entt
would have the none-too-s0P
cated American reader ene
that the resurrected Germa
army will not resemble Bl
men ! it
are expected to build this "iq
army?, They are men ke
Hitler's soldiers from crime

good

i ae: sor
The Americans’ closest advise’
is General Hans Speidel. He i

(Continued on next pe.

| PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JUNE 15, 1951 — pace

»