During 1942 it was most difficult to obtain any authentic or detailed picture of life and developments in Germany, a situation true not only of Germany herself, but of all the German-controlled countries of Europe. There was a complete blackout as to reliable news. German broadcasts were of course received and noted by the United Nations, but they were subservient to purposes of propaganda and did not provide any true or full picture of conditions in Germany as the fourth winter of war approached. Even from these reports, however, and from the strictly controlled German press, it was clear that the mood in Germany had completely changed. When Germany began the war, with her attack on Poland in September 1939 — an attack in complete contradiction to Germany's promises and to Poland's efforts to establish friendly relations with Germany — the German public was confident that the war would be over within a few weeks with a complete triumph of the German arms, and that Germany and the German people would reap great benefits with no great sacrifices. When, against all expectations, Great Britain and France continued the war, the German mood did not change, because the spring of 1940 brought even greater triumphs. In an astonishingly short time and with surprisingly little cost in men and material Norway, Denmark, the Low Countries and France were conquered, and an immense booty gained.
The German people then saw their claim to the absolute superiority of the German master race and the invincibility of the German army and air force confirmed. The people were convinced that Great Britain would fall within a short time, that control of the seas would pass to a Germany which could command the resources of the European continent and of Great Britain, and thus be able to impose her will easily upon the Western Hemisphere and Africa. All the friends and admirers of Germany everywhere then proclaimed jubilantly that Germany's might was irresistible and that the democracies should come to terms with her, because England had not the slightest chance of survival. The mighty German air force was raining bombs over England by day and night, while Germany herself seemed completely safe from attack. No wonder the German people thought their dream of world domination within reach.
Second and Third Winters.
Successful British resistance against the barbaric German effort to bomb England into submission was the first reassertion of democratic vigor, the first proclamation of a newly awakening faith in human liberty and dignity, and thus a great blow to Germany and to her cause. But on Christmas Day 1940 German leaders could still point triumphantly to England's isolation and could hope, with the help of their friends in other countries, to confuse public opinion in the free nations, to divide them and to keep them in isolation and inactivity. Thus the second war winter found the Germans still in good spirits and in expectation of a victory in the near future. This optimism was confirmed by brilliant German successes in the spring of 1941, when Yugoslavia, Greece, and Crete fell in quick succession before the German might. When Germany turned on June 22, 1941, against the Soviet Union, the German people and their friends in all countries were convinced that the Soviet army would collapse in a few weeks and that Germany, in control of the vast Soviet territory and resources, would become entirely impregnable. On Oct. 2, 1941, Hitler declared triumphantly that Moscow would soon be taken and the Russian army completely smashed. Things turned out differently. The Russian army remained in existence, Moscow and Leningrad were not conquered, and the German army had to live through a winter of unprecedented difficulty, demanding almost unbearable hardships. While the Germans had conquered France and the Balkans with so little effort that war seemed pleasant and excellent business, the war in Russia demanded great sacrifices in men and material without bringing that rich booty which the former conquests had brought. The third war winter was extremely gloomy. And the year 1942 brought no brighter prospects. It is true that the Japanese victories over the United States and Great Britain in the Far East brought some comfort and that in the summer the German army made considerable advances in the Soviet Union. Yet the German army was unable to reach any of its objectives for the year.
Russian Campaign Objectives.
From the early part of May to June 27, 1942, the German army conducted with great success some preliminary operations near Kharkov and in the Crimea which terminated in the capture of Sebastopol and the Kerch peninsula, thus clearing the ground for the planned large-scale offensive against the Volga and the Caucasus. This offensive began on June 28. Its objectives were clearly the following: First, to push on as quickly as possible across the Don to the Volga at Stalingrad, and to capture this most important communication center in time to be able to throw large armies into the siege and conquest of Leningrad in the north, and then in a gigantic pincer-movement to proceed northeast from Stalingrad and southeast from Leningrad and to envelop Moscow from the rear; second, to destroy definitely the Russian army by dominating Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, capturing the Russian armies west of the Volga and pushing the weak remnants east of the Volga or the Urals; third, to conquer the Caucasian Mountains and the Caucasian oil fields and to march on into the Middle East, there to be joined by Marshal Rommel's Africa corps which would by then have conquered Egypt and the Suez Canal; and then perhaps to achieve a junction with the Japanese somewhere in Asia. This grandiose plan would have secured to Germany and Japan victory and world domination.
German Hopes Unfulfilled.
None of these expectations was fulfilled. The Germans were unable even to capture Stalingrad, they were very far from capturing Leningrad or Baku, the Russian armies were able to start counter-offensives on the whole Russian front by November 1942, and the highly praised African army of Marshal Rommel was decisively beaten and routed by the British. And in addition to that, the British had acquired air supremacy over Germany, and their heavy bombers were destroying some of the most important industrial centers in western and southern Germany, while the highly vaunted German air force was entirely unable to retaliate. Under these circumstances it is easily understandable that the outlook in Germany at the end of 1942 was more gloomy than at the end of 1941. All prospects of an easy or quick victory were gone; even the certitude of victory had disappeared. But the Germans hope now for a long war of attrition and they expect the democracies, especially the United States, to become tired of the sacrifices involved in a long war, and thus grow willing, after a few years, to conclude a peace which would leave Germany in control of her conquests and thereby in a position strong enough to resume war at a later and more auspicious moment.
Reorganization of Army.
A growing unrest in Germany in the fall of 1942, though in no way dangerous to the Nazi regime — for there was no organized opposition, no alternative government, and the Nazi regime was still backed by the fanatical will of German youth for world domination — was nevertheless noticeable enough to impel Hitler to put the German army under the strict supervision and command of his most devoted party henchmen. On Dec. 10, 1942, the official German news agency announced that General Kurt Zeitzler had been made chief of the German army general staff, replacing General Franz Haider. General Zeitzler is a man only forty-seven years old, and until 1942 merely a colonel. But he is a personal friend of Heinrich Himmler, the dreaded chief of the Nazi secret police, or Gestapo, and a devoted party-man noted for his ruthlessness. His appointment was the last step in a process which started a year ago with the dismissal of Fieldmarshal Walther von Brauchitsch as commander-in-chief of the German army. Like many other German commanders the latter and Haider were dismissed because they apparently could not carry out Hitler's plans for the conquest of Russia. The new chief of staff also offers Hitler a guarantee that control of the German army will not be in the hands of the old army generals who still cling to the traditions of imperial Germany, but under his own and the party's control. Thus the Nazis have taken over the German army at the very moment when a German victory becomes doubtful. The German army once expected to use the Nazi party for the realization of its hopes for revenge and world conquest; now the Nazi party has taken over the army. On Dec. 11, Adolf Hitler took a further step to strengthen the domination of the Nazi party over Germany. The Gauleiters, or Nazi party district leaders, were made district defense commissioners responsible only to Hitler and to Heinrich Himmler. At the same time other younger officers were put into command. Admiral Fricke became chief of the navy general staff and General Hans Jeschonnck chief of the air-force general staff. The youngest German general and a leading air ace, Adolf Galland, only thirty years old, was made inspector general of the German fighter plane forces. Thus all important executive posts are being taken over by trusted men of the party inner ring, to make Germany 'defeat proof' and to avert any collapse in Germany comparable to that of 1918. Not only in the army, but also in all important positions of administration and of economic life, men have recently been put into key positions who received their training in the famous black-shirted Nazi Elite Guard, the Schutz Staffel or SS, the famous body of most devoted, most ferocious and brutalized adherents of the Nazi gospel.
Hitler Demands New Powers.
This complete Nazification of every aspect of German life was announced in Hitler's speech to the German Reichstag on April 26. In his speech he regarded the present war as 'one of those elemental conflicts which usher in a new millennium and which shake the world once in a thousand years.' In that speech he tried to woo England by telling her that she could be safe only in an alliance with Germany, while, if she continues in war, she will be weakened to the benefit of America. He warned the British not to wage air war against Germany, because otherwise Hitler would see himself compelled 'to give a reply which will bring great sorrow to Churchill's people. I shall from now on retaliate, blow for blow, until this criminal falls and his work is smashed to pieces.' Hitler's prophesy was again not fulfilled. One month later the British began to bomb Germany repeatedly, without the Germans being able to retaliate. The whole speech was full of similar empty threats, but its true importance was not in the vainglorious bombast, but in the fact that Hitler revealed unrest in Germany by his demand for unprecedented powers. The Reichstag adopted a statement presented by Marshal Hermann Goering: 'There must be no hesitation among you that the Fuehrer at the present time of the war in which the German people are engaged, this struggle of to be or not to be, must possess the right, which he has claimed, to do everything that serves to achieve victory or contribute to it. The Fuehrer must, therefore, without recourse to the Legislature, in his capacity as Fuehrer of the nation, commander-in-chief of the army, chief of the government, supreme holder of the executive power, supreme judge and leader of the party, at all times be in possession of the power, if necessary, to compel every German — whether officer or soldier, high or low, official, judge, party official, workman or employer — with all the means he thinks suitable, to fulfil his duty, and in the event of his neglecting his duty, duly to punish him after a thorough examination, without regard to so-called duly acquired rights.' This new law openly proclaims the legalization of complete illegality. Hitler had asked for it in his speech in which he said: 'I expect that the nation will give me the right to intervene and to take necessary action wherever the existence of our nation demands it. The front, the homeland, the transport system, the administration and the judiciary must be governed by one single idea, to achieve victory. No one can hope to insist upon his well-acquired rights ... Judges who do not recognize the demands of the hour will be removed from office.' To carry out this concept of justice entirely subservient to his own arbitrary judgments, against any possible passive opposition by some judges Hitler appointed on Aug. 24 Dr. Otto Georg Thierack as Reichsminister of Justice and authorized him to build up a Nazi administration of justice, to take all measures required, to deviate when necessary from existing law, and to act according to instructions and general directions given by Hitler himself and by the Reichminister of the Interior. The new minister is an old-time Nazi, a member of the blackshirted Elite Guard and was formerly president of the dreaded 'People's Court.' He was also president of the Academy of German Law, and head of the National Socialist Union of Lawyers. Dr. Roland Freisler, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, became president of the People's Court in Thierack's place. Another direct outcome of Hitler's Reichstag speech of April 26 was the decree by which he empowered his Gauleiters or Nazi party district leaders, to mobilize every man, woman and child in Germany and the occupied territories for war material and food production.
Ruthless Warfare.
Chancellor Hitler revealed in his speech on April 26, though only in veiled hints, some of the difficulties and trials the German army had had to endure during the preceding winter. He mentioned that the winter had been more severe than any in the last 140 years. 'What that means nobody can imagine who has not been through it himself. The sudden onset of such a cold spell disabled not only the men, but above all the machines. You will therefore understand that in some cases I have acted hard and ruthlessly, in order to conquer by grim determination a fate to which otherwise we might have had to succumb. I have had to intervene personally, however, in only a few instances. Only in those cases where nerves snapped, discipline broke down, or a sense of duty was lacking, did I have to make hard decisions.' That there have been instances of faint heart among the German soldiers on the Russian front was revealed also in an article in the Germany army weekly, the Militaer Wochenblatt, early in September 1942. The writer pointed out that a war waged at 40 degrees below zero, or at 110 above, in knee-deep mud or thick clouds of dust, calls for robust men. Russian mass attacks offer scenes against which the German soldier must harden his heart. Only people who in the moment of fatal danger do not lose their nerve are fit to fight the Russians. 'Cowardice will not be tolerated, and the German officer is sufficiently stern to punish any display of faint heart by death.'
Internal Discipline.
These difficulties on the Russian front increased the possibilities of unrest in the German Reich. To counter it the Nazis launched on June 20 a campaign against 'anti-social elements' at home so broad that they may dispose of anyone whose looks or attitude they do not happen to like, or as the official version put it: 'individuals incapable of living in a community, all those who owing to their mental attitude are incapable of satisfying the minimum requirements of the national community (and that means the Nazi party which is the sole judge and executor) regarding their personal, social and national bearing.' To that group belongs the person who is 'particularly uneconomical and uncontrolled, lacks a sense of responsibility, or is unable to run an orderly household or raise children to become useful citizens.' Such persons are to be rounded up and dealt with according to administrative authority.
The German newspapers have been printing for many months growing lists of persons sentenced for violating food laws or rationing regulations, or for listening to foreign radio broadcasts. Severe sentences were imposed and considerable publicity given to them, but apparently without the hoped-for effect. Thus on April 24 the manager of a big armament factory in Brunswick, in Northern Germany, was sentenced to death because he had supplied himself with butter and eggs from his plant's canteen without giving up the required ration coupons. A factory owner in Bamberg, Bavaria, was sentenced to death for having hides tanned in his factory and selling them illegally. Many butchers have been executed, or sentenced to many years of hard labor, for 'manipulating' the sale of meat.
Wartime Restrictions.
During 1942 German propaganda for home consumption no longer played on the theme of certain victory. On the contrary Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels stressed the possibility of German defeat and demanded the utmost efforts to avert such an outcome. Both Goebbels, in his weekly articles in Das Reich, and the editorials of the most influential weekly paper of the Elite Guard, Das Schwarze Korps, admonished the Germans again and again to do their full patriotic duty and to fight against all defeatism. Thus the Schwarze Korps demanded at the beginning of April that the Germans must forego being dressed as in times of peace, not because the textile stock is insufficient to maintain such wardrobes, but because it should be a point of honor with every German to flaunt old and dilapidated wearing apparel. The German people would complain less, the weekly added, if increased numbers of swindlers, dishonest tradesmen and profiteers were hanged. In the same week a drive against the incivility of German waiters was started, and both owners and waiters were threatened with cancellation of licenses and dismissals. In the middle of January Goebbels addressed the German people, telling them that 'more important than the question of when the war is to end, is that of how it will end.' Three or even two years ago such a sentence would have been impossible in the mouth of a responsible German Leader. At that time there was no doubt about how the war would end, and it was generally assumed that it would end very soon. Now however all Nazi speakers try to build up the German morale by demanding an ever-growing spirit of ever-growing sacrifice. In Das Reich, at the beginning of February 1942, Goebbels pointed out that the German people are far more admirable today than, they were for instance, during the battle of France in 1940. 'For when every three hours the radio gave out another special triumphant communique it was not difficult to have a firm belief in ultimate victory. But to have the same belief when the conquered territory must be defended foot by foot, and when the government and the high command each day encounter new difficulties — that needs tenacity and it is this tenacity which we are showing today.' Since then the German people have had much opportunity to show more of this tenacity, especially in the face of great British air raids on German cities which started with the bombardment of Cologne on May 30, 1942, and which have wiped out blocks of factories in many German cities. Goebbels also said he could understand that the Germans were overworked and therefore at times excitable, and might complain about the cold, or the lack of potatoes, or congestion on the trains, or about the war in Russia or the war in Africa. At the end of 1942 there were certainly many more reasons for complaints.
Goebbels also admonished the European peoples to understand the necessity for fighting Bolshevism and to be grateful to the Germans for saving European civilization. Violent attacks were directed against Sweden and Switzerland, because these countries refused to understand the German point of view and remained neutral and faithful to democracy. Goebbels accused the Swedes of 'lacking even the most primitive feeling for their national future and security, otherwise they would fight for a German victory — if not directly, at least by praying for it. Instead they indulge themselves in the luxury of brazen conduct against Germany.'
Labor Problems.
One of the most important problems facing Germany is the labor problem. It is the fear of the growing American industrial output which forces the Germans to study ways and means of increasing their own output. With the necessity of releasing as many men as possible for active military duty and with the growing drain on manpower imposed by the Russian campaigns, the problem of agricultural and industrial labor has become paramount. The needed labor supply is sought for among the war prisoners and among 'voluntary' foreign workers. Yet there are difficulties involved in this scheme. Few of the foreign workers know German, nor are they familiar with German methods. Living conditions are not always satisfactory, so that often only a reduced output can be expected. In addition machinery has deteriorated through years of strain and rail transport has been overtaxed for many years. Hitler's pet scheme of building expensive motor roads has proved a boomerang: the construction of railway material and rolling stock was neglected, and yet today railroads prove much more essential than motor roads which can scarcely be used on account of the lack of oil. Thus transportation and shortage in manpower have become the two chief bottlenecks in German war production. In March the Nazi Gauleiter of Thuringia, Fritz Sauckel, was appointed Germany's labor Tsar. He has the right to conscript labor in Germany, and in the occupied territories, where and when he thinks it necessary. The working day amounts to a minimum of ten hours for men and nine hours for women, yet this is only the strict minimum and everywhere overtime is being enforced. The result is that the workers, especially the foreign workers, are greatly overworked and undernourished. The need for additional manpower is equally great in agriculture. German crops have been poor for the last two years, many additional thousands of men have had to be fed, and so food rations have had to be sharply reduced several times.
Under these conditions the Germans are searching Europe for men, both for fighting on the Russian soil and for working in German war industries. In an article in Der Voelkische Beobachter, the leading Nazi daily, of Sept. 6 Dr. Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Commissioner for Instruction and Education, warned the population of occupied countries that if they do not work for Germany's victory they will be 'eliminated,' because only Germany and her allies have any rights in Europe. The foreign workers in Germany are differently treated according to their countries of origin. While workers from western Europe or Italy are treated with some relative consideration for their health and life, workers from eastern Europe are being treated not much better than the Jews. Workers from Poland have to wear a large P on a yellow patch on their garments, they do not partake in any of the advantages or social benefits granted to German workers, and must pay the German government a special deduction of 15 per cent from their wages. Even greater is the deduction for workers from White Russia and the Ukraine, who must carry on their garments a patch with O (for Ostland or Eastern land). It is strictly forbidden to Germans to have any social contact whatsoever with these foreign workers, or to show any charity towards them. Heavy punishments are being inflicted in case of contravention.
The employment of foreign labor and of war prisoners in Germany has however more far-reaching and sinister implications than their cruel treatment and abuse. In an article in Der Voelkische Beobachter of June 14, 1942, it was pointed out that the German people as a master race (Herrenvolk) have a duty to increase their numbers as quickly as possible. He emphasized that the Germans after the war will have greater economic possibilities than any nation ever had. They will become a race of masters, and for that goal they must become more numerous. This goal will be facilitated by the fact that while the Germans are doing their best by propaganda among their own people for a higher birth rate, the non-German European peoples are faced with a great decline of theirs. Though food in Germany is not very plentiful, there is still much more than in the occupied countries — and Germany's 'allies' like Italy or Rumania must be included among the occupied countries. The non-German Europeans will be seriously undernourished as a result of this lack of food, and their health and strength irreparably undermined. Moreover, millions of them are living in Germany as war prisoners and as workers, and are thus separated from their wives in the very years in which they could produce children. In this population policy the Nazis see the means of maintaining the dominating position of Germany on the European continent even in case of a defeat by sheer weight of their numbers and their physical strength. For that purpose they wish to exterminate especially the educated classes and the potential leaders in the occupied countries, be it by execution, or by the somewhat slower process of starvation, privation, and maltreatment.
Hardships Admitted.
Although the German food situation has been improved by continued imports from the occupied countries, the great hope of finding a granary in Russia has not been realized. The Russian scorched-earth policy, their own shortage of equipment, the removal of machinery and of all skilled workers have had a devastating effect on German efforts to turn the Ukraine into a granary for Germany. On May 20 Reichmarshal Hermann Goering acknowledged the fact that occupied Russia was a desert. He declared that 'this war is the hardest Germany has had to fight. The winter campaign has been terrible. The Fuehrer suffered deeply for his troops, but he knew he must not yield. There was no question of giving up our front positions, because behind us there lay only a heap of ruins. Therefore, we had to hold the front — and only those who have experienced this, know what it costs.' He appealed to all Germans to repeat to themselves constantly: 'This war has to be stuck out, no matter how long it lasts.' When Winston Churchill took over the conduct of the war, he promised the British only blood, sweat, toil and tears. The Nazis promised the German people at the beginning of the war quick victory and great prosperity. In 1942 they changed the tune of their propaganda. While Churchill could point to improvement, the Nazis can show only a deterioration in the situation and in the mood of the people.
This sums up the situation in Germany in 1942, as far as it can be deduced from authentic German sources themselves and from the unanimous testimony of foreign observers. The latest information brought out from Germany by American observers, was published at the end of 1942 in two books, one called What About Germany? by Louis P. Lochner, former chief of the Associated Press in Berlin, the other called This is the Enemy, a book written by Frederick Oechsner with four other members of the Berlin Office of the United Press.
Finance.
By the end of 1941 the German public debt had increased to 128,500 million marks from 37,200 million marks at the start of the war. National income was estimated at 110,000 million marks in 1941 as against 80,000 million marks in 1938 (the mark has a nominal value of 40 cents). The German Finance Minister claimed that up to 50 per cent of the war expenditure was being covered by taxes. The government's income from taxes amounted to more than 32,000 million marks in 1941. The government was financing the war by applying self-increasing taxes and by re-absorbing buying power. Yet Swiss financial experts doubted whether Germany could avoid postwar inflation. Germany's hope rests on winning the war and on making the German Reichsmark the basic currency in postwar Europe.
The floating debt of the German Reich was announced on April 30, 1942, as 69,570 million marks. The yearly expenditure of Germany was estimated at from 90,000 to 95,000 million marks. There can be no doubt that in spite of enforced contributions from the conquered countries, Germany is eating deep into the substance of her economic resources.
Germany of course has great plans for the economic utilization of Europe in resources in case of German victory. German geographers are working out plans for a gigantic system of transport routes, motor roads and water ways, and for the creation of gigantic power stations, covering Europe and Africa. But this picture of a possible large-scale prosperity in case of victory in the future hardly brightens the immediate economic prospects. In the fall of 1941 Dr. Goebbels, in opening the world-famous fair in Leipzig, declared that 'the mere holding of the Fair in wartime proves the invincible strength of German arms.' But in February 1942 all fairs throughout Germany were cancelled, including the two fairs at Leipzig and the industrial expositions in Koenigsberg and Vienna. Dr. Goebbels explained this as due to the necessity of concentrating everything on bringing about a speedy end to the war in Russia. Yet no speedy end of the war in Russia is yet in sight. Acute shortage of manpower, of raw materials and of transportation facilities furnish the real reasons for this evidence of lowered German economic prestige. German machine tools have been working without respite and without replacement for more than two years, and the stocks of raw material have dwindled, so that German industrialists are able to produce little for internal consumption or for export.
Food Shortages.
Nor is the food situation more encouraging. Early in 1942 shortages developed in potatoes, which are the staple food in Germany in view of the scarcity of other foodstuffs. People were asked to use potatoes sparingly, and above all not to peel them. Tobacco rationing was introduced, three cigarettes or one thin cigar daily being allowed. Germany's shortage of fats caused anxiety, and farmers were induced to sow soya beans. Institutes for research into textile fibers have tried to discover new types of 'hollow viscose synthetic wool' for which it was claimed that it retains warmth and is cheaper than natural wool, yet the German troops clothed in the best of these ersatz woolens did not feel very warm in them during the Russian campaign. On April 6 new food rations were introduced, cutting the bread allowance of the normal consumer from 5 pounds a week to 4 pounds 6 ounces, fats from 9½ to 7¼ ounces, and meat from 14 to 10½ ounces. Heavy workers and children received different rations. On the whole, however, the situation in Germany in 1942 is somewhat better, as regards food, than it was in 1917, and much better than in any of the occupied countries.
Savings.
To discourage purchases of consumer goods Germany has created the so-called 'iron savings accounts,' withdrawals from which are barred until one year after the end of the war. The workers are encouraged to set aside from three to six marks from their wages every week. The plan offers large tax benefits as an inducement. Much more far-reaching was a law passed in the middle of June ordering all holders of stocks and bonds purchased for speculation or investment to turn their holdings over to the Reichsbank, and to accept in compensation German treasury bonds of the current issue.
Anti-Religious Propaganda.
The National Socialist war against religion went on unchanged during 1942. In a pamphlet addressed to the Hitler youth, the Vice Gauleiter of Wuerttemberg, M. F. Schmidt, wrote: 'We have no right to the realization of our pretensions to control Europe, until we have shown the courage to surmount, by revolutionary means if need be, the theory of the community of peoples in Christianity, which has outlived itself in the past 2,000 years. We must install in its place a new ideal based on the fundamentals of National Socialism, a new confession, universally accepted, which will exalt the principles of racial supremacy, and be founded on the power of strength.' Christianity is to be rejected because it teaches the oneness of mankind, the equality of all races, charity and humility. Its humanitarianism is regarded as opposed to the 'natural laws of the world.' To be of German blood appears as a divine and inviolable manifestation of God's creation. 'Whoever lives for his nation with complete consecration, lives in God, but he who denies the law of blood is the emptiest thing on the face of this earth.' Europe must become a bastion of National Socialism, the perfect ideology, because only then can it direct the world community of peoples. In a nation-wide ceremony on March 22, a kind of 'first office' of the new Nazi religion, 1,100,000 German youths who had just reached the age of 14 participated in the Nazi party 'communion' in a setting of organ music and sermons based on Hitler's Mein Kampf. In Berlin the Reich youth leader, Arthur Axmann, officiated and his speech was broadcast throughout Germany. These and similar ceremonies for the German youth were to 'crowd out' the traditional religious services 'by the new life of new times.'
Christian Opposition.
While nothing was reported about public protests by the Protestant churches in Germany against the Nazi regime, the seven bishops of the Norwegian church under the leadership of Eivind Berggrav, the Bishop of Oslo, resigned their positions on Feb. 24, rather than submit to the spread of the Nazi doctrine in the Norwegian churches.
Religious opposition to the Nazis was clearly expressed by the Catholic Church. This is not astonishing because the most influential Nazi periodicals, like Das Schwarze Korps, have gone to extreme lengths in outrageous attacks against the Catholic Church and individual Catholic prelates. Cardinal Michael Faulhaber of Munich was reported to have sent early in May an indictment of the church situation in Germany to the Vatican in which he charged that a 'veritable war against Christianity' is being waged in Germany. The official paper of the Vatican, L'Osservatore Romano, published on Jan. 22, 1942, passages from a German Nazi publication 'God and the People — a Profession of the Soldier's Faith' of which more than 180,000 copies were sold in Germany. In that pamphlet it was said that while other people are 'perishing and aging,' the Nazis are marching toward a new beginning which can 'come only from the Germans themselves, and not from Rome or Israel.' The battle for the soul of the German man will be fought, so it was said in the pamphlet, between Christ and Germany. Bishop von Preysing of Berlin protested against 'the enemies of the church taking advantage of the war to deal it blow after blow.'
Expropriation of ecclesiastical property was ordered under decrees of 1933 relating to possessions of 'Communist elements hostile to the state.' On March 22 the German bishops of the Roman Catholic Church issued a pastoral letter protesting against the oppression of Christianity and of the church. This pastoral letter, which enumerated the different anti-church activities of the German government, began with the words: 'For years a war has raged in our fatherland against Christianity and church, and it has never been conducted with such bitterness as now.' Among the complaints we read that 'through numerous ordinances open practices of the Catholic religion has been restricted to such a degree that it has disappeared almost entirely from public life. Quite a number of places of worship have been closed by force and even used for profane purposes. Juveniles in state youth organizations are being influenced in an anti-Christian manner and kept away from religious services. Catholic priests are watched constantly and suspiciously in their teaching and pastoral duties. The religious press has been destroyed almost entirely. The reprinting of religious books, even catechisms, school Bibles and diocesan prayerbooks is not permitted, while anti-Christian writings may be printed and distributed in mass circulation. For months, regardless of war and misery, an anti-Christian wave of propaganda, fostered by party meetings and party pamphlets has been carried on throughout the country with the outspoken aim of suffocating the vigor of the Catholic church in German lands.' The Catholic Bishops meeting in May 1942, at Fulda, the ancient see of St. Boniface, apostle to the Germans, condemned Nazi methods of encouraging free love for the purpose of raising the birth rate.
Persecution of Jews.
The 'Jewish question' in Germany and German-occupied lands was well on the way to being completely solved by extermination of the Jewish population. At the beginning of July a new decree made it an offense for Jews to stroll along the streets at a leisurely pace. They must walk briskly, as on a definite errand, they must not carry canes, they must not walk more than two abreast, nor hold and confront a fellow Jew whom they meet, nor linger in front of shop windows. The rights of Jews have been reduced to zero. As fast as transport facilities allow, they are being transported to eastern Europe. They can not use public conveyances, such as street cars or busses, for any distance of less than four and one half miles. They are not allowed to have any canary birds or other pets, nor radios, typewriters, cameras, etc. On June 12 Dr. Goebbels wrote that Germany will carry out a mass extermination of Jews throughout Europe, perhaps even beyond Europe, in reprisal for the air bombings of German cities by the United Nations. Reliable reports from the German-occupied countries in eastern Europe which reached Washington and London towards the end of 1942 testified that these plans of mass extermination were being carried out.
