POST D-DAY BERLIN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 218, 14 September 1944, Page 3

POST D-DAY BERLIN

MIXING GERMAN STEW

GOEBBELS AND LEY CHEFS

LONDON. I want to take you with me to Berlin after D day and to give you an impression of what the average German hears and reads (by the grace of Goebbels) and how he sees the war and the world in the mirror of one of his most popular newspapers, says Willi Frischauer in the Daily Herald. Three headlines, each a full inch high, are splashed across the front page of Der Angriff, the Berlin daily paper which is jointly controlled by Dr. Goebbels and the Nazi Labour Organiser, Dr. Robert Ley. "Successful Defence in Normandy," screams the first. "Constant Attack By Our Explosive Missiles' is the second. "Counting On Strongest Destruction In London" says the third. There is, however, on the front page of the Angriff not another word about the bomb that is to produce this destruction. Instead, a communique from Hitler's headquarters announces that "83 enemy aircraft have been shot down"—in such big type that it overshadows the subheading: "Enemy Leading on Elba.' "In Normandy," the communique adds, "we conducted again successful defensive and offensive battles. A summary of the "Second Front' fighting is produced from cunningly manipulated extracts from the London Press. A morning paper is quoted as saying that "Britain is in deep thought." America's War Minister is reported as having said: "The West Wall is no myth and no house of cards." The conclusion at which the writer arrives is that "The Atlantic Wall, just as German troops and German arms, are a terrible reality for the enemy."

"Uncanny Silence" Dr. Robert Ley. most foul-tongued of all Nazi politicians, contributes the leading article, which covers half the Angriff front page and the better part of the .second page. "The Last Trump" is the heading under which he produces a long historic tirade in typical Hitler fashion, explaining that "invasion spells disaster for Britain," that it was 1 instigated by the Jews, who are paying Churchill and Roosevelt. This was the last trump of the Allies, but . . . "we are convinced that the Fuehrer, in turn, will produce his last trumps in good time and that these trumps will beat all others." Robot news covers a great deal of the second page. Goebbels seems delighted that in Britain "nobody could see actually what happens" when the flying bombs come. The reports, with a Stockholm dateline, give little news, speak of "uncanny silence" after the explosions; of British censorship drawing a dense veil over events; of puzzling, wondering, doubting people. "A Dangerous Ground," "The Longest Alert of the War," and "At the Expense of Britain" are other sub-titles under this general heading. Finland takes up a good deal of the foreign news in the Nazi papers. "Measures against Jews in Hungary" are described. The whole of page three is devoted to a highly imaginative artist's impression of the battle scene in Normandy, with a caption reading: "Worse than Hell." Features are devoted to Caen, "a battlefront ready to take any shock"; to an exposition of Allied bombing technique, which has, of course, been instantly analysed and combated; and to the "smashing and highly successful massive counter-blows against invasion from the air."

Real Summer in Berlin! Pictures' from the French front are meant to convey the impression of utter confusion among the liberating armies of the Allies. One, in particular, shows "German defence units streaming towards the front to defeat those British parachutists who have managed to land." Two other battle scenes are depicted in • nondescript front line photos; much space is given to a scheme to teach the German language to Russian workers and to advertisements for the "News Reel," showing the first invasion pictures. A page of poems is then followed by a 2000-word story on the "Miracles of German Armament Production." "There Is Real Summer In Berlin" is the story that concludes the paper. It describes the indefatigable humour of the people of Berlin: "Heaps of ruins and rubble," it says. "The eye has been accustomed to it; and the heart will not be deflected!" Summing up our Berlin daily after D day, it provides a naive collection of plain lies, half-truths, escapism and downright evasions. It reflects a certain amount of confusion at Goebbels' headquarters in Berlin and the doubts produced by a propaganda which tries to make people cry with one eye and to laugh with the other!