CONDITIONS IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25363, 10 December 1947, Page 3

CONDITIONS IN GERMANY

Y.M.C.A. OFFICER’S IMPRESSIONS The opipion that Germans between 25 and 35 were “a lost generation” and could never find their way out of their mental and moral fog, was expressed by the liaison pfficer for the British Y.M.C.A. in Germany, Mr Seager Potter, in an interview yesterday. Germans within that age limit had been completely “nazified” and had no basic traditional standards to which an appeal could be made, said Mr Potter. The group between 18 and 25 was still malleable and responded well if the right approach was adopted. They had some hope for the future and enthusiasm for co-operation and construction. The under 18 group would cause no worry if educated along the right lines. Mr Potter said that the mass suffering in Germany to-day outweighed the total suffering of-the German concentration camps. Conditions were appallifig and the standard of national health had deteriorated considerably. Tuberculosis in children had increased by nearly 500 per cent, compared with 1939, and all kinds of skin lesions and eruptions, due to malnutrition, were conspicuous among children. Mr Potter added that most Germans had little hope of jobs or education. All they could do was to find sufficient food to keep them alive, clothes and housing.