GERMANY TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 21, 24 July 1940, Page 4

GERMANY TODAY

NAZI WAR CODE

CONTROL OF CIVILIANS

A HAND OF IRON

Hiding scrap metal, repeating information heard on foreign broadcasts, stealing a loaf of bread during a blackout —all are "crimes" in a class with high treason in Germany today, and are liable to capital punishment, states a report in the "Christian Science Monitor."

Petty offences which in most countries might draw small fines or light prison terms—if indeed they were considered "crimes" at all—are now bringing the maximum sentence. And hardly a German newspaper comes out on the streets of Germany today without accounts of convictions for such offences.

Violation of the regulations governing the collection of scrap metal constitutes one of the latest of Germany's major offences. Profiteering on the collection of scrap metal, or impeding the collection, "is hampering the German people's efforts to preserve their independence," and therefore calls for the maximum sentence.

Capital punishment may even be imposed for repeating to others reports carried by foreign radio stations, although no instance of such a sentence for this "offence" has been announced. It has, however, been imposed for cases of theft during black-outs. THE HOARDING OF CASH. One of the newest "crimes" is, as the Vienna newspaper "Neves Wiener Tagblatt" recently put it, "the unjustified hoarding of cash." Reporting on three trials which took place on a certain day at the Viennese District Court the newspaper wrote: "In the apartment of Mrs. Stephanie H., 3500 Reichsmarks in cash were found. She was unable to explain sufficiently why she kept that sum at home." She could not prove that she needed it for business, so she was fined 300 Reichsmarks, or 30 days' imprisonment. Heinrich S., a merchant, had 11,200 Reichsmarks in his apartment. He said ithat he always was used to keeping money at home for wages arid bills. (He said that 5000 of the 11,200 marks was to be spent for fur coats for his two daughters, while the rest was needed for wages. The Court took into consideration his excellent reputation as a tradesman and fined him only 1000 Reichsmarks, or 40 days' imprisonment.

PRISONERS OF WAR TABOO.

Another German newspaper, the "Hamburger Tagblatt," recently reported that the Gestapo had arrested a Naumberg farmer for not "complying with the ordinances of the Government as to how to treat prisoners of war." War prisoners are used to supplement farm labour in Germany. This particular farmer had allowed a war prisoner working on his farm to take regular meals with his family and his German workers in the diningroom. For this the German secret [police arrested the farmer.Another crime mentioned quite frequently in German newspapers also deals with war prisoners. During the World War all over Austria and Germany, as well as in, England and France, young girls used to collect money and buy food and other necessities which they distributed among captured Russian, French, or English soldiers. Sometimes that was the beginning of a romance. In today's Germany almost daily newspaper reports tell of women sentenced to two, three, and more years of imprisonment because "they have disgraced their nation when falling in love with a prisoner of war." Those are a few "new crimes. But there are many others like hoarding of foodstuffs, having more suits or stockings than allowed, or "storing" cloth for dresses or suits.