ALL OF A KIND.

Evening Star, Issue 25170, 9 May 1944, Page 4

ALL OF A KIND.

In the earlier days of the war there was a strong disposition outside'Germany to separate the German people into two classes—those who li'eld to Nazi tenets and those who did not. Since then opinion lias hardened, a more settled conviction growing that the German people, cannot be so divided. Over a short space of two or three days two prominent • Allied figures; have sounded a similar theme: that the majority of the Germans are kin. M. Jan Masaryk, in stating this, declared that he did not believe one paperhanger could drive sixty million people into war, while at the J.L.O. Conference, in Philadelphia, Sir Walter Citrine proclaimed: "You can make excuses until you are black in the face, but the majority of Germans put Hitler into power." The substance of all this is that there are few white sheep in tho Gorman flock, and most of those few no doubt are in concentration camps. This, of course, can be advanced as some slight extenuation of the behaviour of the German people in recent years; all peoples—and the accusation applies equally to the democratic nations—tend to follow blindly any person who sets himself up with some special gifts and with sufficient assurance as a leader or a prophet. Usually, and more so in tfce freer-thinking democracies, individualism and common sense triumph before dictatorship becomes an accomplished fact, and a threatened dancer is averted. But the Germans, because of their wellknown national characteristics, made no noticeable attempt to check the growth of Hitlerism before it brought tragedy to the nation. Hitlerism flourished because it was nurtured' by the German people as a whole, and'that, whatever harsh and underhand tactics Hitler and his gang may have used to gain their ends, is an inescapable fact. Right up to tho outbreak, and even afterwards, the Germans had tlieii chances *to reject Nazism, but by then passive acceptance of a vile creed they indicated their satisfaction and approval On April 20, of this year, as a birthday present to the Fuhrer. thousand!) of'German boys, having readied tho malleable age of ten, were enrolled in the Hitler Youth Movement, to learn to become cutthroats and blackguards, to place the sword and the pistol before tho pen and the pencil, .and deceit and treachery before loyalty and love.

When the final accounting with Germany comes the expurgation of diabolic teachings from impressionable minds is going hi be the most difficult of all the problems confronting the victors. Very great care will be needed to seo that there is not developed a more bitter and deeper hatred of the democracies than the .German people have ever before displayed. The Allies will also need to be careful that when Germany is again accepted into the family of nations she has indeed proved her right to that honour; there must be nothing meretricious about her reformation. Germany can be restored to that place comparatively easily, if Sir Walter Citrine is to be"taken literally —by the acceptance of a single Christian belief that repentance comes before forgiveness. Unfortunately, the German interpretation of Christianity has been National Socialism, and in National Socialism forgiveness and repentance are decreed intolerable indications of human weakness. Among other things to be taught Gormany in the years ahead it may be necessary, particularly on the ipart of the younger generation, to include that essential Christianity which, in the ultimate, is the only hope of mankind if anything in the wav of a lasting peace is to be its lot.