HITLER’S VISION

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 November 1943, Page 5

HITLER’S VISION

NOT BASED ON REASON “UNIQUE PERSONALITY” LONDON, November 16. “The Fuehrer, in a. speech last week expressed his certain belie! that sooner or later our people’s way will certainly lead them upwards again, to victory. It would be presumptuous to try to discover the reasons which led this unique personality to this conclusion since his ideas come from sources beyond the scrutiny of cold reason.” This statement was made in a broadcast by General Dietmar, German High Command spokesman. “Such an attempt would be doomed to failure,” he said, “because the vision which is an integral part oi all outstanding greatness cannot be made the subject of reasoning and calculations. On the other hand, it must not be overlooked that the Fuehrer s confidence is based on a clear appreciation of the military situation by the responsible Supreme Commander ” “In spite of definite obstacles, our faith is unshaken,” said Goebbels in his two hours’ talk to the Nazi Party. “Confidence is our slogan for the moment —confidence which is no blind optimism. We know the setbacks of the last months. The Russians are still able to mass superior numbers at all strategical points, but it becomes increasingly difficult for the Red Army to widen bridgeheads. This proves an improvement of our defence system. It is possible that the British and Americans will want to shorten the -Italian campaign by landings in other sectors of the Mediterranean front. It is well known that this possibility is the reason for the preoccupation of part of the German public. The Balkans and Aegean regions must be left for later discussion the fighting fronts in the east and in Italy are the most important at present.” EVIDENCE OF DESPONDENCY. A correspondent of “The Times” on the German frontier says that a new German decree permits the death penalty for children aged 12 years. The law of 1939 stipulated that the age should be 16, but the decree says that children are now maturing earlier, therefore those aged 12 to 16 are subject to the same punishment as adults in exceptional cases or when found incorrigible. There will be no Christmas or New Year holiday in Germany, says the decree but, if workers want to spend either holiday with tfcieir families they must make up the time lost by working overtime on Sundays without pay. 2 . , , ... Another decree stipulates that air raids must not' interrupt factory work. Foreign workers who have been allowed to visit their homes when raids closed down their works will no longer be allowed to do this.

German newspapers give prominence to these decrees under such headlines as “Not a Single Hour Must be Lost.” T . , , , , , Mr. Harold Nicholson, broadcasting after a recent visit to Sweden, said: “Swedes who recently returned from Germany gave me the impression that the Germans have lost all sense of destiny and acquired a sense of doom. A wave of disillusionment, distrust, and fear is passing over the land.” The London “Daily Mail” says: “There can no longer be any doubt that alarm and despondency are written large over the German Reich. German morale is slipping. One day is will break, as the German Army will break. Moreover, extreme nervousness Is reported from Hungary, Rumania, and Bulgaria. All ot these would gladly get out of the war if they could: but they cannot. If the Russians win the great battle .of Krivoi Rog it seems that nothing could halt their onrush to the former Rumanian province of Bessarabia. A recent Allied raid on Sofia is another portent which has shaken all the Balkan countries. . “If the great sidings, stations, and yards in Bucharest. Budapest and Vienna are wrecked by continuous bombings, the entire German organisation In the Balkans would be paralysed. It is small wonder that ‘extreme nervousness’ is being felt.” Never has the German public shown such intense interest in the Eastern Front: or devoured the newspapers more hungrily in the hope of finding something to dispel their growing fears, report neutral observers in Berlin, according to The Times. 55 The' correspondent of the Stockholm paper “Dagens Nyheter” reports: “Three Germans, a man, his wife and sister-in-law, were executed in a north German town, Nordstaemmel, for refusing to shelter a bombed-out family from Hanover.' The “Daily Express’s” Istanbul correspondent states: An anti-Nazi Austrian refugee said that two things will keen German morale from snapping. Firstly, the belief that differences will arise between the AngloSaxons and the Russians, permitting Hitler to make a auick peace deal with the Soviet. Secondly, belief in the terrible efficiency of a German secret reprisal weapon. “If by Christmas this weapon has not materialised, I predict a rapid crumbling of the internal morale of the Germans.” , “Volkischer Beobacter” says: ‘ Germany for the first time since.. 1913 has war on her own territory. To-day, we have many devastated towns with millions bombed out. The Germans nevertheless have not lost faith that Hitler will solve our difficult problem.”