NAZI DESERTERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 21 April 1945, Page 7

NAZI DESERTERS

RE-EDUCATION COURSE EXPERIMENT IN SWEDEN LECTURES AND DISCUSSIONS A Swedish experiment to rc-cdu-cate selected Germans of the Nazi and war generation in the hope of “denazifying” them has proved sufficiently p. omising for the course to be extended and widened, writes a special correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph,” London. It began a short time ago when a number of German deserters interned in Sweden were conside. ed reliable enough to be released conditionally. A group of 15, whose ages range from 20 to 28, got in touch with earlier German emigi ants who had fled from the Hitler regime and through them with Swedes interested in the problem of the re-education of the German people. An organisation known as the Committee for Democratic Reconstruction (S.D.U.) arranged an experimental course to introduce them to democratic ideas and conditions which few of them had ever experienced in Germany. It was held at one of the People’s Colleges, Marieborg, near Norrkoping, under Dr. Robert Myrdal, head of the college. DOCUMENTARY FILMS One of the lecturers was an Englishman, Mr Martin, of the British Legation in Stockholm, who spoke of his experiences with German prisoners of war in camps in Great Britain. The others were Swedes and German refugees. The British film “Underground,” the Russian film of the Kharkov trial, and a number of other documentaries were shown, and each film and lecture was followed by a discussion. Most of the young German students appeared disillusioned and bitter. Some of them said they had long realised that Goebbels was a liar, and they blamed the establishment of the Nazi regime on the older generation: “We grew up under Hitler and were completely in his power. Our parents had better chances of realising the implications of Nazism, but offered no resistence.” They showed keen interest in social developments in the democratic countries of which they were largely ignorant owing to having been cut off some years from free and correct information, and a genereal impression was that they were eager to absorb more information on social and political matters on a democratic TRADE UNIONS Their keenest interest centred in the discussions about the re-estab-lishment of trade unions in Germany, the falsification of history in German schools, and the possibility of the democratisation of their country. They were surprised at the free and easy relations between staff and pupils at the Swedish Peoples’ Colleges (institutions, they say, required by Germany), and even more at the familiarity and confidence between workers in Swedish industry. In general, they were found well-informed on technical matters, but defective in the humanities. Whether their views are completely honest is a matter only time can prove, but their reaction has convinced the Swedes that there is a demand for this type of re-education among the German deserters, and additional courses are being planned. At these, only Swedish lecturers will be employed since German refugees are too much inclined to force their particular political views on the students. The S.D.U. organisers believe the best way is to give these men an opportunity for forming their own opinions from lectures and discussions covering a general review of democratic society.