REIGN OF TERROR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 274, 19 November 1943, Page 5

REIGN OF TERROR

IRON HAND IN GERMANY ONE HUNDRED EXECUTIONS EVERY DAY

(By Telegraph—Pre,, Association—Copyright) Recd. 11.30 p.m. London, Nov. 18.

An absolute regime ol terror reigns in Germany under Himmler, according to the Turkish newspaper Yatan, says the Istanbul correspondent o£ The Times.

Quoting what it describes as “unimpeachable sources,” the Yatan reports that executions tor acts and words ol defeatism total 100 daily. The majority o£ offenders were executed for trifling offences. The punishment obviously was not meant to be in proportion to the offence but an example to inspire terror. The Nazis do not trust either Army or police. Gestapo Stormtroopers are entrusted with the protection of the regime. Scarcely two persons in a hundred believe in a German victory. Even the story of the "secret weapon” with which Britain would be destroyed overnight is derided. Even jokes about the German Army's elastic retreats are now regarded as treasonable and punishable by death. Berlin radio quoted one Buschmann, editor of a Stettin newspaper, as saying:—“Years of success have spoiled us. We fancied we could end the struggle without even feeling the scourge of war in our own country. We at present see things quite differently from when our troops were approaching the Nile delta and the mouth of tne Volga. It is no use indulging in illusions about the gravity o£ tne situation. Much more territory may be lost, but even if the war must be fought on German soil and many towns are razed there cannot, must not, arise the slightest sign o£ weakness.”

The radio also quoted this from a leader in the Manshelmer Zeitung:— "We are experiencing with increasing profundity and reality what war means in practice. The number of families who have lost sons, fathers, brothers, is growing. Only now do we really know what war means.”