Books & Writers

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21336, 6 February 1941, Page 5

Books & Writers

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS TORTURED BY NAZIS GERMAN LAWYER’S EXPERIENCE I

! MOTHER WRITES BOOK I “A Mother Fights Hitler,” by | Irmgaard Litten, tells how Hans i Litten, a German lawyer, son of the ; Rector of Konigsberg University, be- , came prominent during the years i before Hitler achieved power as the I advocate of persons who sought the I protection of the law against the | Nazi political violence. On one j occasion Litten had Hitler himself I put in the box and relentlessly i examined him. These things were ! not forgotten. Immediately after the ; Reichstag tire Litten was arrested, sent the rounds of prisons and concentration camps, submitted to abominable humiliations and tor- | tures, and finally, after five years, | forced or allowed to commit suicide iin Dachau. He was never tried. He j was not even changed with any of- ; fence; not, at least, until his persecutors had found that it was imi possible to wring from him any con- | fession that would involve his forI mer clients. The one statement that ! he made, under torture, he instantly j repudiated. I All this while Frau Litten, his | mother, with some help from friends ; inside Germany and beyond, was i fighting for her son. Some of these ! friends were English men of law. Lord Allen of Hurtwood applied in i vain to Ribbentrop. Goering’s wife, i the actress Emmy Sonnemann, was moved and even wept, when Frau i Litten approached her. The Minister for Justice, Gurtner, ; even seems to have bestirred himself on Litten’s behalf. The famous ■ conductor, Furtwangler, promised ! his help. The former Crown Prince Wilhelm intervened—until he was | threatened. Nothing was achieved. ! Hitler’s personal revenge, it appears ; with appalling clarity, was the force ! that was not to be turned from a base i and cruel purpose. Frau Litten’s book is elaborately ! circumstantial. This is, stroke by stroke, a deadly indictment of a regime and of a man. FALL OF FRANCE LAST DAYS OF PARIS j EXTRACTS FROM DIARY Alexander Werth is one of the ! most illuminating writers upon • France. In “The Last Days of Paris ’ | he gives extracts from ms diary, and i the wnole thing is a magnificent piece ; of personal reporting. | Because the French censors would . not permit him to write the truth to | his paper in England, he commenced a diary on May 10, 1939—the day ; the Germans invaded the Low i Countries, and it is a direct and ! spontaneous narrative. | There are many fine word pic- ; tures, including a good description of the scene in the Senate on the occasion of Reynaud’s speech in which he announced that, because of ! treachery, bridges had not teen ! blown up to hinder the German ad- : vance. “Reynaud has just started talking i in a dead kind of voice. He talks : i about the Weygand appointment. ; They cheer half-heartedly at the • i mention of Weygand and Petain: they ; stand up again and cheer when the ; R.A.F. is mentioned. But a deadly ■ gloom hangs over the assembly, and | ) : when Reynaud suddenly declares that ' • ; Arras and Amiens have fallen a gasp I , ; of bewilderment rises from the Sen- I l ; ators’ benches. What Reynaud said • i about the Meuse crossing almost sug- | gests there was treason or at least ! hopeless incompetence. Actually I f 1 do not believe there was any treason. [ The man in charge of the Sedan sec- ; tor was a decent old fellow who r hadn’t enough pull to be given a good ! sector, and was left on the undet fended Meuse with some Senegalese and other second-rate troops.” Grim Story of Exodus j With each page of the diary the 1 ; sense of tragedy increases despite the ■ | little interludes of false hope and i | optimism. ) j Then follows the grim story of the j ■ j exodus to the provisional capitals, ; 1 j and later the story of the capitula- , I tion, which was opposed to the last , 1 by Reynaud and nine other members 3 of the Cabinet. 5 The last part of the book is an attempt to explain why France col- ‘ lapsed, and the author declares that it was possible for France to have L ’ continued the war after the fall of 2 Paris, but the men of Vichy allowed 3 themselves to be hoodwinked into 1 the belief that Petain —the hero of Verdun—would be offered an hon--2 ourable soldier’s peace. 1 PITHY REMARKS l 5 FROM THE NEW BOOKS . “Great nations are built on a B foundation of ordeal.”—From "Mine 1 and Counter Mine.” .. “Men get away with it every e time." —From "Steffan Green.” r _. .... e Bilious Bouts !; COMBAT THEM WITH DR. e | MORSES’ INDIAN ROOT PILLS t j :l | s I Don’t let Bilious Spells, ConstipaI tion or Indigestion rob you of energy 6 ! and the enjoyent of iife. Give your | 1 ! liver, bowels, and kidneys the little j i help ’ they need to clear away the j I every-day clogging wastes, to put you | r r i ß ht and regular—and keep you that 1 f j W ay. | I i Let the purely vegetable medicinal ' I ingredients in Dr. Morse’s Indian ! ■ s j Root Pills help rectify the disordered i digestion and tone your system to \ II ! healthy normal action. See how j - ! much better and brighter you feel— I o | anc j i o ok—when stomach. liver, j 1 bowels and kidneys are functioning ! as they should. Try a dose tonight I and see how much better veu feel toi morrow.