Editorial: Germany destroys herself
The great day of Allied entry into Berlin has come. To the south, a meeting of the armies of Russia and the Western Allies is imminent, if it has not already occurred. But the time for rejoicing is not yet. V-E Day is postponed. Gen. Eisenhower warns that it may not come until summer.
This may be an overly-cautious prediction. But even to us civilians at home, it is obvious that there is a big military job yet to be done.
Not that it is an orthodox military job remaining. By all the rules of warfare the German armies are beaten beyond any hope of recovery. In most places, particularly in the west, there is no organized front. No amount of Nazi skill, courage or fanaticism can reorganize those armies for they have been decimated by death and surrender until only remnants are left, and those lack the supplies and communications essential to major warfare.
Instead of stopping the war under these hopeless conditions, however, the Nazi authorities choose destruction. Hitler, or whoever speaks for him, has ordered isolated pockets, ports and cities to hold out until death. He has called upon the “faithful” behind Allied lines to carry on guerrilla warfare.
Neither Hitler nor Marshal Stalin nor Gen. Eisenhower can know how long it will take the Allies to clean up such a sticky situation, though all know that the final result is inevitable. Hitler’s written order for guerilla warfare, captured by the British, says: “We have to adopt the same method taught us by the Russians in the years 1942-44.” But the German soldier has neither the “partisan” training of the Russian, nor the morale.
While the Nazi tactics of desperation postpone Allied victory, they also hasten and complete the destruction of a large part of Germany. And, in the long view, the latter is more significant.
What is happening is that the Nazi suicide stand is imposing a form of suicide on the German people. Those who have followed Hitler all these years even at this late date lack the will. or power, to defy him in order to save themselves and their cities.
Whether it is called mass paralysis or insanity, or simply muss stupefaction, the defeated German people are imposing upon themselves and their land a retribution more terrible than ever contemplated by their enemies. Berlin is now added to the long list of German cities virtually wiped out.
They will be a heritage of suffering for Germans yet unborn. For when V-E Day comes there will be no surcease for Germans. Even if the entire Allied effort after European victory were devoted to German relief, many years would be required to establish a minimum basis for civilized existence. Actually, the European allies will be busy rebuilding their own lands, and the United States at least will be concentrating on winning the Pacific war.
Altogether apart from reparations – and these will be heavy – the German people have created conditions in their country which condemn them to a bondage of misery. Every day they continue the war, they project that self-imposed suffering further into the future. They think they are hurting us, though they are destroying themselves.