Detroit evening times., December 20, 1941, NIGHT EDITION, Page PAGE 17, Image 17

About Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
Saturday, December 20, 1941
Fear of Jail Sours
Life for All Germans
(Here is the ninth article in a
terirt on “Inside Germany —
Today," written hy Pierre J.
Hurt, Berlin correspondent of
International .Veic* Service, vho
recently arrived in this country
after two and one-half years i n
Ax it Europe.)
By PIERRE J. HPSB
lut l Nrw* Kml» Wiff fermponilrnl
It's easier to get arrested in
Nazi Germany than it is to get
robbed, for the Gestapo never
sleeps, while the holdup man and
his ilk lost their nerve in fare of
Hitler’s guillotine blitz against the
underworld.
In places like Germany or any
of the totalitarian dictatorship*
there are moments when that in
grown awareness of In unseen” and
all-powerful hand which can snatch
you away at any time day or night
just gets into your hair, producing
something akin to the jitters.
Most of us from the lands of
habeas corpus and all the sacred
things this represents are pretty
much fed up with the other and at
times are apt to have an attack
of nerves or take to drink. It's
the only safety valve between you
and a reckless outburst in the mid
dle of the avenue about the time
the swastika drums come beating
down the street.
Fear of Arrest
Sours Fun In Life
The Germans, after eight vears
of Gestapo rough-housing on all
his personal comforts and ideas
of personal liberty, is somewhat
inured to it although there are
times when he. too. gets just a
little hit sick of it all. But he can
do nothing about it.
Sometimes, he looks at us from
the free lands and there is envy
in hi* eye.
I frequently sensed an atmos
phere of expectation on the part
of almost everybody that tomor
row or the next day '’they” were
coming to take you away. It sours
all fun in life and usually the
depressed rm>od passes, unless
there is something on your con
science and reason to worry about
the Gestapo.
Listen to a foreign radio or
crack a nasty joke about Hitler
or Nazi bigwigs and into a con
centration camp you go.
A worse crime is slaughtering
your pig for home use or hoard
ing at home a couple hundred
hard-earned dollars.
Can Even Lose Life
For Keeping Rings
Maybe you have as a German
very many close American friends,
maybe you have a way of keeping
the larder replenished or you
failed to turn in to the Reichsbank
those gold rings and silver treas
ures.
It isn’t much of a crime, look
ing at it from our standpoint, vet'
m Hitler's Third Reich you can
land in the penitentiary for any
number of years or even get the
guillotine for any of the abo\e sins.l
There are a thousand little ways
they can get you. to say nothing
Today's Crossword Puzzle
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HORIZONTAL
I— T*rg#L
v—
k— K*mlnin* n*rn*.
ia—T* tu* «h*:t*r#<3 *id*.
1
14— J*t blt<-k.
15— ImpwJtnr*.
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13—Th* • Em*r»l<l lili."
2<v—City 1n Mirh «*n.
21— *3ip*r , r.
22 — Article C hirtirH Accountant
vtbbr >
23 Strikingly n*<l
2V—VkrUty of coff** r»k*.
2* —*«lut*tloa.
30—Willow
32 Japan*** *'«t**mkn.
33 Color* co*r**ly.
.is—in»M* part.
3" —ElartrlflM partklc
3.4—Shortly.
3»—Smart
42 L'ngm'cful prraon.
4S— r'ranmnß.
47 —roativ
4A—-Hhakrapraroan kin*.
4»- Nativa matal.
W—Halo.
M —Numb*r*.
32—Th* *un.
A3 —Emploj*.
3 ERTICAL
1 — Win# m*n.
2 W’in« *hap*«l.
3 -Aoftanad
t <• Mintar
v—P*rlv*l from train: t< mhinin*- form.
A —■Fbilv*rl»*k rock
7 -P**t*rliy
* —Cofiunua-1 *tory.
o -Aon of AAam
10— GaM*n flo»*r.
11 -Small infarta.
17 —P*rryviin| a r*p4UUon
of y«ra.
•3 —Cno#ime<l.
of the dirty work and spite or
jealousy from political motives.
For example, two years ago this
Christmas, the owner of one of
the most famous restaurants in
Berlin, who’d been catering to
foreigners and foreign correspond
ents at the request of the propa
ganda ministry, was suddenly ar
rested by the Gestapo and sat in
Alexander Platz jail for six weeks.
He came out with a black beard,
a clean record and a long face.
They had tried to build a CAM
against him on the misuse of ra
tion cards and it cost him some
10,000 marks in legal and other
fees to disprove the charges.
Nazis Try to Break
Him in His Business
The wholo aln l* ht* worried
life had been that his restaurant
was a popular gathering place for
foreigners; he declined to stooge
on any guest and in other words
1 to become a shadow listening post
for the powers that be.
i It didn't take long for Nazi
methods to find a way, and while
under detention they kept send
ing prospective purchasers of the
restaurant in his wife to muscle
him out of the game. He is one
of the few \\ho had the iron nerve
to hold out and is still doing busi
ness as usual today. But I wouldn’t
sink much money into his stock.
The Nazis, or more bluntly
speaking, the Gestapo, usually
wins out In Naziland.
It is that total blackout in
normal police power in favor of
unlimited direct action which con
demns individuals to be more toj
erated citizens allowed at large
It compels a closely buttoned lip,
from the very top* in The Hitler
'regime down to the coal miner.
| For once on the spot, it is hard to
get off.
Niemoeller Whisked
Back to Ca mp
For example, cwhen fighting
Pastor Niemoeller was pronounced
free and footloose by a high Ger
man court in Berlin after hp'd
behind the bais waiting something
like a year for his case to come up,
everybody in the court rr>om was
happy, and we hard-boiled foreign
correspondents who d covered the
trial even told each other that in
Germany some courage and legal
wisdom remained.
An hour later we changed nur
tune when it came to our ears
that Niemoeller and we had mo
mentarily failed to remember the
Gestapo.
Right after the verdict pronounc
ing him a free man. and while he
was in the act of signing the re
lease documents in his lawyer's
office, the men from Heinie Himm
ler's <swert-«rmling Himmler i«
lord and master of all police and
dark politics that go with it in
Nazilandl. came and whisked Nie
moellcr off to a concentration
camp.
They kept him for another year
or so in Buchenwald, the bad camp
of tough guards and little comfort
not so far from Berlin.
They kept hammering away at
him to turn over a new leaf and
sign off the pulpit, even issuing
33 Faddi*.
24—Orap*.
23—Short for *ut*r.
2k—Swedish botanist.
27—Rummer (Fr )
3k—Correlative of neither
31—Japan*** coin.
34 Jogo Slav Mina.
3A~o*rman author.
3k—Spiritual being
3k—Sodium chloride.
40—Woody plant.
41 —F*r»ia.
42 Japan*** box *et.
43 Weed.
44 0*olo»ical af*«.
4k—Rombyctd moths.
Answer to yesterday’s puzzle.
>*♦*>
Distributed by Kins Feature* ay no., uk-
an announcement that Niemoeller
had thrown in the sponge.
He outsmarted the trick and
through underground channels wc
got the low-down and his side of
the story. So they switched him
down to Dachau, the camp of thou
sands and thousands of unwanted
Germans, where some come out to
live and others just give it up as
they enter.
From people in Berlin occasion
ally j>ermitted to contact him, I
heard before I left that he is bear
ing up somewhat better than at
Buchenwald. and Is now killing
what spare time there is for old
timers under the heel by studying
and translating some older Latin
tomes in collaboration with simi
larly inclined and interned Catlu
olic priests.
In Niemoeller’s case, as I
pointed out before, the Gestapo
won out despite an official pro
nouncement of innocence hy a
legal court of the land.
Gestapo's Long Arm
Reaches Over Borders
Well, the Gestapo arm Is even
stronger and reaches over borders
A case in point is that of the Or
man finance and industrial n i
nate, Fritz Thyssen. who naively
placed faith in such pre-Hitler
theories as inviolability of inter
national frontiers.
Thyssen got the jitters one
bright morning and decided to
beat the Gestapo to it by migrat
ing to Switzerland, where he got
himself a villa inland from thp
German border and, despite the
pressure and pleas from Berlin to
come back and he good, he clung
to personal liberty.
The Nazis confiscated his prop
erly and then made him an out
cast hy publicly cancelling his citi
zenship rights. I understand he
even dictated a book, or the notes
of it, to a ghost writer.
Then the Gestapo came and
snatched him. right out of bed and
new home. He got a free ride
back across the German border
and. because he represents so
much in the Hitler Reich in
finance and industry, he was in
stalled in a small villa in the
Black Forest to spend his time
walking around within strictly de
limited space and time.
There Is No Appeal
From the Gestapo
He is living proof of my conten
tion that the Gestapo in the end
wins out. There is no appeal,
since they can simply turn a deaf
ear or even blacklist the upstart
foolhardy enough to start some
thing
A few' days before T left Berlin
they picked up a one-tirpe well-to
do German who used to throw
money around the racetracks.
still had plenty of it. hut on the
other hand he hung around with
crowds they don't like, such as
Americans.
j They charged him at first with
espionage and failing to prove any
thing there, said he was alw-ays
talking out of turn.
The pretext they used to come
and take him. as it turned out. was
a sworn statement made against
him exactly two years ago hy the
waiter in one of the luxury res
taurants to the effort that this
man had made unkind remarks on
the Nazi policy towards the Jews.
Wait for Chance
To Get Even
In other word?, they'd been
w atching him two years on the sly.
waiting for the moment to get
|even. There, in that one little fact,
.you have the whole thing.
| In Naziland. as In all dictator
ships of the ruthless kind, the
very walls have ears and its
insky to talk in your sleep.
Fick up the telephone to make
a date and you do just that and
no more. Gossip on the line has
gone out of fashion, for there is
always that ominous little click as
the recording machine takes down
every word.
Of course, not every phone call
I inside Germany is listened to hut
any one on “the list" or suspected
|of this or that comes in for that
.tapper. You never know, and it is
always wise to play safe,
Public Encouraged
To Spy for Gestapo
Snme weeks ago one of the
larger Cologne newspapers pub
lished an announcement from
Himmler's deputy chief of the
Gestapo. Reinhard Heydrich (now
temporarily holding down the job
In Prague of heating the Czechs
Into line*, directing all Germans
to turn in any sub-rosa informa
tion on others they considered of
value to a newly established office
carrying a title something like
this: “Department for Enlight
ment and Public Activity.”
On the surface it doesn't mean
much, but what It amounts to is
the centralization and public en
couragement of “stooging ’ and de
nunciation of your neighbor or fel
low-man to the Gestapo.
I’p to now the sneak, the
snitchor and the douhle-cros.ser
with something to gain to say
nothing of Jealousies and quarrels
unteer pipelines leading the Ges
tapo into the bedroom or the hid
den spot.
| From now on. in line with Hay
drich's announcement, ii is clear
that squealing and denouncing
have joined the ranks of moral
obligation and duty to the Father
land, whether you like it or not.
The Berlin newspapers, for some
reason, haven't carried the Cologne
announcement hut it is getting
around just the same.
| Next article—Monday
DETROIT EVENING TIM E S (PH OS’ E CHERRY SHOO)
B L O N D I E Listen to “Blondie” Each Monday at 7:30 P. M. Over Station WJR By Chic Young
U MUM-2Ui| (• I WWATSTME MATTER.) FUM P WUV PC K vnj
< C*WV?YOU yr/ II ! [VttU TELLWIM) DT iwXTPavV 1 *
, , I '* i- -* .-.- .
TUFFY By Hoff
1 M| I 1 | ' , , g,
r free r w<u\F ® V- - l\ / WHY | '/ BlGi IAPIES WEAR
m 7W I i was a *>f M? |U ( Nor \ ( Tu&ft hair op"soTH£yl _
~S Sr \ Bid LAPV jfrfr- \ EPNf\ 7 j \ UAVE TO WAS*
m >Sv V c -3 7/ 1 V7* l BEHIND lUBR
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~ " ' r Tl ■» —— —"~ ma ' ■' 1111 ■■ 1 i — I—.— ■ ■ -■■ * ■ 1 ■ - ■ i. ~ ... »A.■■ . ■ , - . ■ —l wm
BARNEY GOOGLE AND SNUFFY SMITH Hitting the Trail By Billy De Beck
HENRY By Carl Anderson
" **" 1 ————l., ...I - . _ - p. ■ ■■■ ■" ——^
, ■ . 1 ... 1 c
- /V)J ~
DRAFTIE Take a Letter Paul Fogarty
ELZA POPPIN Bv Olsen & Johnson
llomecoiiiers on Air
When the first large contingent! The program made tonight will
of Detroit service men returning he transcribed and broadcast over
home for holiday furloughs arrives WJR at 1.30 p. m. tomorrow, so
at the Michigan Central station to- that the men interviewed may hear
might, the men will not only he themselves on the air Sunday,
greeted by receptionists of The L'nder war/department regula-
Detroit Times civic committee.
they also will be interviewed over 10,110 irrlc, refrains fi'»rn
station WJR. publishing where this contingent
l.airv Payne. WJR announcer, of men is from or exactly how
. m . u * Jerry Pettit, I imes defense many will be aboard the train—
editor, will he at the Times re-/ ,
'cept.on booth with a WJR micro- aII information concerning troop
phone when several hundred movements, even when on fur-
Dctroit soldiers arrive by special lough, is being withheld,
troop train at 7.10 p. m. i The WJR program is one of the
HEAR THEMSELVES ON AIR being planned hy
the limes Santa for Service Men
AH Detroiters are requested to committee. The reception tonrght
join in the welcome, to cheer these also will include the appearance
men who have been away from in the Michigan Central Matinn of
their homes many months and one of the drum and bugle corp*
soon will be leaving for even more ( units scheduled to meet all such
'extended duty. V 1 {special trams.
Daily Quiz
1— The Netherlands' control -of
"hat is now Dutch Guiana in
South America came about in
1667 hv the Treaty of Freda.
What important New World
possession was given the Eng
lish by the Dutch in exchange?
2 Where in America would you
travel if you wished to visit
" hat the National Park Service
describes as "the most remote
and least explored section in
America” ?
5 Every state in the I'nion with
one exception has a legislature
consisting of two houses. What
state legislature is a uni
cameral body?
■l—ln which one of these pro.
fesslons might you expect a
i particij*ant to use a mortar
| and pestle: pharmacy, teach
ing. bricklaying ”
s—What city of the United States,
i famous for ita “water from the
sky” system of cisterns, has no
fresh water of it* own?
6 Australia boasts an animal
called the living teddy hear, a
i soft bundle of fur weighing
about 20 to 25 pounds. The
creature lives on voting euca
lyptus leaves, obtaining enough
moisture from them so that it
po\cr drinks water. What?
its real name?
7 Which one of these metal;-
makes the lust backing for a
mirror: aluminum, silver, gold?
( \n*v\cr<* on Page 151)
Knowledge Test
B> l>H. SABINA H. (ONXil.n
1— In what rrntury were their
) Admini*tra,tjons: <at Warren
Harding: <b) John Adams; <c)i
I’lvsses Grant ?
2 Finish the line with three
words; <a> “The*e are the
times that (b) "We
PAGE 17
hold these truths (c)
"Give me liberty or .
3—Name a president of the United
States whose first name was:
ta) Calvin; (b) Rutherford;
fc) Millard.
I—ln what continent; fa) Is Cape
Cod; »b) is Mt. Everest; (c) it
the barling River?
5 What kind of: ta) Plants are
m; hrooni'-; <h) tide i* ebb;
| (r> devices a;e incinerator*?
6 What is: <a> Salsify; fht mane
drake; <c> an escalator?
7 What instrument do you have:
(a> If you measure air pres
sure (bt if you wi*h to aee
small objects. <c) it you
register an earthquake?
(Answers on Pajje 19)
Gen. Hugh H. JokniM,
"AmerfcV* Fighting Thinker."
writes Daily /or the Times.