[Beilage zu SM, Nr. 57, 1943]

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G E R M A N Y

A BATTLE-GROUND



Destruction, Despair and Longing for Peace




The German Social Democratic Party Executive in London

have in the past weeks again received a number of reports dealing with the material and moral effects of the great air offensive of the R.A.F. against Hitlerite Germany in the later part of Summer and in Autumn, 1943. They give the following particulars:

1.

Hamburg after the heavy R.A.F. raids

2.

The air-raids on Berlin

3.

The attitude of the workers

4.

Total mobilisation

5.

Home front terror

6.

Nazi officials save their fortune


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I. HAMBURG AFTER THE HEAVY R.A.F. RAIDS

Two Swedish subjects who lived in Hamburg
for many years now, after the raids, returned to Sweden.

They describe the destruction in the city as simply unimaginable. Whole quarters no longer exist. The well-known Karstadt Stores were razed to the ground by one single bomb. About 800 people were at the time of the attack in the shelter underneath the stores; nothing is known of their fate.


In the harbour area destruction is complete. Rothenburgort, Hammerbrock and Hamm suffered the heaviest fatal casualties.


Even after the first raid water was lacking, and it was impossible to extinguish the fires. Drinking water was likewise not available.

The authorities, however, succeeded early in supplying water and provisions so that nobody had to go without food.


The first reaction of the population was a mass exodus into the surrounding woods. People marched through the town, carrying everything they could, in order to reach these woods. Bramfeld, Sasel and the forest villages looked like gipsy camps. Thousands spent the night in the open.


A Hamburg sailor states that the harbour quarter had been completely destroyed. There was no pier nor crane undamaged.

In the Mönckebergstrasse besides the Karstadt stores many other buildings had been wrecked.

The Main Station and the surrounding residential quarter had severely suffered.

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The former Trade Union House, seat of the ADGB, a hotel established by the free trade unions and the GEG (German Co-operative Wholesale Society) had been completely destroyed.


The Hamburg population whose majority had always been against Hitler and his regime turned their hatred against the regime. Everybody wished for the end of dictatorship and war. Even a peace imposed upon the German people could not be worse than the present conditions. There was no enthusiasm at all, still less confidence in victory.


Other direct reports from Hamburg say:


After the big raids, Hamburg was entirely out off from the outside world. Only persons working in the city were permitted to enter. Nobody was allowed to leave. Postal services were maintained by establishing a number of collecting stations where people had to inquire whether letters had arrived for them. Many people were living in cellars and looked towards winter with horror. They lived in constant fear that even these pitiful abodes might be destroyed.


There was some looting during the raids. Worse had been staved off by the owners of the few remaining stores giving away their wares in a mood as though the world had come to an end.


After the raids, SS units with machine guns patrolled the streets. Every sign of opposition was ruthlessly suppressed. The leaving refugees, having escaped from one hell, were faced with another.


The retorts of a poison gas factory had been destroyed in one of the raids. A number of workers had refused to do repairs in the rooms full of gas. It is alleged that twelve workers were executed.

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At the end of September parts of Hamm and Rothenburg were still isolated as thousands of dead people were still buried under the debris.

Removal of refuse was being carried out only to a very small extent as most vehicles had been destroyed and the alien workers generally employed on this task were missing. Because of the insufficient removal of refuse there was trouble with flies, and people seriously feared the spreading of typhus and dysentery.


Accommodation still fit for use was requisitioned and was allocated to the homeless workers remaining in Hamburg. As the workmen's quarters had suffered most heavily these workers were found comfortable accommodation in the districts of Harvestehude and Winterhude, but they were not very glad about it for fear that these dwelling houses might also be destroyed on the next occasion.


How individual families have been affected by mass exodus and evacuation is told in the following personal messages:


"Now I will tell you that I have no home. It has been burnt down. I have saved nothing except the clothes I stood up in, and my papers. A. has suffered the same fate. She is on Oldesloerland. The M. family are in Upper Silesia, the K. family in Tornesch. Grete was in Boizenburg and that has already been raided twice. I have ration cards, but I cannot get underwear so that I am not even able to change. Otto is out in the East, and I hope he will come back safely."


Another letter says:

"In the quarter where E. lives only two houses are left. L. lives there again with his parents. All the others are homeless. R. lives in Sleswig. Of H.'s whereabouts we know nothing. My parents-in-law live in their Gartenlaube. M.'s have gone to their huts, and they have also accommodated F.

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One of our reporters, having interviewed about ten people who went through the attacks on Hamburg, sums up as follows how eye-witnesses judge the general feeling of the population:


Ninety per cent of the population are against the regime. The Nazi functionaries become uneasy. One Nazi "Blockwart" tore off his badge after a raid and said: "Hitler is finished."

Anti-Fascist slogans appear more and more frequently on the walls. The Hitler salute has almost entirely disappeared.

There are frequent fights between Hitler youth and other young people.


The Communists enjoy little sympathy. The Social Democrats also made many mistakes, but they were still the best solution.

A functionary (Vertrauensmann) speaking of the feeling among the formerly organized workers said: "The state of mind in the factories is first rate. The old functionaries still enjoy the confidence of the workers."


People are convinced that the Allies will win, but they fear Russia. The German transmissions of the BBC are frequently listened to, and there is no organized opposition.


A report based on discussions and correspondence
with former functionaries of the free labour movement gives remarkable information about the reaction of the workers:

Younger workers, aged up to forty, generally state that the blame for all the misery fell upon Hitler's dictatorship, for the Luftwaffe had acted with equal barbarity. There was no use in discussing the methods of warfare, it was necessary to investigate the causes of the war. The question was, whether or not this was an imperialist war. Two older workers answered in the affirmative.

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There was also criticism of the R.A.F. One of the functionaries referred to leaflets dropped over Hamburg in which various promises had been made.

The reporter comments on that, saying that such language had been sorely missed before 1933, and it was not fair now to punish the defenceless civilians for what the allies themselves had fostered before the war. The reporter has lost everything in the raids. There was consternation about the almost complete destruction of Eimsbüttel and Barmbeck, districts entirely populated by workers, with very few war factories.


The reporters stressed their straight anti-Fascist attitude, but added that now, after the destruction of "Red Hamburg", the "City without Nazis", it was very difficult to point to the Western Powers as a hope for a better future.

II. THE AIR-RAIDS ON BERLIN

Eye-witnesses report on the destruction
inflicted on Berlin by the big raids of August, 1943:


The destruction is terrible. The Friedrichstraße has been completely gutted from the Friedrichstraße-Station to the Belle-Alliance-Platz.

In Wilmersdorf and Steglitz whole thoroughfares have been destroyed.

In Koepenick, on the right bank of the Spree, all factory installations have been disabled.

The "Bavarian quarter" is also one of the heavily affected districts.

The Charlottenburg station was badly damaged. The Siemens-Schuckert-works in Siemensstadt and Spandau are almost completely gutted or destroyed. The population lives in deep anxiety. Everybody is asking: "What will be the end of it?"

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People do not live in their houses any longer. They are running aimlessly in the streets. In the evening everybody tries to find some diversion. Theatres and cinemas are sold out every night. "Humour" is being produced, on official instructions, in order to improve the mood of the people.


Nobody believes in victory or negotiated peace any longer. An additional reason for uneasiness is the presence of the great number of foreign workers who behave more freely than before. There are often friendly relations between German and foreign workers, much to the Nazis' regret. Again and again posters are being displayed with warnings against such friendly intercourse. But these warnings are of no avail.


An eye-witness reports on the effects of the
raid in the night of August 30th:


The effect on factories and dwellings was even stronger than that of the previous raid. Many buildings the foundations of which were shaken by the previous raids have now collapsed by blast. The Stettiner station has been heavily damaged. The Underground station Alexanderplatz has been hit, also the overhead railway at Hallesches Tor and Kottbusser Tor.

The damage was particularly big in Lichtenberg, Neukoelln, Tempelhof, Mariendorf and Steglitz. Next morning there was an almost complete standstill of traffic.

The forests surrounding Berlin were full of refugees. The fire-brigades of Frankfurt a.O., Stettin, Halle, Dresden and Leipzig were called in.

The supplies of water, gas and electricity had broken down. Many workers did not turn up at the factories.

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A woman writes about her own experiences during this raid:

"You have heard from mother that I am still alive. But it was no pretty night. I had to do my bit in fire fighting. I hope I shall never have to do so again. The warning caught me when I stayed with friends. When I came home I found my house a heap of rubble. Perhaps I owe my life to that visit. When helping to extinguish the fire I almost fell from the third to the second storey as a bomb had made a hole in the floor. When I came to our office I found it in a pretty mess. All doors and windows gone, with plaster coming down from the walls.

In the evening I suffered from heart-attacks after all the excitement. Now we have a constant fresh breeze in our office to put it mildly. The other side of the street is a heap of wreckage."

III. THE ATTITUDE OF THE WORKERS

Functionaries of the old free Workers' movement report from Berlin that the activity of formerly organized Trade Unionists and Socialists has increased during the last two months.

These comrades are extremely optimistic with regard to the time when the Hitler-regime will collapse.


On the day after the fall of Mussolini the Italian workers at a Siemens-Schuckert factory met for a demonstration in the courtyard. Speeches were made, a bonfire was lit, and all Fascist emblems, pictures, and writings were burned. German workers joined the demonstration. The manager of the factory succeeded only after some time to persuade the workers to resume work.

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A Berlin worker who escaped into a neutral country reports strong Communist activity in Berlin. He says that leaflets are being distributed and that there is Communist propaganda going on in the factories. But the workers are quiet in spite of their anti-Fascist sentiments.

The Nazis do much for feeding the workers. Additional food rations are often distributed in the factories. Nobody, however, believes in a German victory. The concentration of big SS-units in major cities prevents any action at present.

The condition for a change in the situation is large-scale military action by the Western powers. By a new front in Europe the Nazis would be confronted with a situation difficult beyond solution.

IV. TOTAL MOBILISATION

All pupils of the top form of Higher Girls' Schools have to report at the offices of the Hitler-Youth for industrial war effort. Otherwise the school leaving certificate for Easter 1944 will not be given. This was announced in Hamburg in last October.




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V. HOME FRONT TERROR

In order to reinforce the SS at the home front SA-formations are being used on an ever increasing scale. After the arrival of the SA-regiment "Hansa" at Bergedorf a new regiment for "special tasks" has been formed in Hamburg. Its number is R 463.


The terrorisation of Anti-Fascists continues by constant arrests.


Former collaborators of Social Democratic newspapers are being arrested even if there is no evidence of any political activity.

VI. NAZI OFFICIALS SAVE THEIR FORTUNE

A high Nazi official on the staff of Minister Speer has used his official journeys to neutral countries in recent months for placing a considerable amount of money in the name of neutral friends and to carry out big business transactions.

During drinking parties this man declared openly that he and his colleagues are fully aware that their easy days are numbered.

His colleagues in Berlin were enjoying themselves in exclusive clubs there like he did in neutral countries. He added that corruption and transfer of fortunes abroad were in full swing.

He reported that there is a big muddle in Speer's Ministry. Planning is going on all the time, every plan being cancelled as soon as a new idea turns up. This planless planning has caused indifference among the majority of the staff.

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A high Army officer left a big deposit in a neutral country which he visited recently.

He said that all high officials are now trying to save money and valuables in neutral countries, mostly by entrusting them to private individuals.

(Reports by the Executive Committee of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany,
published November, 1943)


[Hinweise]


Earlier reports were:


1. THE THIRD REICH during the spring and summer of 1942

2. HITLERITE GERMANY during the autumn of 1942

3. HITLER'S TOTAL WAR and the reactions of the German people
(inside Germany up till the middle of February)

4. TOTAL WAR IN HITLERITE GERMANY during the first two months of 1943.

5. AT THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR - Hitler Germany in early Summer 1943


Other Publications:


CONFERENCE of German Social Democrats in England.
Speeches
by Hans Vogel, (President of the German Social Democratic Party), J. S. Middleton, Louis de Brouckère und Erich Ollenhauer.

10 YEARS OF NAZI DIKTATORSHIP (meeting of the Union of German Socialist Organisations in Great Britain).
Speeches
by Rt. Hon. David R. Grenfell, M.P., Walter Schevenels, Louis de Brouckère, H. Vogel.

GERMANY'S FUTURE in the Light of World Opinion.
Speech
delivered by Hans Vogel, President of the German Social Democratic Party.

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S O Z I A L I S T I S C H E

M I T T E I L U N G E N

NEWS FOR GERMAN SOCIALIST IN ENGLAND

This news-letter is published for the information of Social Democratic
refugees from Germany who are opposing dictatorship of any kind

"Sozialistische Mitteilungen" has been a regular source of information for German Social Democrats in Great Britain and has also found many readers in oversea countries. The first issues of the "Sozialistische Mitteilungen" appeared shortly after the outbreak of war. It has been the only German periodical in Great Britain, the publication of which has never been interrupted during all this time, in spite of countless difficulties and the ever rising prices for paper, stencils, printing ink. etc.








Issued by the London Representative of the German
Social Democratic Party, 33, Fernside Avenue, London NW7.



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