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THE INNER GERMAN FRONT

THE THIRD REICH
ON THE EVE OF INVASION

*

The Executive of the German Social Democratic Party,
at present in London

has again received a number of reports about the situation inside Germany. These reports have been collected and forwarded by trustworthy men and women, who for years have collected these reports on our behalf.

Technical difficulties - especially those of transportation - have caused the delay in publishing, so that only the time up to the end of May 1944 is covered.

No account has as yet been taken of the dramatically changed situation, caused by the invasion in the West and the Russian summer offensive in the East.

Nevertheless, most of these reports are still of interest, since they throw light on the growing tension inside Hitler Germany, already before the Invasion.

. . - o - O - o - . .

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I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

In the following we present three general surveys given by reporters from different walks of life.

The first report of the beginning of February 1944 has been given by an experienced social democratic politician, who bases his observation on an intimate knowledge of comprehensive parts of Southern Germany in the Pre-Hitler period and on reliable first hand reports from these districts:

Whereas the morale of the German troops at the front is still unbroken, the number of deserters is growing inside Germany.

The heavy air attacks are now and then causing hatred against the British and Americans, especially among the middle classes. The bombed out people demand fanatically the continuance of the war so that a complete victory will give them back their lost property. In general the population is standing up well to air attacks. Fire fighting and the distribution of food are well organised. On the other hand there is a lot of friction in reception areas.

There is enough food in the towns, with the exception of potatoes. Wine is not to be had and beer is bad. The majority of people no longer believe in victory and they are apathetic.

Religious people believe that the air attacks are a punishment for the persecution of the Jews. The Nazi terror is beyond description.

Often a joke about the Nazis is reason enough for an execution.

The Social Democratic Party has illegal groups all over the Reich.

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In Austria and Bavaria strong anti-Prussian sentiment can be observed among some circles - also some separative leanings. The activity of the Communists is quite insignificant in Southern Germany.

The Nazis can only be overthrown by the Army. A revolution is impossible. The development will be helped along by military defeats. A strong swing towards the Left is to be expected among the young people, though it is of course quite impossible to predict how things will develop.

In the Nazi-Ordensburgen an organisation has been set up with the task of killing all Germans who collaborate with the occupying authorities.

The second report was given by a Social Democrat Sudetengerman, who has lived in Berlin for two years from the beginning of 1942 to April 1944.

This reporter has experienced in Berlin some of the heavy air raids. He says one can distinguish American and British pilots. The British bomb targets, whereas the Americans use the so-called carpet bombing. They lay a carpet of bombs on a limited area.

The effects are terrible. After the heavy attacks it has often been impossible to venture into the streets without protective eyeglasses. Often incredible clouds of dust hovered over the districts for many days after the attacks.

There is strong hostility towards Hitler, even if the soldiers are still ready to fight.

The reporters and others went during raids to the shelter of a nearby department of ARP police. 12 to 15 men were stationed there. At first the men were very suspicious, till one day the reporter had an opportunity to make it clear where he stood. Then the soldiers unbent and said that all of them were enemies of Hitler save for their commander. One of them said quite openly that he never would shoot.

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The reporter was a regular listener to foreign stations, especially to British Broadcasts.

The BBC is thought to be more reliable than Moscow. The favourite station is the Atlantic Sender, which has a huge following. For technical reasons Russia cannot be heard very clearly.

During December 1943 and January 1944 a full blown opposition movement was developing in Berlin.

The reporter was in touch with workers from Siemens and Borsig, mostly Socialdemocrats.

At that time, in order to counteract the impression of the tremendous air attacks, Goebbels had spread the slogan: There is only one death, no matter whether one dies at the front or in the homeland. Every kind of death was equally honourable.

This was taken up by the politically conscious workers who said: O.K. there is only one death, then we could just as well die fighting the Nazis.

Goebbels who has his spies everywhere got to know of this frame of mind and he at once started a counter-offensive. He used the utterances of Vansittart for a large scale propaganda campaign against England.

He made it clear to the people what would become of Germany according to these plans. In addition he also used the Bolshevik bogey, and declared that the German workers would first have to rebuild everything that had been destroyed in Russia, and that above all, they would be sent to Siberia where they would perish miserably. This propaganda was effective, and paralysed the opposition movement from the start.

After all big air attacks there were executions. The spying system is so thorough, that even in all big shelters there are one or more Gestapo spies.

During an air attack in November approximately 1.000 workers from the East were killed by bombs.

The population knows that the workers from the East are very badly treated, and they are afraid that one day they will have to pay for it.

There is a marked difference in the treatment of workers from the East and those from the West. The workers from the West are much better treated and fed.

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The soldiers, returning from the East front, are very angry with the civilian administration in occupied territories because it treats the population badly and cruelly. They say that this attitude is much more damaging to the morale than the progress of the war itself.

Discipline in the Army is on the wane; often soldiers refrain from giving the military salute. There are many deserters and many people living underground. Bombing has played havoc with the administration to such an extent that it is no longer too difficult to live underground.

The third report gives a conversation with a German manufacturer. The conversation took place at the end of April 1944. The manufacturer was employing at that time 753 workers, 500 foreign workers among them.

Question: How is the morale of the workers? And what do they think of the war?

Answer: Our workers, as far as they are Germans, are all over 50. The women workers too are mostly elderly. Almost all these workers were organized in the Social Democratic Party and the Free Trade Unions, before the Nazis seized power. I myself was a member of the German Volkspartei up to 1933.
The workers think: we would not grumble if we only had the same life as we had under the Weimar Republic. Then one could at least speak freely and openly.
The present Government is generally hated, especially the Gestapo and the SS.
The workers want to get rid of the Labour Front. They say, this too was only a means of exploitation for the good of the Nazi bosses. Everything that looks like Nazi has to be done away with and the guilty must be exterminated.

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As for the war, they think: If it only would all be over. The end is expected for November of this year. Then we'll square our account, the workers are saying.
Among the middle classes too this sort of things are being thought. Very few people ask, what is to come afterwards.
The opinion is prevalent among the workers, that the refugees, especially the Social Democrats will help to get for the German people better terms than for the Nazis. One hopes that the British will not repeat the mistakes of 1918.
My personal opinion is, that any Government that comes after Hitler, will have a hard time, but the people will go with those who had nothing to do with the Nazis. The Communists have spoilt many of their chances by their attitude towards the Nazis of the beginning of the war.
It is generally believed that a strong Social Democracy will come. The free Trade Unions too must be set up again after the Labour Front has been destroyed.

Question: What is the attitude of the foreign workers and what do they mean to do?

Answer: I have often discussed this question with foreigners, and without exception they say: We will return as quickly as possible to our homeland and we don't care a damn what the Germans are going to do.

Question: Does one know about the "Committee Free Germany" in Moscow?

Answer: The workers look upon the transmission as nothing but propaganda. But if this committee is really founded on a coalition of generals and Communists, then they do not want to have anything to do with it. Old members of the Communist Party are of the same opinion.

Question: What is the food situation in Germany?

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Answer: It is somewhat better than during the last war. Those with much money can still buy enough.

Question: Does anyone in Germany still believe in victory and what do they think about an invasion?

Answer: The mass of the people no longer believe in victory. The Nazis, however, hope for a compromise. They think, the development will go as follows: The German Army will succeed in holding the Russians in the Carpathian mountains. Then they will try to get on terms with the British and Americans. Others again think Hitler will use weapons, maybe also gas. My personal opinion is that no compromise will be possible and that Germany is heading for hard times. The invasion is the real bogey. The people are not so much worried about the East front as they are about the invasion.

Question: Are you not afraid at talking so openly?

Answer: I only talk like this, if I know I'm speaking to someone who has been in a concentration camp. These people are safe to speak to. They are the calmest people in Germany, but also those with the most determination.
They will give no pardon to the Nazis. This the Nazis themselves know.
People often say: The "concentration camp people" will make a clean sweep of the Nazis.

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II. DISORGANIZATION IN THE ADMINISTRATION - INCREASED GESTAPO TERROR

A mechanic from an important industrial town in Saxony reports:

The heavy bombardments suffered by different German industrial districts are having one effect which gives the Nazis a special headache: the attacks make the otherwise very effective Gestapo control quite ineffective.

After a heavy raid one part of the population simply disappears. Only after many difficulties is it possible to re-register them again. Since the scale and thoroughness of the destruction makes it physically impossible to check the dates given by people coming to register, many persons have a possibility of going underground.

Other people, living underground, have a possibility of getting different papers. It is estimated that tens of thousands of bombed out people have gone underground in this way. This state of affairs grows daily worse for the Nazis. This is one of the Nazis' primary headache, for this disorganisation endangers one of the strongest props of the regime: the terror apparatus.

This nervousness of the Gestapo is the reason why all over Germany, especially in the factories, people are daily being taken away by the Gestapo, people, who never return, and of whose fate no one ever gets to know anything. The relatives do not even get an urn with the ashes any longer.

Careful inquiries among the friends and relatives of those who have been fetched away, show always that these were people who had tried to work against the regime.

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A Swedish citizen who had left Berlin after the big raid at the beginning of March, reports:

The town is surrounded by a strong belt of SS troops. SS formations are also stationed in the suburbs, as for instance in Fuerstenwalde, Strausberg, Bernau, Nauen, Oranienburg, Potsdam, Werder, Zossen and Mittenwalde. These formations are recruited almost exclusively from young people. Pessimism is prevalent in all classes of the population. It is most strongly in evidence among the women and the workers.

Hostility against the regime is strong, but the fear of eventual reprisals is still stronger. The pressure exercised by the regime upon the population is growing daily more ruthless. Executions for minor offences are the order of the day.

Nevertheless the opposition exists. A Berlin worker told me: "We have noted carefully who is a Nazi and we shall repay in full!"

This remark was made, though the man did not know me personally. It was for him quite sufficient that I told him I came from Sweden.

A German observer in a neutral country gave the following answer to the question why there has as yet not been a revolutionary uprising in Germany:

The pressure of the Gestapo and the SS and the reintroduced SA is so strong, that an open revolt is quite impossible. Again and again demonstrations are taking place. If arrests are made on such occasions it is at once ascertained whether the arrested people had formerly been active in the working class movement. If this is the case, these people, whether men or women, are shot in most cases.

Among the foreign workers too the conviction is prevalent that at the present moment a revolutionary uprising is quite hopeless. As far as sabotage and demonstrations occur, German and foreign workers are taking part in these activities.

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We learn from Berlin from the middle of May:

It is general knowledge that in the larger towns tens of thousands of deserters are living. The destruction of personal files owing to air attacks has created a lively traffic in personal papers of persons who have been buried among the debris. The Nazi administration tries to counteract this undermining of their administration by punishing rigorously, often with the death penalty, offences against orders and decrees.

A Swedish sailor, who has spent some time in a prison in a town on the Baltic coast, reported after his release and return home, mass executions are taking place in this prison several times a week.

Hamburg. From trustworthy sources in Hamburg we learn that the Hamburg police have - in the main - been replaced by police from the Sudeten-Gau. In the opinion of the Nazis the Hamburg police have not acted with sufficient severity on several occasions as f.i. demonstrations.

From reports received from Berlin we learn, that among Berlin Social Democrats the opinion prevails that Max Westphal and Franz Künstler have been poisoned in prison.

They also believe, that many of our friends, who have disappeared without a trace during recent months and weeks - especially since Himmler's assumption of power - have suffered the same fate.

In Hamburg more and more boys from the Hitler Youth Movement are transferred to the Waffen SS. Apart from physical fitness, they must be filled with fanatical devotion to the Führer.

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The SS troops are now considered nothing but the Nazi-bodyguard against the home front.

During training it is accepted quite naturally that the population at home is the natural enemy of the SS man. The SS men behave accordingly and the population reacts in the same way.

Wherever an SS man appears, all conversation stops. In the pubs and restaurants people leave the room, as soon as an SS uniform is in sight.

In Billwerder, a severely bombed district of Hamburg, demolition workers pushed two SS fieldkitchens into the Canal during darkness.

III. MOBLISATION OF THE LAST RESERVES

We learn from Berlin from beginning of March:

The stepped up total mobilisation of women has caused strong bitterness.

So far women with two children under six had been exempt from forced labour. Now these women were roped in for forced labour in all parts of the Reich. The Nazis hope to gain an additional 800.000 women workers in this way.

A typical example of the state of mind of the old workers who are not allowed to leave their place of work, is the letter of such a worker from Lower Silesia:

"This year I shall be 68 and I should like to rest, but the Fatherland demands its share. I am only glad that Berta (the deceased wife of the writer) need not live through all this. Paul and Willi (his two sons) are buried in Russia. Now I am alone. At one time we thought the world would be so vastly different. Sometimes one could despair."

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Not only the last ounce of manpower is being scraped together, everything, thought to be useful for the prolongation of the war, is being utilised.

We learn from Berlin from middle of May:

Now the next of kin of the approximately 4 million men, killed in action, are being asked to hand in the clothes of the dead men to the collecting centre. This demand met with very little response. Now special "commandoes" are going into the houses of the next of kin of soldiers, killed in action. The attempt to take possession of the clothes by these methods led to the most violent scenes. The fury of the population has been intensified to white heat, especially through this scheme.

IV. SIGNS OF OPPOSITION

In Hamburg. Despite repeated treats of severe penalties it has not been possible so far to prevent the frequent peace demonstrations of the Hamburg dock and wharf workers. The Gestapo representatives who, during peak hours, often travel on the harbour ferry, are simply so hemmed in by the crush, that they cannot make sure, who joins in the cry, repeated again and again: "We want peace, down with Hitler!"

The Nazi works' stewards have so far never made a denounc[ement].

Again and again it could be observed that the Nazi functionaries contact the old socialdemocratic shop stewards and trade unionists in order to have an alibi for the future.

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In Nürnberg. At the end of April 1944, a policeman, Koelzsch, was shot in Nuremberg when he was searching a house one night.

Thereupon the police entered the house and discovered in a cellar a printing press for the illegal paper "Der Durchbruch".

Up till now the Gestapo has been unable to find the newspaper personal though they tried hard.

But in May two more issues of this paper were published. The paper is being distributed in Nuremberg and North Bavaria.

In Berlin Social Democrats and Trade Unionists held their May demonstration also this year.
The report was given to our correspondent on an open postcard:

"Berlin, 6th May, 1944.

We are still living in our nailed up flat. We even got our stove so far that it is usable. This is a special joy because of the cold.
Monday we went once again on a family ramble. The whole family was once again gathered together."

(The Monday was the 1st May!)

[Spendenaufruf]

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V. WHAT GERMAN MEMBERS OF THE OPPOSITION THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE

A Social Democratic functionary in charge of our borderland-work reports about his impressions of the ideas of German oppositional groups, during conversation with German seamen:

Apart from one worker who had been in Charkow, we have not spoken to one single German who was in favour of Bolshevism.

Apart from young people, who do not know what democracy means, older workers, when they speak of a postwar Germany are speaking only of a Social Democratic Germany. Even people from the middle classes, commercial travellers, engineers etc., frequently stress the necessity of a strong Social Democracy as the only mass movement, traditionally rooted in the consciousness of the people.

During a conversation with seamen from Hamburg, who are in touch with opposition groups, it was pointed out emphatically that the Nazis make good use of Churchill's February declaration about the Atlantic Charter.

Everywhere, on housewalls, stations, bill-boards, huge posters are carrying the text of the Churchill declaration with the Nazi commentary.

Such declarations are a gift to the Nazis who make good use of them.

This Nazi propaganda, though it cannot make Nazis of the people, nevertheless shatters their believe in the high ideals of the democracies.

This point of view is being stressed by a declaration sent to us by representatives of a Hamburg opposition group:

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"Some ten years ago the politically conscious German workers, who, as the Nazis themselves admit in official German statistics, were at that time filling concentration camps and prisons by their hundred thousands, received their first shattering blow, when Great Britain through the Naval agreement paved the way for the further expansion of the Hitler regime. Since that time more than three million German antifascists have been tortured by the Gestapo.

Nevertheless the workers in the factories and at the front saw the day coming, when it would be possible to attack the system as the crisis was approaching.

Now and again we are receiving another shattering blow, the tearing up of the Atlantic Charter.

Gratefully the Goebbels propaganda is making full use of this unexpected present.

Disappointed and embittered the workers re-examine the situation.

Nothing will deter us from our aim: Hitler must be overthrown. But many hopes for the future have gone. The war will last longer. The millions of Germans, who according to the declarations published by the Allies are to be robbed of their homeland, now think that they have nothing more to lose.

Hitler's regime has subjugated millions of Europeans - the first victims were the German workers. This wrong cries to high heaven - it must be punished. But what is to happen after that?

It is possible, that new injustice will be allowed to withhold the long hope for peace from a tortured world?

We refuse even to touch on the thought that the workers of Great Britain and America, of the free and of the occupied countries, will allow such a thing to happen."

(Published by the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, at present in London, 3, Fernside Avenue, N.W.7. Published at the beginning of September, 1944)

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_{OUR PUBLICATIONS:}

The Third Reich During the Spring and Summer of 1942

Hitlerite Germany During the Autumn of 1942

Total War in Hitlerite Germany

Hitler's Total War and the Reactions of the German People

At the Turning Point of the War (early summer 1943)

Germany a Battleground (summer and autumn 1943)

The Third Reich on the Eve of Invasion (up to May 1944)

Germany reports, published by the Executive Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, at present in London N.W.7.

_{OTHER PUBLICATIONS:}

FIRM OUR VIEW - FIRM OUR AIM
(The struggle of German Social Democrats against Hitler)

STRUGGLING REFUGEES
(The problem of interned refugees - A radio-talk to the German Workers by H. Vogel)

Conference of German Social Democrats in England
(Speeches and messages by Hans Vogel, J.S. Middleton, Louis de Brouckère and Erich Ollenhauer.)

10 Years of Nazi Dictatorship
(Speeches by Hans Vogel, Rt. Hon. David Grenfell, M.P., Walter Schevenels and Louis de Brockère)

Germany's Future in the Light of World Opinion
(Speech delivered by Hans Vogel

Germany and Europe in the Post-War-World
(Speech delivered by Hans Vogel)

"SOZIALISTISCHE MITTEILUNGEN" - News for German Socialists in England -
(Monthly information for German Social Democrats in Great Britain and in oversea countries in German)

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