Mayer Re-Evaluates German Role in 'They Thought They Were Free'

7

"They Thought They Were Free
—The Germans 1933-1945" by
Milton Mayer was published in
1955. It has just been republished
by University of Chicago Press
(11030 S. Langley, Chicago 60628)
as a paperback. It retains its value
today. It is a description of 10 Ger-
mans—under Hitler—Nazi follow-
ers—referred to by the author as
his friends. It is a study of their
attitudes as applied to the present.
In a sense, this single quotation
summarizes a portion of the idea
in this book:
"Adolf Hitler was good for Ger-
many—in my friends' view—up
, until 1943. 1941, or 1939, depend-
big upon the individual's assess-
ment of his strategy. After that—
you have only to look at Germany,
'at us, Herr Professor,' to see that
he was bad for Germany. Hitler
belongs to the ages; what he left
behind him belongs to my friends,
who are scrabbling in the ruins.
The distant future may revive him,
but I think not; the distant future
is not likely to leave Germany as
it was or is."
But it is not the total assess-
ment. The attitudes, the manner
in which there was a yielding to
Nazism, the retention of some
loyalties—because Hitler gave the
good time to Germans, because of
an attitude of "those were good
times" when there was employ-
ment—the comparable feelings of
the present of accepting the good
`while it lasts"— these enrich the
Mayer work as a commentary not
only on the past but on the present
as well.
The "Hitler and V delineation
is especially illuminating, refer-
ring to the acceptance of the
Nazi idea by the "friends" un-
der scrutiny, by the one who
"was never alienated from his
Party faith or its leadership by
what he still regards-as the local
- perversions of its principles by
',the little Hitters.' "
Mayer writes : "The little Hitters'
recurred constantly in any conver-
sation with my friends. It did not
derogate Hitler—quite the oppo-
site. 'The little Hitters' were the
local or provincial officials, fel-
lows you knew or had heard other
fellows talk about familiarly. You
knew (or had reason to believe)
that they were no bigger than you
were; you detested their imitation
of the Fuehrer, above all, of his
certainty and the absoluteness that
springs from certainty. But, be-
cause of the old military principle
of command which was obtained
throughout the Party, you could
do : nothing about it but dream at
night that 'Schmidt, the little Hit-
ler, had fallen on his face in public
and you were chosen by acclaim to
replace him. None of my friends,
even today, ascribes moral evil to
Hitler, although most of them
think that he made fatal strategical
mistakes which even they them-
selves might have made at
the
time . .
Without equating us with them,
Mayer states: "Germans were

no more given to association with
noncomformist persons or organi-
zations than we are. They en-
gaged themselves in opposing
the government much less than
we do. Few Americans say 'No'
to the government--fewer Ger-
mans. None of my ten friends
said 'No' to the Nazi government,
and only one of them, Teacher
Hildebrant, thought 'No.' "
As to the past: "The German
community—the rest of the 70,000,-
000 Germans, apart from the mil-
lion or so who operated the

NY Jewish Blind Sell
$551,836 of Their Goods

NEW YORK (JTA)—The Jew-
ish Guild for the Blind reported
that its workshop center sold
$551,836 worth of hospital linens,
surgical drapes, pillow cases and
other goods during 1965. The
products were shipped to various
parts of the world including Viet-
nam.
More than 100 men and women,
all of them blind and some of
them handicapped in other ways,
are employed at the guild's work-
shop center here. Through its
contract shop, the guild subsidizes
and trains marginal workers to
make toys, Christmas light bulks,
file folders and paper products.

whole machinery of Nazism—had
nothing to do except not to inter-
fere."
Mayer, the American and the
Jew, who stemmed from Germany,
having returned there to make the
study, having portrayed the ten
friends, concludes, discussing the
demonstration of democratic ways
of life to the Germans by Amer-
icans: "Children misbehave under
pressure . .. Beating the Germans
has had the same consequences as
beating the child . . . . It would be
nice if we Americans could mani-
fest some of the compassion that
relieves the compulsive child . . . .
It is risky to let people alone. But
it is riskier still to press my ten
Nazi friends—and their 70,000,000
countrymen — to re-embrace
militarist anti-Communism as a
way of national life."
Thus he relates his conclusion to
the thesis of the impact of anti-
Communism on Germans' actions.
The observations recorded point up
anew, however, the Nazi habit of
taking orders, the refusal by many
to accept the totality of the Nazi
crime.
Mayer's is a valuable study. In
relation to the current era, it pro-
vides much food for thought and
for further evaluation of the
world's and Jewry's reactions to
the Germans.

Friday, August 26, 1966-11

WJCongress to Establish Center on Nazi Activities

WEST BERLIN (JTA)—An in-
ternational center for the docu-
mentation of Nazi activities in
Germany and Austria will be
established here by the World Jew-
ish Congress in cooperation with
the Senate of West Berlin.
The center will be located in
the Wannsee section of the city in
the same house where on Jan 20,
1942 the infamous Wannsee Con-
ference on the "Final Solution of
the Jewish Question" was held,
presided over by Reinhard Hey-
drich, former S.S. leader. The

documentation center will be
headed by Joseph Fulf, noted
Jewish historian and Jewish Tele-
graphic Agency correspondent
here.

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Bialik's Works Published
in Arabic Translation

AVIV (JTA) — The first
Arabic translations of several
major works by the late Hebrew
poet Haim Nachman Bialik were
published here Monday as the first
step in a translation program that
will make major Jewish works
available to Israel's Arab citizens.
The Bialik translations are the
work of Rashid Hussein, a prom-
inent Israeli-Arab poet and jour- .
nalist who undertook the assign-
ment for the Hebrew University's
InStitute of Asian and African
Sttidies, sponsors of the translation
project.
The volume published Monday
contains over 20 of Bialik's best
known poems, several legends and
extracts from the poet's auto-
Mograph ic al writings .
Themes emphasizing the poet's
personal experiences, and his views
on the national revival of the
Jewish. people were chosen for
translation as it was felt that
these subjects would afford the
Arab reader an insight into the
Zionist movement.

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