"she said it was stupid that our soldiers had to undergo such dangers"

[norml]

Front soldier X was wounded at Stalingrad and was airlifted back home. During his long months of recovery, his thoughts turned often to his dead and missing comrades and their families. He knew how relieved his family was at his return, and how great a burden the less fortunate had to bear. He used his short leave to visit the families of those who were closest to him. He was the last to see them, and it was his duty to pass on the last handshake from sons and husbands to their mothers and wives. It was a hard duty made easier by the fact that they had nearly all been men who did their duty. But it gave him occasion to reflect.

He visited a family of acquaintances. They spoke of this and that. The conversation turned to an old woman. One preferred to avoid Frau So-and-So. She was a nice enough woman, to be sure, but she said the oddest things. Recently, she said it was stupid that our soldiers had to undergo such dangers, and similar things. She caused a lot of bother and annoyance, and probably is not quite right in the head. One really cannot take her seriously.

One didn't report her to the police, our reader asked? No, one could not do that. One could hardly send her to prison or even the gallows. She was such a nice woman!

And these were fine loyal Germans, old and honest National Socialists...

The story got our front soldier thinking. He did not overestimate the matter; he knew that the hysterical old thing talked such nonsense and slandered German soldiers to get attention, and that she belongs to that irreducible one percent of fools and criminals that every nation has, even Germany. He had been near to death too often not to understand life. He was not surprised that there are such people. Rather, he was surprised that there are people who underestimate the dangers of such behavior, and that some are considerate toward such people from misplaced bourgeois sentimentality.

No reasonable person is surprised that some old biddy talks in a way that will sooner or later attract the attention of the states attorney. He is surprised that good citizens, loyal old National Socialists, hear such things and are angered by them because they know the possible effects, but do nothing about it because "She is such a nice old lady." Actually, they are cowards who lack a sense of civic responsibility. The resulting investigation might be uncomfortable for them.

This is the core of the problem that we have to speak openly about, German to German, National Socialist to National Socialist.

Our enemy is giving us a clear enough picture of what he would do to us so that only a small percentage of criminals and racial trash in Germany opposes our victory. Their number is so small as to pose no danger to us. However, they could have an impact not only at home, but far worse on the soldiers at the front.

The front soldier who meets such people at home, even if they are rare, can easily forget all that he experiences at the front: the silent dedication with which millions do their duty, their quiet work for victory. It therefore goes without saying that we must treat these few outsiders with the same determination and harshness that we show toward the enemy, regardless of how stupid and innocuous we find them. This is a war of our very survival. He who does not want victory wants our defeat. He who wants our defeat wants our death.
snip
Link to full text... http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/sk02.htm

[NYC]

1. That's a frightening article.

I hope no one in the Bush administration is reading it.

[norml]

2. It says many of the same things that right wing media whores are saying

now about those expressing concerns for the safety of the troops.

[bobbieinok]

3. close of translated Nazi article

....Listen to the voice of the front, to the voice of the soldier whose letter occasioned this article:

"Any such compassion is absurd. Today, one cannot excuse standing aside with ignorance or error. The laughably small number of enemies who remain at home suffer from irremediable lack of character, regardless of whether they do it by choice or not. They can no longer be persuaded, only rendered harmless by direct and unforgiving action.

We owe that to our comrades at the front, and to all those generations who lived and died for Germany's greatness. We owe it as well to the millions of our people who are ready to go through he heights and the depths under a leadership that knows how to bring out their best. These people do their duty bravely and loyally, and are after all the ground from which the genuine greatness of the nation grows.

He who sins today against the life of our people must be destroyed. We demand that babblers at home be treated the same as the enemies abroad. They have earned that treatment by their deeds."

So may every person at home think. Behind him stands the invisible man in a gray uniform. He who does not do the duty the front expects of him betrays it. He perhaps betrays his own son, he betrays the honored dead who also died for him.

It is a period of struggle. It is hellishly dangerous if we do not expect all of the German people to be in the same boat, no matter how stupid they may be.

NOTE end of letter

He who sins today against the life of our people must be destroyed. We demand that babblers at home be treated the same as the enemies abroad. They have earned that treatment by their deeds."