LET THE DEMOCRACIES GIVE THE GERMAN MAJORITY

AN ENCOURAGING ALTERNATIVE TO HITLER'S SYSTEM—
AND GIVE IT NOW
BY OTTO STRASSER
NEWS REVIEW has ranked the
Catholic Bishop of Munster, Count Clemens August von Galen, among the fise greatest heroes of the year 1941.
" A rarer quality than physical courage," says the paper, " is moral courage. the ability to hold out, unbroken and unflinching. against the blackest forces of tyranny. The num who last year gave the most sensational example of moral courage was a German"; it adds: " Inside Hitler's Third Reich he dared to raise his voice against the Nazis."
The Swiss weekly, Die Weltwoche (The World Week). published a few weeks ago a survey of the sale of Bibles in Germany before Hitler, under Hitler, and since the outbreak of war. Alongside it placed the comparative number of copies of Hitler's Mein Kampf. which do not equal even one-half of the sale of the Bible.
This free alone must show every contemporary, who is not blinded by hatred, what a great contrast exists between Hitler's system and the German people. This is all the more signiticaat, because facts express the attitude of the average German and not that of the political vanguard.
80 per cent. are Indifferent
I base deliberately mentioned this mental conflict because final outcomes are always decided in the realm of the spiritual, and above all, because it provides us with a hopeful indication for the future, which purely political controversies leave clouded and uncertain.
A cross section of the German people would prove that only 10 per cent. of the German people are convinced adherents of Hitler, but alas, that only the same percentage arc his convinced opponents, whereas the overwhelming majority of 80 per cent. is more or less indifferent in political matters, and more or less loyal to any form of Government.
It is specifically the feelings of these 80 per cent. of loyal citizens to which the heroic Bishop of Munster gives expression. Precisely these non-political Germans are the ones who buy the Bibles and seek in it comfort and consolation in these disconsolate times.
And precisely these simple, modest men and women, who wish nothing else than a nice family, healthy children, and a somewhat secure old age; they are the millions whom Goebbels had in mind when he stated in his speech of February 6, 1942: " Ask thousands of Germans whether they would rather have war or peace, and the answer would be unanimous: Peace"