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Show Nazi Break With Russia Foiled Sabotage in U. S. Hitler Held Responsible for Wrecking Germany's Ger-many's Elaborate Plans to Blow Up Vital Points in U. S. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. , . m - ' i'j WNU Service, 1343 II Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. A mystery that has perplexed many laymen and some officials in Washington with respect to the manner man-ner in which the government has forestalled a mammoth Nazi plan for sabotaging American industry can now be explained. There will be no official confirmation of the explanation but it comes to me from what are frequently described as "informed sources" which really means "a man who has never lied to me so far." In a sentence: The man who wrecked elaborate Nazi plans for blowing up munitions plants, railway rail-way terminals, bridges, electric light and power plants in the United States was none other than Adolf Schikelgruber, Hitler himself. He did It when he tossed the Ribbcntrop-Molotov pact out of the window just after Nazi armies had launched their surprise drive on Russia. To understand what a job the fuehrer did for himself we must remember that for years, with the methodical care of the German mind, a detailed plan had been worked out for the sabotage of American industry. Even during the last war there were some terrible ter-rible and effective pieces of sabotage sabo-tage accomplished by a comparatively compara-tively untrained and unregimented crowd of German spies. The famous Black Tom explosion which wrecked the huge New Jersey plant not far from New York city, was an example. ex-ample. An international mixed claims commission finally awarded huge damages to the United States for that act. But the Nazis began where the kaiser left off. They had schools for the training of saboteurs especially selected from Germans who had lived in the United States and were lured back to Germany and either bribed or intimidated into undertaking undertak-ing the work of destruction in territory terri-tory with which thy had become t Uiiiilifr Details of this training came out in the secret testimony in the recent trial of the Nazi saboteurs in Washington. Wash-ington. But much of it was ancient history to the department of justice. And the way the advance information informa-tion came into the hands of our intelligence in-telligence officers was this: While the Germans had their pact of friendship with Russia, Nazi agents were busy making friends with Communists all over the world in the hope that they could use them for subversive activities. The Communists Com-munists naturally did not turn a deaf ear and Hitler's agents told all. Then came the double cross, Germany Ger-many attacked Russia, and Communist Com-munist and Nazi who had always hated each other thoroughly gave vent to their real feelings. The plans which the Nazis had confided to the Communists were turned over to the governments of the United Nations. The United States also had been picking up a little information about the German sabotage methods in other ways such as by planting a man or two in the German Gestapo. These men learned, from one source or another, that the Germans had hired safe crackers in this country coun-try to steal the blue prints of factories fac-tories from insurance companies, which always demand a detailed description de-scription and plan of all buildings they insure. The plans were stolen, photographed and returned. That is one example. Many other little de-,vious de-,vious tricks and enterprises were ; revealed by dint of our own investi-- investi-- gators, and with the help of the Communists who had complete and exhaustive data, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was able to take the necessary steps to break up the complicated plots and counter-plots to wreck American industry. So far ' there have been very few, if any, major cases which have been branded brand-ed as sabotage in this country, thanks to Mr. Hitler. On Pronunciation You may not know it, but nobody thinks broadcasters know how to pronounce the names of foreign places. Some write in and tell us about it and even the news services try to help us. When an item comes over the news ticker about Rzhev or Chumbly they obligingly put the pronunciation in brackets. The other day the news services had something to say about disturbances disturb-ances in Lyons, France. Now I've been hearing about Lyons all my life and I know perfectly well that Lyons is pronounced like two lions in the zoo. I also know that the same city is spelled by the French without the "s," Lyon and I've visited that ancient and attractive city and I know how the French pronounce pro-nounce it. So when the ticker said. "Lyons (pronounced Lee-on)" I got the same feeling as when I once heard two Frenchmen disputing whether Washington was called "Vashinjton" or "Vassington." Lyon, if you want to be pedantic, is not pronounced "Lee-on" or anything any-thing like it. If you want to pronounce pro-nounce it the French way, you'll have to study French. As for me, I'll go on saying Lyons, and I'll continue con-tinue to say Paris not "Pah-ree," and Rome, and Vienna and The Hague and Cologne and Athens, although al-though I know that the natives don't call any of those cities by those names. Notes From a Broadcaster's Diary Is the government farm-conscious? It is. I am going to risk a gentle indiscretion and quote a suggestion from a high government source to broadcasters. It is part of an appeal ap-peal to encourage enlistment in our merchant marine that must have one hundred thousand skilled workers work-ers for the shipyards in 1942; must have 120,000 experienced seamen. Here is the suggestion: "Take care to specify that the Merchant Marine does not want men engaged in farming or war production produc-tion work. They do their share now. Any change would bring more harm than good. It does, however, want the young, the strong, the adventurous adven-turous for seagoing jobs, and the skilled capable workers for the shipyards ship-yards ..." And the government wants the skilled farmer to stay on the farm where he is: Food will win the war and write the peace. The Whole Truth The Nazi regime is not usually credited with doing much to encourage encour-age truth. Hitler himself spends many paragraphs in "Mein Kampf" telling about the importance of being be-ing a good liar. But, strange as it may seem, according to a tale that is whispered behind the closed doors of state department offices, the Nazis have struck a blow for verity. Here is the tale which may never appear in the official communiques of our ministry of foreign relations. When Germany declared war on the United States last December, after Pearl Harbor, there were still several hundred Americans, men and women, living in Paris. Many of them had lived there for 20 years, getting their American passports renewed re-newed periodically. Some of the ladies, it seems, took advantage of these periodical renewals to lop a couple of years off their age now and again. And who would grudge the ladies a few years stolen from the calendar, calen-dar, especially in Paris? But the gentle prevarication bounced back with a vengeance. For when the Nazis announced that women under 60 would be interned in concentration concentra-tion camps, while older women would be allowed to remain at liberty, lib-erty, a certain number of American women suddenly discovered that the age shown on their passport was erroneous. They hurried to the Swiss consulate, which had charge of American interests, and swore out affidavits to the effect that they were not, say, 45, but 62. Not all of these belated amendments amend-ments were accepted by the Nazi officials gallant for once. The consequence con-sequence is that the rigors of the Nazi internment camps are now being be-ing suffered by women who, if they had been less coquettish about their years, would now be free. Buy War Bonds |
