Nazi Beasties

From Ghoidies and Ghosties, and long-legged beasties and things that go flop in the night--God Lord, deliver us.

--SCOTCH LITANY.

Scuttling beasties and things that went flop in the night helped the brown shirted followers of thundering Adolf Hitler last week win what some correspondents called "their most notable political victory since 107 of them were elected to the Reichstag": official suppression of the made-in-U. S. film All Quiet on the Western Front.

Long before the film reached Germany, German opinion on its worth was neatly divided into two groups, Socialists (pacifists) who not having seen the film were sure that All Quiet was the finest, most graphic war film ever produced; Nationalists and National Socialists (Fascists) who not having seen the film were equally sure that it was a slander on German courage and an insult to Germany's War dead. The Berlin premiere fortnight ago changed few opinions, but Herr Hitler's faithful Nazis took drastic means of expressing their disapproval. Not content with shouting denunciations at the screen, rioting in front of the theatre, they threw stink bombs over the balcony rail, loosed hopfrogs and white mice among the ladies in the orchestra.

Night after night, while protests against the film piled up in the office of the Reich Film Censorship Board, the Nazi menagerie made its appearance in the theatre, amplified last week by the presence of a number of garden snakes that slithered over the feet of the audience, coiled under orchestra chairs. Socialist Prussian cabinet members and officials did their best to express approval of the film by going to the theatre in a body one night, applauding loudly. Said Prussian Prime Minister Dr. Adolf Braun:

"Admittedly the film does not show the whole War in all its phases. No director could. But it shows a portion which in its truthful, undecorated forcefulness grips every audience. I saw nothing offensive to any patriotic German."

Last week Film Censor Dr. Seeger officially banned All Quiet's exhibition in Germany. Despite denials from the Censor's office, correspondents immediately jumped to the conclusion that mice and snakes, and Hitlerite riots were responsible. So did most Germans. Said Heinrich Mann, brother of Nobel Prizeman Thomas Mann:

"In countries accustomed to a strong, confident government there cannot be the faintest comprehension of this shameful capitulation by the highest German officials before a horde of half-grown brats."

At week's end U. S. correspondents suddenly learned that Censor Seeger was technically correct in denying that Hitlerites had forced the film's closing. None less than old President Paul von Hindenburg, a man who had spent a half century in the German Army, had threatened to resign "if this libel on the German soldier" was not withdrawn.

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