Arnold Lapiner
wenn jemals ein feindliches Flugzeug die deutsche Reichsgrenze erreicht dann heiss'ich Obermeier.
(If ever one enemy aircraft reaches the border of the German Reich, call me Obermeier.)
Hermann Goering, 1939
In the period just after VE Day it was the most quoted statement ever made by any Nazi. Unleashed German comics had a field-day with it.
In Germany, Bavaria is "hillbilly" country and "Obermeier" is used generically as an adjective like L'il Abner, Jed Clampett or Snuffy Smith. "Obermeier" is meant as a put-down, an insult, like Jesse Jackson's "Hymietown." Neither Goering nor Jesse ever apologized.
"They (the Nazis) lost the war..." Not us, not the Germans, not GermanyÑ they, the Nazis: in the German mind fault, guilt was absolute and total; they, the Nazis, not us.
After May 8,, 1945, that statement summed up German disillusionment with Nazism, its ideology and, especially, its hierarchy.
For 12 years the Germans had been bombarded with grandiose, pie-in-the-sky promises of greatness and prosperity; they were the Herrenvolk, the master race. In return, they received ruined cities, devastated industry, millions of casualties, extreme food shortages and Lucky Strikes as currency. Everyone blamed Hitler and the Nazis; even the Nazis blamed the Nazis.
On May 8, 1945, the day I won the war in Europe, I was transferred from the Infantry to Military Government. Why was I selected? Well, I was a professional musician from Brooklyn. Isn't that reason enough? Nowhere was it reflected in my records that I was fluent in German.
Between 1943 and 1963 I served a total of 12 years, in three tours, in Germany: first as a de-nazification specialist and then in counterintelligence. Most of my time was spent with German officials, government, administration and police, at all levels, including my counterparts, the Bundesamt fuer Verfassungschutz, (BfV, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Ñ the equivalent of our FBI) and, of course, the ordinary and not so ordinary citizens. Some days I didn't speak English until I got home from the office.
One of the ancillary missions of Military Government, indeed of all occupation forces, was to teach democracy to the Germans.
We succeeded.
One important factor in our favor was the total astonishment on the part of the Germans that we didn't do to them what they had done to the nations they conquered. There was also the element of pragmatism Ñ democracies won, dictatorships lost, ergo, democracy good, totalitarianism bad.
April 1946, Hitler's birthday was approaching on the 20th (today it's a holiday in Idaho) and the word was out that unreconstructed Nazis were going to greet each other by saying Achtundachtzig, (eight-eight). "H" being the eigth letter of the alphabet, 88 would be "HH" or "Heil Hitler." Cute? We let it be known that we didn't give a damn if they actually said the words "Heil Hitler." This underground code eventually died.
WWII vets will also recall the German 88, the versatile and effective 88mm gun.
A year later came the Marshall Plan. Large signs appeared on many factories and business buildings stating: "THIS ENTERPRISE EXISTS THANKS TO THE MARSHALL PLAN. Notices over the timeclocks reminded workers that "[Their] livlihood [depended] on the Marshall Plan." That had a more positive, pro-democratic effect on the people than all the oratory at the United Nations, international conferences and the like.
Currency reform and the switch from the worthless Reichsmark to the Deutschmark provided a viable, valuable currency that led to the Wirtschaftswunder, the economic miracle that, overnight it seemed, gave the people products to spend it on, like potatoes, bread, meat, vegbtables, milk and unrationed clothing. And soon, vacation trips to Italy for ordinary workers!
Imagine the effect on the devastated citizenry of a destroyed nation when, within a mere two years after the bombing stopped, the enemy, the democratic enemy, brought prosperity to the vanquished.
(It should be understood that Germany in 1947 was still an occupied, enemy nation. The Federal Republic of Germany (West) was not established until May 23, 1949. In 1947 the Morgenthau Plan, which would have reduced Germany to perpetual poverty stricken agrarian nation, was still being discussed.)
Mentioned then by only a few Germans, mostly intellectuals, the thought of an implemented Morganthau Plan descended and became part of the German psyche which, in turn, led to such statements as: "We were not conquered, we were liberated." And they had the situation in Soviet occupied East Germany for comparison and also to provide a bit of Schadenfreude. (No translation, you do it.)
Today, Germany is a democracy by definition and practice. Leaders and spokespeople of the U.S., the Allies, the liberated nations and indeed of Germany, express the expected platitudes on VE Day. But a more valid reflection of vox populi is found in the German press. Herewith a selection (translated):
Aachener Vokszeitung: ...so came the true liberation from totalitarian criminal thought and action...
Stuttgarter Nachrichten: You will be able to recognize the decent Germans if they consider May 8 as the day of liberation rather than defeat. (quoting Heinrich Boll)
Berliner Zeitunq: The military defeat of National Socialism provided the only chance for Germany to become free and democratic.
Offenbacher Post: May 8, liberation from the brown horror regime.
Koelner Express: We owe a debt of gratitude for our liberation, and respectful memory to the victims of the holocaust.
...and so on from most other leading German dailies and media.
What about the neo-Nazis and other far right extremist groups in Germany? In the wake of the Oklahoma City atrocity one might say, "Who are we to talk?" There is no possibility that German extremists will ever become political allies of any of the German political parties, liberal, conservative, center or environmentalist. Does any rational American reject the possibility that our armed "militia", the Idaho crazies, the true believers of the Ku Klux Klan and all those other like-minded groups will ever be part of the Republican right wing? Overtly? Some are already making the appropriate noises and some heretofore decent Republican voices seem to be suspiciously tolerant or even in support of those efforts. The general attitude of the Germans toward the neo-Nazis varies from ridicule to concern. Not that they that think that Nazism or a clone of Nazism could become a real and present danger. Their main worry is that it gives the nation a bad name, and our media have not helped us understand just how few Nazis there are in Germany.
Imagine for an instance: about 25 Skinheads stage a demonstration and the US media treatment of this non-event gives the impression that Der Tag is imminent. Two days later 25,000 Germans demonstrate against the Skinheads. US media play is minimal Ñ a tiny item buried in the innards of the New York Times, The Washington Post and a handful of other minor dailies and noticed only by a few nitpickers, like me.
Test: Do you remember that case last year and several others before, and after?
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