To the editor:

Your Jan. 3 editorial (“Tribute delayed … It took years, but anti-Hitler Germans are finally being honored as the heroes and heroines they were.”) told only part of the story.

During 1939-42 when German armies were rolling over Europe and Africa and were winning all the battles, there was no talk of murdering Hitler. The “beloved Fuhrer” was the German savior. Germany had dreams of taking over Europe and perhaps ruling the world. The large majority of Germans, including the German military leaders, were not concerned then about Hitler’s “vicious reign” or the “atrocities such as the Holocaust.” The military success of the “1,000 Year Reich” was all that mattered.

By 1944, it became apparent Germany was going to lose the war. Only then did Col. Claus on Stauffenberg and his cohorts decide it was time to get rid of Hitler and take over the German army and the German government. They wanted to sue for peace in hopes of getting better terms from the Allies than those which would prevail under an unconditional surrender.

I fought with the U.S. Army (102nd Infantry Division) in Germany and served for several months in the Army of Occupation. I never met a German who admitted to being a Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer. I wonder where they found those hundreds of thousands of Germans we saw on newsreels as they wildly cheered and saluted Hitler when he rode in parades or appeared in stadiums during the early years of the war.

Harold D. Jones,
Lawrence