Men Wanted

Adolf Hitler needed men last week for his counteroffensive in Russia. Willingly or not, German-occupied and -puppetized countries were being drained of fighting-age men.

In the beginning it had been a different story. Then the Fuehrer graciously opened German ranks for non-German volunteers who wanted to help in the mass extermination of Communism. Gaunt, gimpy little Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels cunningly stressed racial and religious differences to realize the Fuehrer's vision of allied legions swarming from Europe's four corners.

For some it was a matter of question able honor but material gain. The "Legion of French Volunteers Against Bolshevism," endorsed by Vichy, offered recruits a tidy 40 francs a day (against the ten francs paid by France's "Armistice Army"). In German uniforms and tricolor brassards, they swore fealty to the Reichsfuehrer and were exhorted to avenge Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. Men with families in concentration camps learned that joining the legion would free them.

Spain's "Blue Division" was a full division of General Francisco Franco's regular Army, seasoned with a sprinkling of Moorish fighters. From the Scandinavian countries Germany got a few Swedes, Danes and Norwegians for a "Viking Division." Rumania, Hungary and Finland, promised territorial gains, sent heavy contributions.

Russia lost little time in singling out the volunteers for special attention. Soviet bombers dropped pamphlets in several languages behind the German lines, offering safe conduct and fair treatment to deserters. Many recruits enlisted only long enough to obtain guns, ammunition and supplies, then legged it for the Russian lines. Last report from the French legion told of its crushing defeat near Mozhaisk. The Blue Division, a Spanish prisoner told his Soviet captors, has lost 8,000 men.

The time for cajolery and promises was past. The Nazi recruiting program turned to tried & true Nazi methods: Dutch labor conscripts, said the Free Dutch Government in London last week, are being forced into German uniforms to avoid "tragic consequences" for their families at home.

From Hungary the German General Staff ordered a new army of some 400,000 men. Hungary's war lords flatly told Premier Laszlo Bardossy that this was impossible. Then the Wilhelmstrasse tried to blackmail Hungary by threatening to "rectify" the 1940 Vienna award which returned Transylvania to Hungary. Having struggled most of his public life to regain Hungary's lost territories, Dr. Bardossy tried to follow the example of his predecessor, Count Paul Teleki, who, when pressed too hard by the Germans, put a bullet through his head. (Dr. Bardossy was prevented.)

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