What Hitler is Losing

Adolf Hitler told his people last September that the conquered Ukraine in Russia was a priceless prize of war, rich in farmlands and factories, already a scene of reconstruction and exploitation. Last week, as the Wehrmacht reeled farther & farther back into the Ukraine (see map), the Germans were fast losing this vast (172,000 sq. mi.), heavily populated (31,000,000) territory, and the Russians were regaining one of their greatest centers of wealth.

Ships & Manganese. When they lost the Ukraine, the Russians did not scorch everything, and the Germans managed to get a number and variety of plants back into production. Last March, when the Ukraine was only partly occupied, Berlin counted 480,000 industrial firms in the eastern territories to be transferred after the war to German war veterans. Many important plants were actually producing for the Germans by 1942's end.

When the Russians recaptured Kharkov last week, they found that the huge Kharkov Tractor Works had been in partial operation for some months. Shipyards at Nikolaev on the Bug River are probably building much-needed vessels for Germany's merchant fleet plying between Rumanian ports and the threatened Crimea. The Germans are taking iron from mines at Krivoi Rog, manganese from Nikopol. The great Dnieper power dam--pride of prewar Russia--was partly wrecked just before the Red Army retreated across the Dnieper in September 1941, but in late 1942 the Germans were well along with repairs. At least in the richest part of the

Donets Basin, now almost completely reconquered, the Germans had had plenty of time (18 months) to begin the production of synthetic gasoline from coal.

Trains & Tractors. One of the first tasks of German engineers was to repair and restore highways and bridges, to convert railways as far as the Dnieper to the narrower European gauge. Restoration of reconquered railways is bound to be a major problem for the Russians.

The Russians destroyed 67,000 tractors, 18,500 heavy trucks, 22,000 combines before they gave up the Ukraine. One result was that Ukrainian farmlands produced very little for the Germans. They were able to bring in about 5,000 tractors, a few thousand plows. By forcing prisoners and peasants to work the fields 17 hours a day, the Germans were able to plant and harvest about 300,000 tons of grain in 1942 (in 1937, the Ukraine produced 10,000,000 tons of wheat alone).

But the agricultural potential was huge, and the Germans eventually would have realized it to the full. To boost future output, Alfred Rosenberg, Nazi Administrator for the eastern territories, had organized The Netherlands East Company, and had begun moving the first of 3,000,000 Dutchmen (one-third of the nation) from Holland to the Ukraine. The plan has met with little success.

Life under the Heel. Planning eventually to incorporate the Ukraine into the Greater Reich, the Germans fostered schools for Ukrainians, with special emphasis on technical training. Many Ukrainian teachers, unable to retreat when the Nazis came, taught in these schools. Movie theaters were open in most cities. Artists in cities like Odessa and Kiev were permitted to exhibit non-political works. Plays ridiculing the Soviet regime were occasionally produced under German auspices.

The Germans expended the absolute minimum on the conquered Ukrainians, extracted the utmost. For Russian handicraft products the Germans exchanged useless junk imported from the Reich. German firms opened offices in the large cities, blanketed the countryside with traveling salesmen. Solely to survive, some Ukrainians cooperated with the Nazis who had come to organize "free trade." Rather than starve, Russian bootblacks served German soldiers at street-corner stands. Other Russians opened photographic studios, candy shops, cafes. But even Berlin newspapers have admitted that the spirit of subservience to the Germans is rare in the Ukraine.

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