They Who Cannot Laugh

German nerves tautened.

P:The High Command ordered the word catastrophe eliminated from all military reports and "the vocabulary in general."

P:Astrology, verboten two years ago, lured a growing clandestine interest. The Nazi press complained that Germans paid more attention to astrologers' prophecies than to Government communiques.

P:When a Finnish professor discovered a minor new comet, immemorial portent of war, famine and pestilence, the Berlin radio gave hurried reassurance: "These comets have their rational explanation. There is no need to have cold shivers running over your spine."

P:Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels invited German mobs to lynch downed Allied airmen. "It is too much to ask of us that we call out German soldiers to protect murderers of children from the righteous anger of their parents."

P:The authorities sought ways to cheer the dour people. Amid Berlin's debris 72 movie theaters kept open; they held high priority in air-raid repair. A flower show in the capital featured half a million tulips. The Nazi Party stepped up weekend sports; Berliners had a choice of boating on the Wannsee, trotting races at Mariendorf, steeplechasing at Karlshorst, football, tennis and hockey matches. The radio urged: "The human body and soul need the stimulating reactions of the laughing muscles. He who cannot laugh lives in vain."

P:A British woman, interned by the Germans and repatriated last week, brought home this report: "The German people, especially those in the country, are terrified of being invaded. German newspapers make things much worse because every day they come out with a different date for the invasion day. . . . The German people have so long been taught to believe every word in their newspapers that this contradiction makes them more nervous than ever."

P:From Stockholm, TIME Correspondent John Scott cabled: "Serious armed clashes between SS domestic troops and armament workers have occurred in Germany during the past six weeks. Troops have tried to prevent workers from going to air-raid shelters on the approach of enemy planes. There have been several hundred casualities, notably in Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin and Osnabrueck. But the importance of these clashes should not be overestimated. There will have to be many more shootings and casualties before disaffection spells the Government's collapse."

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