The practice of executing scores of innocent hostages
in reprisal for isolated attacks on Germans in countries temporarily
under the Nazi heel revolts a world already inured to suffering and brutality. Civilized
peoples long ago adopted the basic principle that no man should be punished
for the deed. of another. Unable to apprehend the persons involved in
these attacks the Nazis characteristically slaughter fifty or a hundred
innocent persons. Those who would "collaborate" with Hitler
or try to appease him cannot ignore this ghastly warning.
The Nazis might have learned from the last war the
impossibility of breaking men's spirits by terrorism. Instead they develop
their lebensraum and "new order" by depths of frightfulness
which even they have never approached before. These are the acts of
desperate men who know in their hearts that they cannot win. Frightfulness
can never bring peace to Europe. It only sows the seeds of hatred which
will one day bring fearful retribution.