Swing (Jan-Dec 1945)

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52 "No, Tm fighting Hitler," or "I am fighting the Nazis," or "I'm fighting the German form of government." The others, however, said they definitely were fighting the German people, every man and woman. To test the sincerity of their statements, to find out if these people were saying what they meant and were thinking in straightforward terms, I posed this brutal question both to men and women : "You say you are fighting the German people. Now suppose you were the bombardier in the last plane — iT-n,i ••rUe UVsp .\.M. ' // some people could see themselves as others do — January, 194 S of a bombing formation which already had destroyed your target, an aircraft factory. "There is no need for you to drop any more bombs on it. But your instructions had been to destroy the target and any other object which might hinder our victory. "You sec that the airplane factory is destroyed. But a mile away you see two hundred German women aircraft workers who had escaped from the factory when the air raid sirens sounded. Now my question is, would you drop your bombs on those two hundred German women who made airplanes?" The question shocked most people. Some of those who determinedly had said they were fighting the German people recoiled — and retracted. Others stayed at their bombsight. "Of course I would," said a grower of apples in upper New York state. "Those women make the planes that shoot down our men. Everyone is in this war and, to me, those women would be the same as soldiers." "No," said an industrialist in Virginia, "those people are victims of the war just because they are Germans. It is the fault of their leaders." But a banker sitting beside the industrialist took the opposite view. "In the last war we fought the Kaiser. That's what I did in uniform, and l(K)k where we are today. This time I'm fighting the German people, every damn one of them. Sure, I'd drop that bomb." Our John Smiths of the two views are found in every economic group