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PARTISAN REVIEW
tion. At the same time, the need of spiritual leadership in Germany is
very great. There is certainly, as Mr. Bevin has pointed out, as great
a spiritual as a material crisis of starvation in Germany.
From this point of view we can regard Germany as Sodom.
If
we can find ten good Germans, we can save the spiritual life of Ger–
many. That is to say, if we can put ten Germans whom the Ger–
mans can respect as being not only Germans, but men accepted and
listened to by the outside world, into touch, through every possible
means of freedom of movement and publicity, with the German
people, and with the outside world, we shall have shown the Germans
the path which leads them up from despair and darkness, the path
which also leads them into the European community.
There is a great need in Germany to discuss--on the highest
intellectual level-not only questions of party, but also questions of
religion, questions of German history, the German conception of
power, the way of life. In Germany there may be men of exemplary
disinterestedness-men who have always been against the Nazis- who
can speak to the Germans of these things which concern them more
immediately than politics. Such Germans are to be found in the
concentration camps, in the Churches and the Universities. Some of
them are to be found amongst the refugees. However, the refugees
can only influence Germany if they are prepared to give up every–
thing: that is to say, if they are prepared like Karl Barth, who has
returned to Bonn University, to go back to their country and live
there as Germans. The greatest need of the Germans today is for per–
sonal examples of outstanding people who can teach them how to
overcome their despair and how to harness the guilt to active repent–
ance.
