CHOLM: HEAPS OF SKULLS
549
the International Red Cross to the scene. So that was over and prob–
ably would not occur again. But who can be sure that it will not
return? We were merely the wave that broke; and could not this wave
roll back again?
VI
But the winter of 1941-42 also brought something else: it brought
the death of the Fatherland. Is it possible to love a Fatherland which
tolerates such bloody crimes?
The Fatherland lies in the slime and mud of the prisoners' camp
at Cholm, as many have witnessed. It has been trampled underfoot
by the many thousands of prisoners' feet and by the German boot–
heels. What we must say cannot be silenced, not even by the trials of
the war criminals. It may be that this hard experience will lead to
the rebirth of the Fatherland, not today nor tomorrow, but one day
when the signs are favorable. It cannot have been entirely in vain
and from it perhaps something new must arise, something new to
replace that which has so utterly failed us.
Today the trains are again rolling eastward. But it is the Rus–
sians, the many prisoners of war and the slave laborers who now,
after years of privation, are going home. Millions of them will never
return. They are the victims of war and madness. Among those now
on the march too are many German prisoners of war. Their fate is
uncertain. Many will break down under the burden they will have
to bear. Many have already broken down. And the same is true of
our prisoners of war throughout the world. They now have to bear
the fate that we, in Hitler's words, deserve so well. But
if
this war
has taught us one thing at least, it is that we must turn away with
loathing from all those who do not see the creature of God in man.
Without God or morality mankind cannot live. Cholm showed
us that. The time for grasping at nebulous things is past; clear and
open laws are needed that provide a sure foundation for man's treat–
ment of man. The ten commandments of Mount Sinai are today as
real .as they were ten thousand years ago. No law is violated with
impunity, and no law was created simply through the arbitrary will
of the lawgiver. These laws are the outcome of mankind's · long ex–
perience and its incessant effort to curb the evil in its nature. V/ e, too,
must cope with this evil. We must first learn the laws aright before
we practice them. Thou shalt not kill! Thou shalt not punish arbi–
trarily! Thou shalt not plunder, rob, murder, burn! Guard the enemy
