GERMANY: Ja (1946)

There were echoes of 1935 and 1938 plebiscites in Russian-occupied Saxony last week. Hitler never loaded a question more heavily than that which the Russians put to German voters: "Do you agree to the law for the transfer of the plants of militarist and Nazi criminals into the hands of the people?"

Few Germans dared express their own questions. Why was there no list of factories affected? Hadn't the Allies already confiscated all Nazi property months ago? Was not the real issue at stake the nationalization of all private industrial property?

Said Der Tagesspiegel, the U.S.-licensed Berlin newspaper: "Parties elected by nobody...

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