GERMANY: A Night with the Police

Three members of the German Social Democratic Party drove through the evening rain. Near the Neukölln Rathaus an American Military Police jeep halted the car. Party Chairman Max Fechner, Sec retary Fritz Schreiber, Committeeman Herman Schlimme followed the MPs into their headquarters at the Hermannplatz.

Inside, a sergeant brusquely asked why they had been speeding. Schreiber, the driver, replied that he had driven at a moderate pace. Grey-haired, austere Fechner then produced his identity papers to show that he was party chairman, holder of Card No. 17 from the Committee for the Victims of Fascism, and authorized to drive a car.

What happened next was the subject of an Army investigation last week. According to Schreiber, the sergeant shouted: “Shut your trap, you swine,” punched Fechner in the face.

Two hours later another shift of MPs took over. The new sergeant made Fechner stand motionless with his face to the wall. After an hour and a half, the old man, an ex-concentration camp prisoner, collapsed. The sergeant ordered him up again. “You Nazi pig,” he yelled, “for twelve years you raised your hand in the Nazi salute, and here you don’t want to stand up!” At 2 a.m. the three Germans were turned over to the German police.

While U.S. military authorities investigated the complaint, other U.S. officers and civilians continued their task of teaching Germans to like and respect democracy.