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Weak spot of the Vopo is morale. The men are recruited from East Germany's tattered, disillusioned youth, enticed by promises of the best wages, food and clothing. When recruiting lags, state factories discharge young workers and state employment agencies offer these unemployed a choice: join the Vopo or work in the uranium mines. Leaves are hard to get and liberty uniforms are kept under lock. Each month an average of 90 to 100 Vopos get fed up, desert to the west. Probably no more than 30% of the whole force are ideologically certified Reds. In fact, the Russians, like the western allies, show some reluctance to rearm Germans. Their two prize Nazi trophies, captured Generals Friedrich von Paulus and Walther von Seydlitz, are still in Russia, apparently not trusted to run an army of Germans. Veteran Wehrmacht officers originally assigned to the Vopos are being shunted aside as unreliable. The Russians hope to rear a new generation of indoctrinated German officers, but seem to have recurring doubts about them too.
