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Letter from Karl Lewke to the Central Committee of the SED (December 2, 1945)

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One million anti-Bolshevists heading our way.
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The democratic rebuilding of Germany is endangered by the most serious threats.
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Every day, between 1,000 and 2,000 prisoners of war pass through the camp gates of Frankfurt/Oder to freedom. Tired, broken, and ragged, they disperse across Germany. Each one an agitator, each one an instigator against “communist” conditions. Each one, on account of his external appearance, a living demonstration of these very “communist” conditions. All things are twisted, appear in a bad light – if civilians and released prisoners of war meet.

What about acknowledging the shared responsibility of the German people – what about an objective, political discussion? Who in these chance group meeting speaks of reconstruction, collaboration, and the like? No, there is never any talk of that. Here, the consequences of a total war, the effects of a total defeat are merely the evil intentions of the even more evil Bolshevism. Forgotten is Hitler, forgotten Nazism. Indeed, even the awful terrors of the battlefield, the fears, the horror of the thundering bombing nights of biting smoke – all this seems pushed into the distant past. They see only today, all their anger, their hatred is directed against this. They eagerly indulge in the hope of an imminent military confrontation between Russia and England-America. All Nazi insinuations fall on willing ears. The German legion set up by the English is already marching in the English zone. In fact, people know precisely: for four weeks the starved men are first nursed back, six weeks of home vacation makes them ready for new military training.

War, war, and only war, with this obsession thousands of released men are filtering back into the homeland that is hard at work rebuilding and are thus acting like a brake block.

Up to 2,000 men a day are being released from the 3 camps (69 Horn Barracks, Nuhmenstrasse – 2/69 Hoffbauer Barracks, Birnbaummühle – Camp Kliestow)

November 15, 1945

1,400

men

November 16, 1945

12,000

November 17, 1945

900

November 20, 1945

1,600

November 21, 1945

950

November 22, 1945

800

November 23, 1945

1,670

November 26, 1945

1,200

November 27, 1945

1,100

November 28, 1945

1,800

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