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What to Do With
Germany
ABCD
Louis Nizer
(*
February 6, 1902 in London,
† November 10, 1994 in New York City) was a noted Jewish-American trial lawyer and
senior partner of the law firm Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School,
he wrote several books, among them "What to Do With Germany" (1944, US
Army) 
 . He died at the age 92 in New York City. For a
number of years, Nizer was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest-paid lawyer in the world. Over his life,
Nizer granted significant grants and charity to many Jewish causes.
Some modest Nizer statements within "What to Do With Germany": ABCD
Sterilization of the German people: ABC They argue that if compulsory serum treatments are justified by their benefits to the
community, sterilization of the German people might similarly be considered a protective measure to immunize the world forever against the virus of
Germanism . They point out that the surgical procedure is simple, painless and does not even deprive the patient of normal
instincts, or their gratification. Vasectomy, the operation on the male, simply requires a slight incision since the sperm duct lies just beneath the
skin. The operation takes only ten minutes to perform and the patient may resume work immediately
afterwards. Ligation of the fallopian tubes, the operation which renders the female sterile, is more difficult but not much more
dangerous. There are about 50 million German men and women within the procreation
ages, and it is estimated that twenty thousand surgeons performing about twenty-five operations daily could sterilize the entire male population of Germany within three
months, and the entire female population in less than three years. At the normal death rate of two per cent per annum or one and a half million people
yearly, the German people would practically disappear within two
generations. - Nizer rejects this proposal because such program of compulsory eugenic sterilization
or wholesale executions would arouse violent dissents in religious and other circles and breed new disunity among
the victors (pp. 5+6), wereas US war time president Franklin Delano Roosevelt
was pleased by this very simple and painless proposal
for which he designed an appropriate apparatus
(Henry Morgenthau Jr. 
and Franklin Delano Roosevelt met on a regular basis and Morgenthau kept a record of these meetings in his diary. In 1944, Roosevelt is quoted as saying to Morgenthau that "We have got to be tough with Germany and I mean the German people not just the Nazis. We either have to castrate the German people or you have got to treat them in such a manner so they can't just go on reproducing people who want to continue the way they have in the
past" ). ABC Outbreeding
of German people: ABC Nizer
likewise cannot accept the suggestion of Professor Earnest A. Hooton , anthropologist of Harvard University, that
we breed German aggressiveness out of its people. He would force the bulk of the present German army to work
as labor units in devastated areas for a period of 20 years or more. Single men would be permitted to marry only
women living in these areas. By such outbreeding he
would reduce the birthrate of pure Germans and neutralize aggressiveness
(p. 6).
ABC Political
Dismemberment:
ABC
What, then, of other remedies? Shall we slice German y into many segmentsFurthermore, division does not destroy or
even suspend German sovereignty. On the contrary, it creates many smaller German sovereignties and to this extent multiplies
the problem (p. 7).
ABC
Compulsory Migration: ABC Similarly unacceptable is the proposal that the
Germans be shipped out of Germany to colonization areas. This theory inclines to the belief that Germans being
scattered will be shorn of military power while preserving their constructive abilities.
But virtually emptying the Central European basin would not be a contribution to economic reconstruction.
Aside from the problems of allocation and compulsory migration of at least fifty million people, what are the
assurances for ultimate advantage to peace? This plan might well be compared with that of eradicating a
communicable disease by spreading its carriers thinly through-
out the world. Psychologically, these proposals of segregation are efforts to escape from the problem rather than solve it
(pp 9+10). ABC Germans are collectively responsible for the crimes of World War II: ABC
The vaunted efficiency of German aggression depends on millions of little cogs acting in perfect coordination which involuntary compliance could not possibly produce
( p. 13). ABC A cult of mass
murder:
ABC
The Germans have developed a philosophy which makes a religion of war and a cult of mass murder. They consider it their mission to subjugate all other peoples to slavery. They exclude the doctrines of the sacredness of human life and liberty and substitute for it the ideal of war. The unique phenomenon of Germanism is that its conspiracy against world peace is not mere gangsterism or nihilism. It is an intellectual movement, if you please. It is supported by a philosophy carefully devised, nurtured and inculcated into every citizen
(p. 27).
ABC
Wagner incites lynching:
ABC
Only in Germany could a great artist like Wagner immerse his talent in blood lust and supply an emotional incitation of German mass murder. The significance lies not in some particular theory, but in the association of cultural and intellectual thinking in Germany with mob standards. Lynching is thus raised to the level of national policy
(p. 28). ABC 5,000 Germans should be put to death without
trial, as a condition of the armistice:
ABC
Nazi group leaders must be the first to be punished. Proof of their guilt is abundant. The armistice terms should simply declare them guilty. It would be farcical to try Hitler, Himmler, Goering, Streicher, Ley or other mass murderers. They have written the evidence of their guilt in blood on every pavement in Europe. The dossiers of the United Nations are bulging with data of their unsurpassed brutality. A trial tribunal should permit them to be heard on the questions of proper identification and the extent of the punishment, but no
more (p. 95). Those condemned by name in the armistice should include the Fuehrer, the members of his cabinet, the Gauleiters, and the members of the High Command, governors of the occupied regions, and the leading bureaucrats in the state, municipal and Nazi Party organizations. These would number approximately five thousand men. Death penalties should be
demanded (p. 96)
ABC
Death penalties should be sought in trials against an additional 150,000 Germans:
ABC
Next, the leaders of German mass organizations should be indicted and tried. The Gestapo and Labor Front have about 75,000 such officials. In additions, there are about 75,000 subordinates who organized and taught the S. S., the Peasant Front and other such organizations. This entire group of about 150,000 men were the whole-hearted fanatical Nazis upon whom the ruling group relied. Death penalties should be sought against each of them.
(p. 97).
ABC
Hundreds of thousands of other Germans should also be brought to trial, sometimes with the death penalty sought:
ABC
Every German officer above the rank of colonel, including corresponding ranks in the Air Force and Navy, every member of the Gestapo, S.S. officials, and members of the German People's Court and of the German Reichstag, should be indicted and
tried. Every German official, no matter how subordinate, who at any time gave or performed orders for the execution of hostages or the murder of conquered nationals, should be indicted, tried, and the death penalty
sought. In addition, the armistice should provide for the complete dissolution of the Officers Corps of the German army as well as of the army itself. Those among them who have violated any criminal or international law should be tried, and appropriate severe penalties
imposed. Any administrator, no matter how subordinate, who participated in the plunder of foreign countries, all directors of the German Steel Trust, of I. G. Farben or of the other German cartels, who, as we shall see later, participated in the conspiracy against world peace should be indicted, and appropriate severe penalties
imposed. Irrespective of rank or position, every soldier or civilian should be tried, against whom charges are filed involving any violation of
law (p. 97).
ABC
De-industrializing Germany:
ABC
First, that all plants and machinery which produce war material be scrapped, removed or
demolished. Second, that the machine tool industry, steel mills, power houses and important "heavy industries" be destroyed or taken from German control. While physical operation could be left to Germans, international trustees should determine personnel of management, contracts, investments and foreign
arrangements. Third, that stocks of metals, oil or other strategic war materials in excess of normal domestic consumption be removed from the country and never
replenished (p. 193).
ABC
Their state must be dissolved:
ABC
The people as a whole must be taken into "protective custody," to use
a German expression in its sincere sense. We have dealt at length with the responsibility of the German people,
not in the individual sense, but as a group. They, and not merely their leaders, are the cause of the slaughter. We
have previously resolved not to permit the exceptions to blind us to this fact. They, exceptions and all, cannot be
trusted to preserve the peace. Their state, the corporate entity through which they have acted, must be dissolved.
Their nationhood must be forfeited ... German sovereignity must be suspended. The country must be completely occupied by the
forces of the United Nations. ... There ought to be no peace treaty with Germany,
for treaties can be made only between two sovereign states (p. 92).
ABC
Labor battalions:
ABC
There remains one other form of restitution labor. The dissolution of the German Army, Schutzstaffel and
Sturm-Abteilung groups among others, will affect at
least four million men. Of these, hundreds of thousands will have been sentenced to jail terms by national and
international courts. These sentences will range up to life imprisonment. Jail sentences should be served in labor
battalions which will rebuild the devastated areas and help in the resettlement of families driven from their homes.
But subject to this limitation, it is obvious justice as well as proper penalty that Germany should provide the
manpower to rehabilitate the territories she has wantonly desolated (p.
107).
ABC
Much more must be done:
ABC
Its estates must be confiscated and distributed to the peasants in small parcels.
For example, Professor Einstein has written: "I am convinced that a fresh aggression on the part of
Germany can be avoided only if the control of industry
on German soil is taken out of German hands, and the large estates dispossessed and parcelled out."
(p. 140).
ABC
A supra-national economic body is essential:
ABC
The correct policy is clear in general terms : Germany must pay to whatever extent she may be able, without
injury to her own or world economy. But only through international control can these conflicts be successfully
resolved. The ultimate goal must be the establishment of a more stable order and a more co-operative trading system.
... That is why a supra-national economic body is essential. ... It could engineer the controls so as to keep
Germany's economy sufficiently healthy to make the maximum restitution (p.
142). ABC Germany must be mentally
disarmed:
ABC
Germany must be mentally disarmed. Her educational system must be dismantled and scrapped, along with her
munition plants. A new pedagogical plant must be constructed, whose product will be of peaceful nature, and
conform to the normal standards of moral intercourse. It will not be the United States, Great
Britain or any other nation alone, which sends its educators into Germany. It will be the United Nations, acting,
let us hope, through some permanent supra-national council, which will be charged with the duty.
.. But for our immediate purpose it should be noted that text-books in all German universities,
particularly in history and politics, would require the imprimatur of the International University. It would have
jurisdiction to accept, reject or revise all texts proposed for German schools.
... Through exchange scholarships and professorships, the restricted vision of nationalism would be broadened to the
international view (p. 169).
ABC
Invading the German Mind:
ABC
We must employ all the ingenuity and resourcefulness of which radio, motion pictures and skillful educational
propaganda are capable (p. 172).
ABC
The church would be encouraged:
ABC
The churches of all denominations would of course be pleased to co-operate
(p. 172).
ABC
Alternative educational methods: ABC All factories would be required to have
recess periods, during which simplified lectures on democracy would be given to the workers. The personnel of
offices would have similar interludes. Citizenship could be obtained only by earning an education certificate
obtainable by any of alternative educational methods (p. 174).
ABCABCD
World supra-national organization: ABC
The fact remains that public opinion is still unprepared for the full evolution of the state into the superstate, and that by-paths must be cautiously taken, if the destination is to be
approached at all. Sooner or later we will learn that, in our complex world, the yielding of some of our sovereignty is
essential to the preservation of peace. Many nations know now that in guarding their sovereignty too zealously, they
were left alone to be devoured by the ravenous German
wolf. The story of the collapse of collective security is a tale of national prima donnas, too smug and
self-sufficient to cooperate. The professional soldier of an international police force would accept travel as part of
his duty. Civilians would have a better chance of being spared an unwanted trip, if there were an international
control and sufficient force to make control effective. ... Thus the ideal of a world supra-national organization
can be perceived in the distance, even if dimly(186).
ABC
The following economic benefits could be conferred on Germany as well as other
nations: (a) a Central Bank would raise or lower interest rates simultaneously in all countries, to increase or
limit finances for production, (b) regional resources would be developed, (c) labor supply would be adjusted to local
requirements through the relaxation or tightening of immigration restrictions, (d) exchange rates would be
stabilized by fixing the price of gold in each currency periodically, (e) a stabilization fund would check distress
due to the withdrawal of short-term capital, (f) quotas and restrictions on international trade would be removed
except in special circumstances, (g) tariffs would be encouraged chiefly for infant industries, (h) cartels would
be subjected to the scrutiny of a sort of international S.E.O. to be sure that they were in the public's interest,
(i) new, peaceful industries might be assigned to German efficiency or to other countries in accordance with the
economic advantages resulting from the location of
certain materials or resources.
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