World War, PSYCHOLOGICAL FRONT: What Makes a Fighter Fight

Last week for the first time in English the operations of the weird Central Psychological Laboratory of the German Army were set forth in a fascinating pamphlet* issued by the American Committee for National Morale. Notable findings:

Indoctrination of Nazi fighters begins in school. History is fed to boys as a story of the great German destiny. Mathematics is taught in terms of bullet trajectories, range-finding, sextant-reading, aerodynamics.

As members of the Hitler Youth, the little leader-geniuses are searched for the qualities every German warrior must have : punctuality, orderliness, reliability, subordination, gregariousness, adaptability, diligence, will power, aggressiveness, acute sensory perception, practical talents. Each boy’s record is tabulated, analyzed and filed away, so that his complete case his tory of character development will be available for the future use of Army psychologists.

If the prospective warrior wants to be an officer he must graduate from a Gymnasium (secondary school) ; if he wants to be more than a major, he must have an engineering degree from a Technological Institute; if he wants to be a general, he must earn a doctor’s degree in engineering—the hardest to get now in Germany.

He spends a year in the compulsory Labor Service, learning that it won’t hurt his hands to use them for hard work, won’t hurt his elbows to rub them against those of the lowliest Germans. Finally he is ready to join the Army as an officer-candidate.

Induction. Early in his Army career he pays a two-day visit to one of the Psychological Laboratory’s 17 testing stations. He is seated in a chair, asked all manner of questions, submitted to unexpected electric shocks, put to work on an ergograph (machine to test muscle fatigue), given mechanical reflex tests. Without his knowledge a motion-picture camera hidden by a wall chart records every revealing facial reaction, every embarrassed ear-scratching, every fake posturing. His voice is tested for warmth of melody (strong sympathies and emotions) or hard, staccato timbre (calm and determined will power). His reactions to sounds are tried. His hand writing and physical appearance are analyzed. As a test of leadership, he is given a group of infantry soldiers whom he must instruct and supervise in some manual operation, such as assembling a prefabricated bridge.

Back with his unit, he goes through a process of selection and weeding, in search of his aptitude. The adjustment to Army life is difficult; and his own quirks must be ironed out. If he misses a sweetheart or newlywed wife, he is given some good hard labor to sweat his affection out on. If he is homesick he is granted frequent furloughs. If he is a recluse, he is trained in community spirit and team play.

Morale is constantly nursed; fighting spirit is nurtured. For an hour every day officers gather their men to explain the political acts of the Nazi leadership, to give every soldier a sense of participation in history. Units meet for the singing of folk songs, for political, scientific and cultural lectures.

To condition the men to actual combat conditions, they are put through maneuvers very like actual battle. Occasionally live shells are scattered among the blanks. Tasks are always presented as aggressive assignments. Anti-tank gunners, whose job of waiting in the face of superior equipment is the Army’s toughest, are taught “attack against the tanks” rather than “defense from the tanks.”

In Action an officer is always supposed to be a teacher and leader. He must know all his men personally, must never ridicule individual soldiers, must congratulate them on their birthdays (dates are supplied by company clerks). He must instill in his men, instead of the will-to-die, a will-to-live-and-complete-a-mission. To stimulate this will he is encouraged to use mystic symbols—the uniform and all its trimmings, the swastika, the Iron Cross, martyrs like Horst Wessel, idols like Adolf Hitler, the unknown Corporal of World War I. If necessary, he may give his men stimulants, such as alcohol or benzedrine.

*German Psychological Warfare, Committee for National Morale, 51 East 42nd Street, New York City.