VOICE:

(ON FILTER -- VEHEMENT - HYSTERICAL) Meine Deutschen Volksgenossen- Maenner und Frauen. In Diesen Schicksalsstunde zint wir von unbeugsamen Sieges willen gefuellt. Der Reichs adler flieght von Nordcap (FADE) bis zum Griechenland und unseren Siegesreichen Truppen verfolgen...

MILLER:

(LOW, EMPHATIC) You Can't Do Business With Hitler!

MUSIC:

BUILD TO ABRUPT PEAK AND CUT SHARP

1st ANNC'R:

We are now at war. There are but two alternatives: Total victory, or total defeat. There can be no such thing as a military stalemate that would result in the survival of Hitlerism. That is the opinion of a man who knows -- Douglas Miller, for fifteen years Commercial Attache to the American Embassy in Berlin.

2nd ANNC'R:

Presenting a radio series adopted from Mr. Miller's book, "You Can't Do Business With Hitler!"

1st ANNC'R:

Episode Three -- "No American Goods Wanted!"

MILLER:

This is Douglas Miller speaking. December ninth, 1941, will go down in history as the date on which Adolph Hitler declared war on the United States. History in one sense will be wrong. Actually, Adolph Hitler launched an undeclared war against us as early as 1934. Yes, I said 1934---seven years ago. This was not a shooting war; but the Nazis used every weapon at their command---except shooting--- to destroy our government, divide our people, steal our military secrets, and cripple our standard of living. These weapons were sabotage, propaganda, the fifth column, espionage, and---last but not least---the weapon of international trade. For, as the Nazis have practiced it---international trade is a most vicious weapon. Nazi officials in Berlin were busy for years scheming and working to completely destroy America's prosperity--launching an attack on America's world trade that sooner or later would hit the pocket-book of every American worker and farmer. Now let's get down to cases. James Dennison, for example. The case of Dennison is typical of thousands of others. Dennison was an American businessman, who in 1937 was trying to sell the products of American labor to Germany and the rest of the world. One day he came to see me at my office in Berlin.......

PAUSE

DENNISON:

Doug, I'm in a terrible jam and you have to help me.

MILLER:

What's wrong?

DENNISON:

Well, I've been shipping tallow from New York and selling it to the Germans.

MILLER:

Yes, I know. They use tallow to make soap, don't they?

DENNISON:

That's right. But now, out of a clear sky, they suddenly bang down on me. I have a whole shipload of tallow at Hamburg and the German authorities won't permit me to unload it.

MILLER:

Why not, for heaven's sake?

DENNISON:

Let me explain. You see, this is beef tallow. The Germans use beef tallow to make soap; but it could be used to make oleomargarine.

MILLER:

(DAWNING COMPREHENSION) Ohhh, I see. You've run into the Nazi regulation that forbids Germans to eat food grown in America.

DENNISON:

That's it! And even though my tallow is used for soap, the Nazis insist that since it's remotely possible someone might use it to make oleomargarine, it must be called food. I tell you, Doug, this whole mess is driving me crazy! If I have to ship that stuff all the way back to New York, I'll be ruined!

MILLER:

Haven't you a contract with the Nazis?

DENNISON:

(BITTERLY) Contract! You know what they think of a contract.

MILLER:

(SLOW) The proverbial scrap of paper! (UP) Well, all I can do, Jim, is to get in touch with the Nazi party big-wigs and try to talk them into giving you a break. I should be able to let you know how you stand by tomorrow afternoon. (FADE) In the meantime, you just sit tight and--

MUSIC:

(IN AND BLOT OUT MILLER'S FADE..SEQUE..TO NEUTRAL MOVEMENT AND OUT)

MILLER:

(ON TELEPHONE) Yes, of course! (PAUSE) Who did you say? (PAUSE) Ludwig Ruckwander? (PAUSE) I see! (PAUSE) Oh, he's on his way over now? All right, I'll be looking for him. Thank you.

SOUND:

PHONE DOWN

MILLER:

(slowly) Hum! So the party big-shots are sending over Ludwig Ruchwander. Now, I wonder---

WARD:

Ruchwander. Oh, I know him, Mr. Miller, the young storm trooper.

MILLER:

That's right, Miss Ward.

WARD:

A nice boy, too---but unfortunately one of those poor kids who thinks this Nazi hocus-pocus is on the level. But he isn't very important in the party. Why do the Nazis send him to see you?

MILLER:

(THOUGHTFULLY) That's what I've been trying to figure out. (DAWNING COMPREHENSION) Oh, I get it! Of course! Ruckwander is the answer to the whole business!

WARD:

(PUZZLED) Is he? How?

MILLER:

(RAPIDLY SKETCHES THE PICTURE) Look, it's the Nazis' policy to buy nothing in the United States they can get elsewhere, isn't it?

WARD:

Yes----

MILLER:

The Nazis have obviously found a new source of tallow---Argentina probably--so they quickly break their contract with Dennison.

WARD:

But, Ruckwander?

MILLER:

Well, breaking a business contract is a dirty bit of business--

WARD:

Oh! I get it! They dig up the young fanatic to come around and rave about sacred principles and what such!

MILLER:

Right!

WARD:

I'll bet that's it! (CHANGE) Oh, oh! I heard the outer office door open.

MILLER:

That must be Ruckwander!

WARD:

(FADE) I'll send him right in.

SOUND:

DOOR OPEN

WARD:

(OFF) Mr. Miller is expecting you, Herr Ruckwander.

RUCKWANDER:

(AGE 21...GERMAN ACCENT..A FANATIC) (COME IN FAST) Danke Schoens, fraulein!

MILLER:

How do you do, Herr Ruckwander!

RUCKWANDER:

Hell Hitler!

MILLER:

Won't you be seated?

RUCKWANDER:

(CLIPPED MILITARY STYLE) Nein! I prefer to stand.

MILLER:

(TAKEN BACK) Very well. (SLOWLY) Now..uh..you're familiar with the case of Mr. Dennison, Herr Ruckwander?

RUCKWANDER:

Quite familiar!

MILLER:

Good! Uh..now Mr. Dennison wishes to appeal the ruling that forbids him to unload his cargo.

RUCKWANDER:

Impossible! Herr Dennison's behavior has been little short of criminal!

MILLER:

(IN A TOLERANT AMUSED TONE AS A FATHER TALKING TO HIS SON) Oh, come now, Herr Ruckwander. How is it you suddenly label criminal something you've approved of for sometime? Furthermore, Dennison has a contract....

RUCKWANDER:

The contract violates National Socialistic principles and any such contract is invalid.

MILLER:

(IN A QUIET VOICE, BUT MAKING HIS POINT) Oh, really? Why then, did your Nazi officials in the Ministry of Economics sign it?

RUCKWANDER:

(SHARPLY) Because Herr Dennison deliberately deceived them!

MILLER:

(IRKED) Now that's sheer nonsense! And will you please explain precisely what National Socialistic principle Mr. Lennison has violated?

RUCKWANDER:

The eternally sacred principle that German blood be completely and forever linked with holy German soil!

MILLER:

(DRYLY) Is there something unholy then, about Dennison' beef tallow?

RUCKWANDER:

Ja! It is edible! It comes from America! No true Aryan German can eat food grown anywhere but in Germany!

MILLER:

All right, I won't argue that point. But the tallow was to be made into soap. Defining it as food seems to me the thinnest kind of technicality and one with no other purpose than to evade your contract obligations.

RUCKWANDER:

(HEATEDLY) That remark is insulting, Herr Miller!

MILLER:

(ENERGETICALLY) But, Mr. Dennison can't understand why it is that--

RUCKWANDER:

(EXPLODES) No one expects him to understand! He is mercenary and grasping and intent only upon making money! How can he understand ideals or ethics or sacred principles (CLIMAX) or what is most holy to the German people!?! (DOWN) However, his ignorance is immaterial. (EMPHATICALLY) The tallow will not be permitted in Germany and that is final! Heil Hitler!

SOUND:

DOOR OPEN

MILLER:

Herr Ruckwander, wait---

SOUND:

DOOR SLAM

MILLER:

(CALLS) Herr Ruckwander! (DOWN) Oh, the pompous young madman! He actually believes all that rot.

MUSIC:

SLOW CUE...BRIDGE AND UNDER.

MILLER:

The case of James Dennison is only one of hundreds of similar cases. And yet, the Nazi propagandists tried to make us believe that a victorious Germany and her New World order of satellite nations would buy food from America. The truth of the matter is, Germany was out to dominate the trade markets of the world. All of her satellite neighbors--Austria, Hungary, Italy, Roumania, Bulgaria and her military victims--France, Norway, Poland, Greece, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Yugoslavia--all these nations were to cooperate with the Nazis in a long-range plan to not only refuse all American goods--but also to drive America out of the other trade markets of the world. Unbelievable as it may sound, the Nazis preferred to see Germans do without, rather than purchase our manufactured goods. This harsh regulation was very hard on many Germans, of course. I recall one very pathetic example--a German friend of mine--a kindly gentle old doctor who had bought an American made automobile before Hitler came to power and consequently before the restrictions were in force. (FADE) I called on my friend one day and discovered him in the back--

PAUSE

MILLER:

(FADE IN) (CALLING) Is anybody home? (PAUSE) Dr. Kurtz!

MRS. KURTZ:

(AGE 50..MOTHERLY..GERMAN DIALECT) (OFF X) Come out here, Herr Miller! Out back!

MILLER:

(CALLS) Hello there!

SOUND:

SCREEN DOOR OPEN AND CLOSE AND MILLER DOWN STEPS

MRS. K:

(COME IN) Oh, Herr Miller, I'm so glad you have come to see us! You are just the one to help us.

SOUND:

IN B.G...HAMMERING ON AUTOMOBILE ENGINE

MILLER:

Well, Mrs. Kurtz, if there's anything I can do (BREAKS OFF) What's all the hammering about?

MRS. K:

Frederick is trying to fix the automobile. And what a doctor knows about mechanics you can imagine! Frederick, here is Herr Miller to see us.

SOUND:

HAMMERING UP LOUDER

MRS. K:

(UP) Frederick, stop that hammering!

SOUND:

HAMMERING OUT

KURTZ:

(AGE 55..GENTLE-SPOKEN...GERMAN ACCENT) Eh? What is it?

MRS. K:

Herr Miller, Frederick!

KURTZ:

(SURPRISED) Oh....Herr Miller! Well, this is a pleasure.

MILLER:

The pleasure is mine, doctor.

MRS. K:

Frederick, look at yourself! Himmel! You have covered your face with oil!

KURTZ:

(RUEFULLY) I fear that is about all I have accomplished, too. The mechanics of an automobile are beyond an old man's powers of comprehension.

MRS. K:

But you have nothing to worry you now, Frederick. Herr Miller is an American and all Americans are experts with problems mechanical.

MILLER:

You flatter me, Mrs. Kurtz.

MRS. K:

And you see, the automobile was made in your country.

MILLER:

Yes, I see. Well, what's the trouble?

KURTZ:

I think the trouble is in this...this thing here, Herr Miller.

MILLER:

The carburetor.

KURTZ:

Ja, the carburetor.

MILLER:

Let me see it. (SLIGHT PAUSE) Doctor, it doesn't take much of a mechanic to tell you this carburetor is completely shot.

KURTZ:

Shot? Nein, Herr Miller, it was not shot at by anyone.

MILLER:

I mean it's ruined..no good!

KURTZ:

But can it not be repaired?

MILLER:

I'm afraid it's beyond repair, doctor. See! This crack right across the face here!

KURTZ:

(APPREHENSIVELY) But there must be some way to fix it.

MILLER:

No, I'm sorry. The only thing you can do is buy a new one.

KURTZ:

(LOW VOICE) Buy a new one? But that--that is impossible.

MRS. K:

(UPSET) Frederick, does that mean.....?

KURTZ:

Ja, ja, Karen. Our automobile is---is useless to us now.

MILLER:

Doctor, do you mean you must junk a thousand dollar car for lack of a ten dollar part!

KURTZ:

Ja. American parts cannot be bought anywhere in Germany. The government forbids importing American parts---and no where else can I get the right kind of--what you call it--carburetor.

MRS. K:

If you knew how we saved our money to buy an automobile, Herr Miller--so that the Herr Doctor could be able to call on all his patients.

KURTZ:

(LOW VOICE) I've had it only a year--

MRS. K:

(UP) Frederick, perhaps if you talk to the party leader--

KURTZ:

Nein! I already know what he will say. That I am unpatriotic. Then because I can't use the automobile he will take it from me--for scrap, Herr Miller, imagine!

MILLER:

Scrap?

KURTZ:

Ja, to make bombs and cannon.

MRS. K:

Frederick, how will you be able to call now on all your patients. So many you have---

KURTZ:

Ach, I don't know! (SIGHS) Since Hitler---everything is in goose-step!

MRS. K:

Frederick, be careful!

KURTZ:

(IGNORING HER) This automobile, Herr Miller, what a fine useful thing it is you Americans have made---useful to a doctor---and useful to the person who waits for the doctor---when delay means suffering and haste means healing---But, ach! Scrap! To make something like this now into things to kill with! (SIGHS) I have lived too long, Herr Miller. Times like these are not for me.

MUSIC:

SLOW CUE..MINOR..UP TO CLIMAK..THEN BREAK INTO NEUTRAL MOVEMENT AND OUT. THEN INTO LONG HARSH CHORD..CUT OFF ABRUPTLY.

QUICK CUE

KOEVREILER:

(GERMAN OFFICIAL.. WITH ACCENT...SUAVE..SILKY VOICE) Herr Miller, as a representative of the Ministry of Economics, I must tell you that you have been misinformed. Our regulations do not forbid Americans from selling automobile parts in Germany.

MILLER:

But none have been sold since Hitler came to power.

KOEVREILER:

That is true!

MILLER:

And Germans owning American made cars now find it impossible to obtain parts.

KOEVREILER:

Most regrettable.

MILLER:

Why then don't the American manufacturers take advantage of their opportunity to sell parts here?

KOEVREILER:

Because they refuse to agree to the terms we offer, that is why.

MILLER:

Oh, I see. May I ask what the terms are?

KOEVREILER:

Well, we can't offer cash, of course.

MILLER:

But I'm sure our manufacturers would accept a reasonable barter deal.

KOEVREILER:

On the contrary, we offered them barter and they refused. We will buy one hundred thousand dollars worth of automobile parts for one hundred thousand dollars worth of German goods--

MILLER:

Yes?

KOEVREILER:

If, in addition, they will buy an extra one million dollars worth of goods and pay for them in cash.

MILLER:

(ASTOUNDED) Do you call that reasonable? Asking them to invest one million dollars cash merely to sell one hundred thousand dollars worth of goods?

KOEVREILER:

(BLANDLY) We feel it is a privilege for foreigners to do business here, no matter what the terms.

MILLER:

But these terms are so preposterous, Herr Koevreiler! If I may say so, they seem to me as merely one way of saying that you won't take our manufactured goods under any circumstances.

KOEVREILER:

(SUAVELY) You may interpret the terms any way you like, Herr Miller. But since you refuse our terms, I feel terribly sorry for the poor Germans who will now be unable to obtain parts for their American automobiles. (WITH ABRUPT HARSHNESS) Perhaps in the future the fools will know enough to buy German products! Heil Hitler!

MUSIC:

HEAVY CHORDS...CLIMAX AND BREAK UNDER

MILLER:

In the face of this kind of treatment, American businessmen learned quickly enough that neither the Nazis nor the helpless victims of the New Order would buy products made in the United States. The only things Germany took from us were emergency war materials--copper, petroleum, airplanes, and airplane parts. Now, let's get back to the Nazi propagandists who tried so hard to convince us that a German victory would mean prosperity--through trade--to Americans. I've been trying to show to what lengths the Nazis carried their trade war against America--to show they would never buy our surplus food nor our surplus manufactured goods. Nazi propagandists have proven this very same point--not by intent--but because of a blunder. The blunder was committed by the editors of the German-American Commerce Bulletin---a Nazi propaganda magazine formerly published in New York. On a certain day in March, 1941, at the magazine's offices located at 10 East 40th Street, one of the editors was glancing over the most recently published copy of the magazine when......

QUICK CUE

NAZI:

(GERMAN ACCENT..ARROGANT..BOLD..HEAVY VOICED) (SHRIEKS) Ach, Gott im Himmel!! (BELLOWS) Fritz! Fritz!! Come here at once! (DOWN) The fool--the imbecile! (TOPS ALL PREVIOUS EFFORTS) Fritz!

FRITZ:

(YOUNGISH..NAIVELY STUPID..GERMAN ACCENT...MEEK) (OFF X) Ja! I'm coming. I'm coming! What is the matter?

NAZI:

(APOPLECTIC) Matter! (DOWN) Ach! You fool, you pig, you swine, you lunatic! (BELLOWS) I thought I told you to cut out that article on page twelve?

FRITZ:

(STUPIDLY) Cut it out? Oh, nein! I did not understand you to say that---

NAZI:

(SPEAKING RAPIDLY AND MOCKINGLY) You did not understand! You did not understand! Ach, dumbkopft, you do not understand anything! We are ruined! Completely ruined!

FRITZ:

But why? I have done nothing--

NAZI:

Nothing, he says! The swine puts a contradiction in the magazine and he says he has done nothing! (CONTROLLING HIMSELF) Fritz, will you please turn the magazine to page three.

FRITZ:

My article is on page twelve!

NAZI:

(EXPLODES AGAIN) I know, I know! I am not a fool! It is my own article on page three I want!

FRITZ:

(PLACATING) All right...all right! I am finding it!

SOUND:

UNDER...WHIRR OF PAGES TURNING

FRITZ:

Ah, here it is!

NAZI:

Good! Now, read! Read what I have written!

FRITZ:

Ja! (CIEARS THROAT..READS IN HALTING STYIE) "Germany with more than one hundred million people could easily buy from the United States each year three to four billion bales of cotton, and a great variety of finished products..."

NAZI:

Go on!

FRITZ:

"...If reasonable and normal trade relations could once more be established between both countries".

NAZI:

Now, read your article on page twelve.

FRITZ:

Ja! (PAGES TURNING) But it is not my article. It is Erich Neumann's.

NAZI:

I know, but it is the one I told you not to print!

FRITZ:

Ah, here!!

NAZI:

Read!

FRITZ:

Ja! Erich Neumann writes...uh...

NAZI:

Go on!

FRITZ:

Ah! (READS AFTER CLEARING THROAT) "All the Germans wish to do is to make ourselves independent of the outside world in the domains of foodstuffs and industrial materials. All other products---"

NAZI:

That's enough! Now, do you see what you have done? On page three we tell the Americans Germany wants their cotton and wheat and lard and meat and fruit and finished products--and on page twelve we tell them just the opposite--that we don't want their foodstuffs and manufactured goods! You fool!

FRITZ:

But that article is by Erich Neumann, Secretary of State in the German Ministry of Economics. It tells how we plan to take the American's trade markets away from them. It is the truth!

NAZI:

The truth! (SHRIEKS) Swine! We are not supposed to tell the truth!

FRITZ:

But Erich Neumann is a high official---

NAZI:

(BELLOWS) But he wrote that article for Germans to read--not for Americans! I told you not to print it.

FRITZ:

But I thought---

NAZI:

You thought, you thought! (UP) Well, stop thinking! You are not supposed to think! We are only to obey! Ach, Got im Himmel!

MUSIC:

SHORT BRIDGE..MOTIF: NAZI'S SPLUTTERING..BREAK OUT SHARP

MILLER:

You Can't Do Business With Hitler!!!!

MUSIC:

CLIMAX...HIT PEAK..SEQUE TO SUSTAINED MARCH BEAT AND UNDER

ANNC'R:

You have been listening to episode three in a radio series entitled, You Can't Do Business With Hitler. This series is based upon the actual experiences of Douglas Miller, who was for fifteen years Commercial Attache to the American Embassy in Berlin. Listen to the next episode in this series which is entitled "Two For Me and One For You" and gives you the real inside story on a much discussed subject, Nazi barter methods.

This program was prepared and directed by Frank Telford and brought to you by the Office of Emergency Management in Washington.