I was born in Vienna, as was my mother. Father, on the other hand , came from a small town in Moravia, which then was part of the Austrian Empire. He moved to Vienna with his family when he was five years old. He went to High School in Vienna. One of his class mates was Robert Barany. Father met my mother at the home of his friend, Robert Barany, who was my mother's brother.
My father studied law at the Vienna University and became a well known and highly regarded lawyer. They had four children, he did very well financially and was, I believe, a very good father. On Sundays, we always went for long hikes. Father would tell us the judicial cases and my sister and I would have to decide the cases. We learned to think logically and it gave us some legal background.
On July 28, 1914, my father came home very depressed and said that war had been declared. It was a frightening time as people thought the Russians were coming. Families were no longer allowed to go for walks in the Vienna Woods since wired fences surrounded the area full of trenches. Many uncles and friends had been called to active duty who were in the reserve, but my father was not called until later since he was unhealthy. My uncles were wide spread from the Russian frontier to the Italian frontier, but fortunately none of them were killed. My father worked in the War Ministry in Vienna at a military court.
The Russians captured many hundreds of people. One was Robert Barany. He had been drafted as a doctor. He was put in a fortress called Przemisl and for a year he was held as a prisoner of war.
(above is from my father's papers, not taken off any website)
(During World War I, Bárány served as a voluntary civilian surgeon in the Austrian army, and his care of intracranial gunshot wounds furthered his research into the cerebellum and vestibular system. His work, however, ceased in 1914 when the Russians captured Robert Bárány and his unit at Przemyśl, and he was transported by cattle car along with other prisoners to the town of Merv in central Asia. However, as his reputation was known to the camp medical commander, his fate was considerably more fortunate than the other prisoners – Robert Bárány was promptly charged with directing the otolaryngology service for both Austrian prisoners and their Russian captors. Indeed, he treated the local mayor and his family, and became a regular dinner guest in their home. Robert received the Nobel prize in medicine in 1914 in Physiology/Medicine after being nominated on seven prior occasions for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus of the ear. The telegram notifying him of his award did not reach him until 1915, and it was only upon the personal intervention of Prince Carl of Sweden that Tsar Nicholas I arranged for uncle Robert to be released from the prison camp in 1916. Following his release, he was accused of plagiarism and scientific omission by some of his Viennese colleagues. An investigation by the Karolinska Institute absolved him of the charges, and a number of famous Swedish otologists published a paper in his defence. A Vienna newspaper published a cartoon of Robert Bárány with his Nobel laurel, captioned “I have succeeded in curing all kinds of ear injuries but the deafness of the Vienna faculty.” However, stung by the accusations, Bárány abandoned his academic plans at the University of Vienna, and instead emigrated to Sweden to become the chief of otological services at the University of Uppsala.)
(He lived there with his wife and family and we have many cousins there to this day.)
During the war everything was rationed and the black market set in. Bread was made out of corn flour and usually was a week old by the time you could get it. Food became scarcer and scarcer. Breakfast consisted mostly of a cup of soup from the previous day and one slice of unbuttered bread. Occasionally we could have jam, but it wasn't too good. Once a week at most we could get an egg. For dinner we ate meat at most once a week. Dinner mostly consisted of potatoes, which were frozen and tasted awful. Sometimes we could get vegetables or in summer we could have salad occasionally. Milk was only given to families with babies and only two quarts/week. People picked and ate so many berries that they were almost all gone. There was only enough coal to heat one room and this was only during the day. Everyone had to be one room so there was a lot of tension and bickering. We learned and practiced piano in a room that was barely above freezing. We wore mittens and heavy clothes while practicing. There was only enough hot water for one bath a week. All of us kids would have to share the same bath, only adding a little extra hot water for each child. The water would get dirtier and dirtier and we fought over who would get to take the bath first. Before going to bed we said our prayers. In the first year of the war we prayed for a victorious end to the war. By the third year we prayed for a quick end to the war. After the war we were so malnourished that my sister and I were sent to Sweden to be with relatives.
After we recovered we were sent back and life slowly resumed to what felt like a mostly normal way of life, despite inflation and all the problems it caused. In 1923, inflation was at its worst. It stablized finally at a rate of 1:10,000- you got 10 new schillings for 100,000 old crowns. That meant practically nothing was left from my father's not insubstatial savings. Fortunately, my father's brother, Ludwig, was very well off. He had made his fortune during the war in the iron and steel industry. Pollitzer and Wertheim had become the largest dealers of pig iron and steel products both in Czechoslovakia and Austria. Many Austrians had part or all of their property in Bohemia or Moravia. Thus the factory in Moravska Ostrava had its majority owners (my uncles) in Vienna. My father was an independent lawyer and solicitor, and never wanted to join Pollitzer Wertheim, but they were his clients. That year what affected us even more than the inflation was that it was the year my father died in a hiking accident.My mother and a mountain guide were in attendance, but he was not roped on because the territory was still relatively easy. My mother wrote a long description of the horrible event.Uncle Ludwig had no children of his own, so when father died, Ludwig very generously decided to take care of his dead brother's family. My mother never had to work. She took care of the household. We were able to keep the cook and the maid as we had done during my father's lifetime . All four of us went to high school and to the university. During the summer we went to the Salzkammergut and rented a house there for two months. Other uncles, Ernst and Paul, (my mother's brothers) split the costs of our upbringing equally with my father's brother.
I studied at the humanistic Gymnasium in Vienna VIII and finished high shool in 1928. When I was a little boy I thought that I would follow my father's footsteps and become a lawyer. But when my father died, Uncle Ludwig encouraged me to go into metallurgy. I went to the German Institute of Technology at Aachen and then at Charlottenburg (Berlin). I went there because the only Austrian technical university in those years was of very poor caliber in a small Austrian provincial town and was full of Nazi students. German universities were far superior but only in three of them could you study iron and steel technology, as I did. In Germany they taught either ferrous or non-ferrous technology. My siblings, on the other hand, studied law or medicine and Vienna was very good in those subjects.
I left Vienna right after my high school graduation, then studied in Germany and later lived in Morovska Ostrava, where we had an iron and steel foundry. But the last years of high school in Vienna were the time when I felt the happiest, a time when one believed in the future, in values and things for which one wanted to work and live. Then came the collapse of all values. The victory of cynicism and lies, mixed with patriotism; heroes and concentration camps, brotherhood thrown overboard, the end of humanism and reformation values in Europe. Everyone had to be the same and submit to the state. Somewhere I had heard similar things happening years earlier, but from a distance, and I would like to say, I observed the events with a technical interest. In Russia, all of this was done more slowly and steadily. The belief in the brotherhood of all peoples was just as cold and thoroughly synchronized and organized to death, and the plan was made an end in itself.
During my last year of college, I remember very well the coming of the Nazi Government and the fire of the German Reichstag. The day after the fire, at Hitler's demand, President Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree into law which suspended most civil liberties in Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly. I remember fights on the streets, many Nazi rallies and May 1st under the Nazis. I continued to attend the Technical University under the Nazi regime in Berlin. I took my degree with some newly established Nazi teachers who had replaced the Jewish teachers as they had all been fired. I was an Austrian citizen at that time and Austria was an independent country at that time, until 1938 when it was occupied by Germany. For one night I had the pleasure to be arrested by the Gestapo and to spend the night at their headquarters. I saw people being beaten and saw many people who were bleeding after already having been beaten. But, fortunately, I was a foreigner and not interesting enough to them at that time. The friend in whose house I was arrested had to spend a year in prison. After my exams I returned to Austria and saw it slowly going to the Nazis, with an almost continuous civil war. When I returned to Vienna, after I completed my studies in Berlin, I remember having long talks with my uncles in which I warned them about what had happened in Germany (Nuremberg laws, prohibition of trade unions, threats against Poland and Czechoslovakia). Strange how we got used to brute force in the streets those days. In 1934, the Austrian Social Democrats became an illegal party. There was insurrection, street fighting with heavy gunfire, buildings were demolished and hundreds of dead men in the streets. I was working at one of the steel plants in 1934, when a general strike came in February of 1934. I caught the last train from where the steel plant was in Styria to Vienna and they never let me back into the steel plant again.
(Steel plant in Styria)
A few months later I went to Czechoslovakia where it was a different world. I had five good years in the foundry and machine factor, the majority of which belonged to our family.
While I was studying in Germany at the University in Aachen and Berlin, when I was getting my masters degree in metallurgy, I had spent many summer vacations working in Moravska Ostrava at the Vitkovice Iron and Steel Works. Moravska Ostrava was the largest mining town in Czechoslovakia. Before World War I, it was the largest mining and iron and steel town in Austrian Empire. It was a rich town, particularly the hard coal mining industry did rather well in those days. Vitkovice was the largest steel foundry in Czechoslovakia and Elbertzhagen and Glassner Company, was a medium sized iron and steel foundry, and machine shop, in which my father's brother (Ludwig) was majority owner. He and his brother, Alfred were also founders of Pollitzer & Wertzheim in Vienna. The Elbertzhagen and Glassner factory originally was an offshoot of the Vitokovice Steel and Iron Works. When I spent my summers in Vitkovice I was a junior blast furnace attendant. (the work necessary to produce pig iron in large blast furnaces was still done by hand at that time) The molten pig iron flowed into sand beds which had to be prepared every time. The engineer would observe the blast and temperature carefully. Iron ore and coke had to be weighed in hand-operated scales. To me it was a pleasant, beautiful and dangerous job. I began learning Czech, picked it up quickly, and eventually spoke it reasonably well.
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.This is more about the companies. You can skip this section if it doesn't interest you.
Pollitzer and Wertheim was founded by the Pollitzer brothers and the senior Wertheim in Vienna on Rueppgasse 9-11. There was a second firm owned by P&W that was started in Brunn on Olmuetzerstrasse. Wertheim left and started a lime and stone factory which was then owned by his son. Elbertzhagen and Glassner was founded in 1870 as a machine factory by Karl Elbertzhagen and Karl Glassner. In 1895 began to produce steel. In 1910, the factory was divided up because it was split between the heirs and became a company but was still a family business. In 1913 it became partly associated with Siemens and was expanded greatly . In 1916 Pollitzer-Wertheim in Vienna acquired 55.11% of the capital of Elbertzhagen-Wertheim. After the founding of the company in Brunn, the ownership shares were transferred to the company in Brunn. The rest belonged to the heirs of Elbertzhagen and was divided among 14 people. At this time there was a lot of cast iron work and they made machinery for mining. 1938, the company had control of most of the coal mines in Poland, Austria, and Hungary. The company then started to work on mining technology (things used in mining such as trolleys, jack hammers, hinges, levers, cables and mining cars) and parts used for the production of steel (wheels, parts for wheels used in the production of steel). The company also made machines for construction (made mortar), elevators, cement mixers, pulleys. There was also a part the made supplies for the chemical industry such as heat and corrosion resistant containers and drums . They also made machinery to grind gravel and other industrial machinery. By 1938, the factory employed over 300 workers and the property and factory covered 33,000 square meters. There were also 5 residential houses which totaled 52,600 sq meters. In 1939 all of Elbertzhagen-Glassner was given to Elbertzhagen as Glassner was Jewish. After 1945, Elbertzhagen fled because of the communist takeover of the factory.
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While German nationalism was rising, Czech nationalism was also rising. Vitkovice at that time was considered a "German speaking" corporation and thus I could also learn to do my job in German. In July of 1934, as I had completed my degree, I now headed off for my first permanent full time job. My brother and sisters and mother had all gone on vacation, but I took a train from the Vienna North station and five hours later arrived at Moravska Ostrava excited about my new life. There were good salaries and benefits. A company car from Elbertzhagen and Glassner took me to my new home which was part of a compound with two large houses. The general manager and his family lived in the first house. The second house was the residence of the chief accountant as well as serving as the guest house. It was there that I lived. The general manager seemed like a typical German bully, his face full of scars from innumerable fights he had been in as a student. Within four years, not to my surprise, he had become a Nazi. During those years Czechoslovakia was relatively quiet and insulated. Even so, it was putting a good deal of effort into re-arming its army and air force in response to what was going on in other parts of Europe.
I was working in the factory, living a fairly comfortable life, but wondered how long it would last. In some ways such a life, that I and quite a few others lived, is rather difficult to imagine. It was a great contrast to the ideas and the kind of life I had lived in Vienna. After a strenuous working day I may have been invited to one of the local factory owners or managers. Everybody in those circles had a cook and usually a maid as well. Food was excellent, chamber music may have been played, and there was always intelligent conversation. We discussed the events of the world which included what was happening in Russia, where the last illusions were shattered that anyone could have held about socialism. (As an aside, Trotsky ( one of the leaders and organizers of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War) and my father were well acquainted prior to World War 1. Trotsky was one of the regular guests at the Cafe Central in the first district of Vienna. This was a place where intellectuals would gather and discuss politics and world events. At that time (not knowing what the future would hold), my father thought that Trotsky was intelligent, but a rather unimportant Russian emigre. ) But during my time in Czechoslovakia, in the 30's major upheavals in the world were occurring. Stalin was murdering hundreds of thousands of alleged enemies in the Purge and Trotsky was among one of those who was eventually murdered.) A very good friend of mine, Michael Striker, who had been my boy scout leader in Vienna, and lived in Berlin when I was studying there, had been arrested with all his companions, and charged that he had conspired to poison Stalin. His sister, Eve, was a well known ceramicist. They had left Germany to go to Russia when Hitler came to power. She was charged by the Russian Secret police that she had painted hidden anti-communist symbols on her tea pots and cans and she was imprisoned for a long time. But now Michael showed up in Morovska Ostrava having escaped from Russia. (Eventually he did manage to come to the US) Some of my friends had gone to Spain to join the International Brigade in order to fight Franco as the Spanish Civil War was occurring. But the Russian communists soon took over the command of the International Brigade and terrorized every free thinking and liberal fighter.
Sometimes other young engineers or businessmen met at a rather large cafe where we listened to music or played card games. Frequently we would go to the night club in the basement, where excellent performers played and I would dance. There was also theater. Young German artists had a chance to perform in many difficult roles. Modern plays were tried out in local towns before being performed in Vienna or a large German cities. There was also a Czech theater. For the most part, Germans and Czechs mixed such as at the tennis club or other events. The Czechs had instituted nationalism in their republic in 1918, as one of the carrying pillars. At first, the Jews sided with the German population. But in the 1930's, German universities in Czechoslovakia were under the influence of Nazi Germany so the Jews began to side with Czechs. But anti-semitism was prevalent as Nazi ideology spread across all of Central Europe. So my pleasant life was often overshadowed by events within and outside of my environment such as the rise of Nazism, the Spanish civil war and the Russian Purge.
I began my shift at 6 am to the sound of the factory whistles. I assisted in the production and manufacturing of castings. In 1937, the general manager retired and I was made his successor. I was the youngest man to be made general manager. I was, at that time, in charge of new orders and resolving disputes. I traveled to other factories and dealt with government agencies. We produced a variety of coal equipment, conveyor belts, small cranes, road building equipment and iron and steel castings of all sorts. Economic conditions were improving all over Europe. Hitler had started his huge re-armament program and all of Germany's neighbors and potential opponents followed suit. Czechoslovakia was France's ally in particular, and the backbone of the so called "small Entente" which consisted of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland.
All of this fell to pieces in 1938, when Chamberlain came to Munich and gave the Sudeten area to Germany. Czechoslovakia had a mixed population which consisted of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Carpathian Ruthenians, Hungarians, and Czech and German speaking Jews. The cutting away of all the German speaking area caused havoc. Immediately the Germans imposed driving on the right side of the road, whereas previously one drove on the left side. German portions cut into Bohemia and Moravia at many points. On one trip from Moravska Ostrava to Prague I had to change the side I was driving on 5 times. But the driving situation was the least of it. The Germans began a campaign to incite the German minority against the Czechs and any lie seemed permissible. One such example was that the Germans accused Czechs of throwing German workers into a vat of molten steel at Vitkovice. The other Jewish people I knew were very fearful and discussed the fate of Austria and treatment of the Jews there.
During the years in Moravska Ostrava I frequently visited Kunice (in Poland) on weekends. In a small mountain village in the Beskide mountains, the large miners union ran a rehabilitation and rest home. The medical director was Berthold Storch who had married one of my father's sisters. They had 3 children. Two daughters (Stella and Irma) survived the war. Stella came to the US with 3 children, one of whom became a law professor at Yale (Jan Deutsch). According to some records, Berthold was sent to Theresienstadt in September of 1942, and then was sent to Treblinka in October were he was killed. The rest of the family is believed to have been deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where they died.
In March of 1938, Hitler occupied Austria. Robert (my brother) had been serving in the Austrian army his obligatory eight months when he and all the other non-Aryans were dismissed from the army. He then went to London where other family members on my mother's side of the family already resided having left earlier. (Mother had left Vienna in 1938 to go to England and my youngest sister had left in 1934. My other sister had gotten visa to go to New Zealand in 1938.) On March 15th, 1939, Hitler's soldiers occupied Moravska Ostrava and the rest of Czechoslovakia as well. Factory owners were dispossessed if they happened to be Jews, otherwise a commissar was set on top of the Czech managers. One of the department managers, Mr. Hamerak, appeared in my office and told me that he would be taking my place immediately and that I had no more say in the factory. I had felt for some time that being a factory manager in free Czechoslovakia was a gift which fate would take away. I knew right then I needed to leave Czechoslovakia.
It was the middle of March and heavy snow was still lying in the mountains. On the far side of the Beskidy Mountains was Poland, which was still free. All the borders had been closed by the Nazis and Poles to prevent people from fleeing across the border into Poland. But if one went through the mountains, which reaches an altitude of over 6000 feet, perhaps one could escape. One of our employees, pretended that he wanted to see a client and drove me towards the hills. I had taken skis, a rucksack, some utensils, my passport, and as much money as I could find. I was dropped off at an inn where I had been told there were some smugglers whose normal trade consisted of carrying coffee from Poland across the snow-laden mountains into Czechoslovakia and the cigarettes and tobacco the other way. Now they could make an excellent living by smuggling people who wanted to escape the Nazis into Poland. After night had come, one of them came and said to me, "Now it's time". I took my skis and rucksack and we drove in the smuggler's car for a few miles towards the mountains. Then a long night march started through country where I could hardly see a path, but the smuggler knew his way. At one point in time he reached into his pocket and took out a gun. I thought for sure he was going to take my money and all my belongings and leave me - whether it would be dead or alive I didn’t know. But when I asked him why he took out the gun, he said it was because this was the area where border patrols roamed around and it might be better to be armed. So we walked on to the peak of the mountain and then a few more miles across the border into Poland. Here he told me that I had go on alone. I gave him the money he asked for in payment, he wished me good luck and we parted ways.
After two hours on a reasonably good foot path, I arrived in a small town in Poland where Stella Deutsch (my cousin) and her family had come to live from Czechoslovakia not too long before. They lived in Teschen which was in the Polish part of the Silesian coal and mining district. Stella's husband warned me that as I had entered Poland illegally, I would be sent back to Czechoslovakia if I was found so I had to stay out of sight. He then took my valid Czech passport and a good amount of cash, and returned with a visa that gave me permission to enter Poland legally, but I could only stay for 10 days. Stella's husband learned that a steamer would leave from Gdynia, the largest Polish port, directly to London through the kaiser Wilhelm Canal. At that time no German guard entered the Polish steamer. In a matter of a few weeks Hitler declared the canal an entirely German piece of property. But I arrived safely in London on March 30, 1939, where my mother and brother were waiting for me as I had sent them a cable from Poland with a landing permit. The very next day, April 1st, England required a visa for Czech refugees. The Lord mayor of London had formed a big committee and fund to help Czech refugees. It seemed that the British had a guilty conscience for what Chamberlain had done and the English realized what Nazidom meant for the world. I then moved into a small apartment in London with my mother and brother at Courtfield Gardens, SW7.
Life in London
My memories of my days in England are very vivid. I remember events like the Battle of Britain, bombing, great speeches by Churchill, rationing , practicing with rifles in the Home Guards without any ammunition, dark streets because of four years of black-out, the first rockets over London , but also the firm belief that it all will end well and will serve a real purpose. The apartment where mother and Robert and I stayed in London was barely missed by a bomb. I could never understand how small window panes could create so many glass splinters. For days we tried to get them out of the rugs and furniture.
We lived in a two room apartment. I shared a room with my brother, and my mother slept on the couch in the living room. Gas was only available if you dropped a coin into a box which then meant we could have gas for four hours. We kept a box of coins near the meter. In winter the apartment was bitterly cold. There was a small gas fire in one room and a coal fire in the other room. It was only enough to make you feel warm on the front side. But at least we were safe. The refugee trust fund provided two British pounds a week. A meal would cost about an eighth of a pound. We were able to have fruit and plenty of food. The streets were clean, and largely crime free. The windows were full of goods. People were generally friendly and helpful to foreigners. The German refugees had come to England much earlier and had already started new businesses or lived in one of the many boarding houses in the West side of London. Just 6 months after arriving in England, war was declared. I was at my sister's home in Birmingham when we heard the announcement.
Towards the end of 1940, I got a work permit and a position as an assistant to the manager of Ryder Bothers Ltd. steel foundry in Bolton. The small foundry in Bolton was greatly enlarged and I was supposed to be helpful in the production of bombs and steel. We made the castings; the bombs were machined and filled with explosives elsewhere. We worked six days a week and felt that we were contributing to the survival of Great Britain. That summer was particularly rainy and as I only had Sunday off, and every Sunday it rained, I never saw the sun shining the entire summer. As I had been a Czech citizen I was registered as a friendly alien and was asked to join the Home Guard. Once a week every member of the Home Guard was on night duty and was given a rifle (but not ammunition) and was supposed to fight any Germans, should they land on the coast not far from the city. These night duties in our case took place at a very nice golf club. One could also play billiards. I was to stand on guard duty every Tuesday night. Robert, however, had been declared an enemy alien ( as he came from Austria whereas I had come from Czechoslovakia) and in 1941 (after the fall of France), was interned for a while. One day a policeman came to the door and asked for Mr Pollitzer and was surprised to learn that there were two Mr Pollitzers but only had orders to pick up one. Austrians and Germans in large numbers were deported to Australia and Canada, but Robert remained in England. Robert was first sent to a big camp on the Isle of Man. After several months he was released as the British had been able to sort out the true spies from the refugees. Later he was allowed to join the Pioneer Corps,and stayed with them for about a year. After that he joined the Royal engineers reaching the rank of Major and did highly classified work at M-I 5.
By then there were food rations and clothing coupons were also introduced. My sister always had enough milk for her son and she also had a large garden with many fruit trees such as apples, plums, and pears. Bolton was never bombed but we could see Manchester being bombed and then burning. One could hear the explosions and see one big fire after another. At one time, after the Blitz began, when I was visiting and staying with friends in London, the air raid sirens sounded. My friends took their children to the basement of the house. Several incendiaries fell on my friend's house, one of them right through a broken window onto the bed where the little girl had been sleeping just an hour earlier. Every house at that time had been furnished with a water pump and we were able to extinguish the fire in Helga's bed. Unfortunately, the neighbor's house burned down completely.
One day a friend at the Ministry of Supply asked me whether I would like to take over the job as Superintendent of a new factory in Doncaster. It manufactured tank track links made of special abrasive resistant steel. The desert warfare against Rommel required chains made out of a special material. I was manager there and even had a car which was a great exception in Britain during the war. It all came to an abrupt end when Rommel was defeated in Africa and only normal tank track links were needed, and the US provided those. The factory at Doncaster was closed a year before the end of the war.
One night during the blackout, I broke my leg and spent several days in the hospital and several weeks in a cast. After I recovered I obtained a position with the US Intelligence which was stationed in great numbers in England. I learned about positions with the CIOS (Combined Industrial Observation Subcommittee) under SHAEF, where they could use people who were bilingual and technically competent. I stayed with the US army but was not actually in the US army. I was given the assimilated rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I had all the officer's privileges and could eat the officers’ mess and buy PX goods in London. At our office, in the heart of London in Berkeley Square, we received the latest intelligence reports on Germany. The captured top German Leaders were interviewed at length in Germany and one got a first hand picture of what Germany and the German army and industry had looked like as seen by German eyes.
In August 1945, a small group of CIOS was the first group of non-army personnel to fly to Berlin. We flew from London to Frankfurt and then went by army transport to Berlin. All the bridges along the way had been destroyed. Auxiliary bridges over the Elbe and other rivers had been built by the US. On the way to Berlin we encountered a Russian convoy and were greeted in a very friendly manner. Berlin had been occupied only a few weeks earlier by the Russians and the US army's detachment had only been there for one week. We saw innumerable horse drawn carts pulled by small Russian ponies filled with German household goods and anything else the Russians could take. All telephones, machinery, and railroad cars were taken and shipped to Russia. The big factories which had not been completely bombed or burned were dismantled in a hurry by the Russians and everything was shipped east. We arrived on the day when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and I was in Berlin when Japan surrendered. There was enormous jubilation and celebration for the US army in Berlin. Germany was in shambles. The cities had been bombed beyond imagination. As the partition into zones had not yet happened, we were free to travel all through Berlin. We wrote reports on the damage of factories, and on equipment that was missing or still in existence. We went into the Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery) which was Hitler's headquarters. Russian soldiers guarded the place. Hitler's desk stood in a large room and Russian soldiers would cut small slivers off of the desk with a big knife and give the slivers to the US soldiers as souvenirs for a pack of cigarettes. One of the Russian soldiers spoke a little German so I asked him how many US soldiers had visited this place. He answered very many, and went on to tell me that whenever Hitler's desk was sliced up to a large extent, they brought up a new one and slivers again went to the Americans as rare souvenirs.
After four days we left Berlin, drove to Frankfurt and then returned to London. I had much to tell of my trip and also had to write long reports. London had changed greatly since V-E day. The celebrations were unforgettable and everyone was joyful. There was light again in the streets after the long black out. Our London apartment house had survived the heavy bombing but the neighboring house was hit and was flattened. All our windows had broken and there were innumerable small pieces of glass all over the room and embedded deep into the furniture. My mother had gone to live with my sister and my brother had gotten married. I stayed on with the US army and waited for my visa to go to the US. I had originally applied for a visa in 1939, but the US had greatly restricted immigration. In the late fall my unit made the decision to move to occupied Germany. We were stationed in Hoechst which was a suburb of Frankfurt. My job was with a unit known as FIAT (Field Information Agency; Technical : US Army agency for securing the “major, and perhaps only, material reward of victory, namely, the advancement of science and the improvement of production and standards of living in the United Nations, by proper exploitation of German methods in these fields”. FIAT ended in 1947, when Operation Paperclip began functioning. )
During the war everything was rationed and the black market set in. Bread was made out of corn flour and usually was a week old by the time you could get it. Food became scarcer and scarcer. Breakfast consisted mostly of a cup of soup from the previous day and one slice of unbuttered bread. Occasionally we could have jam, but it wasn't too good. Once a week at most we could get an egg. For dinner we ate meat at most once a week. Dinner mostly consisted of potatoes, which were frozen and tasted awful. Sometimes we could get vegetables or in summer we could have salad occasionally. Milk was only given to families with babies and only two quarts/week. People picked and ate so many berries that they were almost all gone. There was only enough coal to heat one room and this was only during the day. Everyone had to be one room so there was a lot of tension and bickering. We learned and practiced piano in a room that was barely above freezing. We wore mittens and heavy clothes while practicing. There was only enough hot water for one bath a week. All of us kids would have to share the same bath, only adding a little extra hot water for each child. The water would get dirtier and dirtier and we fought over who would get to take the bath first. Before going to bed we said our prayers. In the first year of the war we prayed for a victorious end to the war. By the third year we prayed for a quick end to the war. After the war we were so malnourished that my sister and I were sent to Sweden to be with relatives.
After we recovered we were sent back and life slowly resumed to what felt like a mostly normal way of life, despite inflation and all the problems it caused. In 1923, inflation was at its worst. It stablized finally at a rate of 1:10,000- you got 10 new schillings for 100,000 old crowns. That meant practically nothing was left from my father's not insubstatial savings. Fortunately, my father's brother, Ludwig, was very well off. He had made his fortune during the war in the iron and steel industry. Pollitzer and Wertheim had become the largest dealers of pig iron and steel products both in Czechoslovakia and Austria. Many Austrians had part or all of their property in Bohemia or Moravia. Thus the factory in Moravska Ostrava had its majority owners (my uncles) in Vienna. My father was an independent lawyer and solicitor, and never wanted to join Pollitzer Wertheim, but they were his clients. That year what affected us even more than the inflation was that it was the year my father died in a hiking accident.My mother and a mountain guide were in attendance, but he was not roped on because the territory was still relatively easy. My mother wrote a long description of the horrible event.Uncle Ludwig had no children of his own, so when father died, Ludwig very generously decided to take care of his dead brother's family. My mother never had to work. She took care of the household. We were able to keep the cook and the maid as we had done during my father's lifetime . All four of us went to high school and to the university. During the summer we went to the Salzkammergut and rented a house there for two months. Other uncles, Ernst and Paul, (my mother's brothers) split the costs of our upbringing equally with my father's brother.
I studied at the humanistic Gymnasium in Vienna VIII and finished high shool in 1928. When I was a little boy I thought that I would follow my father's footsteps and become a lawyer. But when my father died, Uncle Ludwig encouraged me to go into metallurgy. I went to the German Institute of Technology at Aachen and then at Charlottenburg (Berlin). I went there because the only Austrian technical university in those years was of very poor caliber in a small Austrian provincial town and was full of Nazi students. German universities were far superior but only in three of them could you study iron and steel technology, as I did. In Germany they taught either ferrous or non-ferrous technology. My siblings, on the other hand, studied law or medicine and Vienna was very good in those subjects.
I left Vienna right after my high school graduation, then studied in Germany and later lived in Morovska Ostrava, where we had an iron and steel foundry. But the last years of high school in Vienna were the time when I felt the happiest, a time when one believed in the future, in values and things for which one wanted to work and live. Then came the collapse of all values. The victory of cynicism and lies, mixed with patriotism; heroes and concentration camps, brotherhood thrown overboard, the end of humanism and reformation values in Europe. Everyone had to be the same and submit to the state. Somewhere I had heard similar things happening years earlier, but from a distance, and I would like to say, I observed the events with a technical interest. In Russia, all of this was done more slowly and steadily. The belief in the brotherhood of all peoples was just as cold and thoroughly synchronized and organized to death, and the plan was made an end in itself.
During my last year of college, I remember very well the coming of the Nazi Government and the fire of the German Reichstag. The day after the fire, at Hitler's demand, President Hindenburg signed the Reichstag Fire Decree into law which suspended most civil liberties in Germany, including habeas corpus, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, the right of free association and public assembly. I remember fights on the streets, many Nazi rallies and May 1st under the Nazis. I continued to attend the Technical University under the Nazi regime in Berlin. I took my degree with some newly established Nazi teachers who had replaced the Jewish teachers as they had all been fired. I was an Austrian citizen at that time and Austria was an independent country at that time, until 1938 when it was occupied by Germany. For one night I had the pleasure to be arrested by the Gestapo and to spend the night at their headquarters. I saw people being beaten and saw many people who were bleeding after already having been beaten. But, fortunately, I was a foreigner and not interesting enough to them at that time. The friend in whose house I was arrested had to spend a year in prison. After my exams I returned to Austria and saw it slowly going to the Nazis, with an almost continuous civil war. When I returned to Vienna, after I completed my studies in Berlin, I remember having long talks with my uncles in which I warned them about what had happened in Germany (Nuremberg laws, prohibition of trade unions, threats against Poland and Czechoslovakia). Strange how we got used to brute force in the streets those days. In 1934, the Austrian Social Democrats became an illegal party. There was insurrection, street fighting with heavy gunfire, buildings were demolished and hundreds of dead men in the streets. I was working at one of the steel plants in 1934, when a general strike came in February of 1934. I caught the last train from where the steel plant was in Styria to Vienna and they never let me back into the steel plant again.
(Steel plant in Styria)
A few months later I went to Czechoslovakia where it was a different world. I had five good years in the foundry and machine factor, the majority of which belonged to our family.
While I was studying in Germany at the University in Aachen and Berlin, when I was getting my masters degree in metallurgy, I had spent many summer vacations working in Moravska Ostrava at the Vitkovice Iron and Steel Works. Moravska Ostrava was the largest mining town in Czechoslovakia. Before World War I, it was the largest mining and iron and steel town in Austrian Empire. It was a rich town, particularly the hard coal mining industry did rather well in those days. Vitkovice was the largest steel foundry in Czechoslovakia and Elbertzhagen and Glassner Company, was a medium sized iron and steel foundry, and machine shop, in which my father's brother (Ludwig) was majority owner. He and his brother, Alfred were also founders of Pollitzer & Wertzheim in Vienna. The Elbertzhagen and Glassner factory originally was an offshoot of the Vitokovice Steel and Iron Works. When I spent my summers in Vitkovice I was a junior blast furnace attendant. (the work necessary to produce pig iron in large blast furnaces was still done by hand at that time) The molten pig iron flowed into sand beds which had to be prepared every time. The engineer would observe the blast and temperature carefully. Iron ore and coke had to be weighed in hand-operated scales. To me it was a pleasant, beautiful and dangerous job. I began learning Czech, picked it up quickly, and eventually spoke it reasonably well.
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.This is more about the companies. You can skip this section if it doesn't interest you.
Pollitzer and Wertheim was founded by the Pollitzer brothers and the senior Wertheim in Vienna on Rueppgasse 9-11. There was a second firm owned by P&W that was started in Brunn on Olmuetzerstrasse. Wertheim left and started a lime and stone factory which was then owned by his son. Elbertzhagen and Glassner was founded in 1870 as a machine factory by Karl Elbertzhagen and Karl Glassner. In 1895 began to produce steel. In 1910, the factory was divided up because it was split between the heirs and became a company but was still a family business. In 1913 it became partly associated with Siemens and was expanded greatly . In 1916 Pollitzer-Wertheim in Vienna acquired 55.11% of the capital of Elbertzhagen-Wertheim. After the founding of the company in Brunn, the ownership shares were transferred to the company in Brunn. The rest belonged to the heirs of Elbertzhagen and was divided among 14 people. At this time there was a lot of cast iron work and they made machinery for mining. 1938, the company had control of most of the coal mines in Poland, Austria, and Hungary. The company then started to work on mining technology (things used in mining such as trolleys, jack hammers, hinges, levers, cables and mining cars) and parts used for the production of steel (wheels, parts for wheels used in the production of steel). The company also made machines for construction (made mortar), elevators, cement mixers, pulleys. There was also a part the made supplies for the chemical industry such as heat and corrosion resistant containers and drums . They also made machinery to grind gravel and other industrial machinery. By 1938, the factory employed over 300 workers and the property and factory covered 33,000 square meters. There were also 5 residential houses which totaled 52,600 sq meters. In 1939 all of Elbertzhagen-Glassner was given to Elbertzhagen as Glassner was Jewish. After 1945, Elbertzhagen fled because of the communist takeover of the factory.
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While German nationalism was rising, Czech nationalism was also rising. Vitkovice at that time was considered a "German speaking" corporation and thus I could also learn to do my job in German. In July of 1934, as I had completed my degree, I now headed off for my first permanent full time job. My brother and sisters and mother had all gone on vacation, but I took a train from the Vienna North station and five hours later arrived at Moravska Ostrava excited about my new life. There were good salaries and benefits. A company car from Elbertzhagen and Glassner took me to my new home which was part of a compound with two large houses. The general manager and his family lived in the first house. The second house was the residence of the chief accountant as well as serving as the guest house. It was there that I lived. The general manager seemed like a typical German bully, his face full of scars from innumerable fights he had been in as a student. Within four years, not to my surprise, he had become a Nazi. During those years Czechoslovakia was relatively quiet and insulated. Even so, it was putting a good deal of effort into re-arming its army and air force in response to what was going on in other parts of Europe.
I was working in the factory, living a fairly comfortable life, but wondered how long it would last. In some ways such a life, that I and quite a few others lived, is rather difficult to imagine. It was a great contrast to the ideas and the kind of life I had lived in Vienna. After a strenuous working day I may have been invited to one of the local factory owners or managers. Everybody in those circles had a cook and usually a maid as well. Food was excellent, chamber music may have been played, and there was always intelligent conversation. We discussed the events of the world which included what was happening in Russia, where the last illusions were shattered that anyone could have held about socialism. (As an aside, Trotsky ( one of the leaders and organizers of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War) and my father were well acquainted prior to World War 1. Trotsky was one of the regular guests at the Cafe Central in the first district of Vienna. This was a place where intellectuals would gather and discuss politics and world events. At that time (not knowing what the future would hold), my father thought that Trotsky was intelligent, but a rather unimportant Russian emigre. ) But during my time in Czechoslovakia, in the 30's major upheavals in the world were occurring. Stalin was murdering hundreds of thousands of alleged enemies in the Purge and Trotsky was among one of those who was eventually murdered.) A very good friend of mine, Michael Striker, who had been my boy scout leader in Vienna, and lived in Berlin when I was studying there, had been arrested with all his companions, and charged that he had conspired to poison Stalin. His sister, Eve, was a well known ceramicist. They had left Germany to go to Russia when Hitler came to power. She was charged by the Russian Secret police that she had painted hidden anti-communist symbols on her tea pots and cans and she was imprisoned for a long time. But now Michael showed up in Morovska Ostrava having escaped from Russia. (Eventually he did manage to come to the US) Some of my friends had gone to Spain to join the International Brigade in order to fight Franco as the Spanish Civil War was occurring. But the Russian communists soon took over the command of the International Brigade and terrorized every free thinking and liberal fighter.
Sometimes other young engineers or businessmen met at a rather large cafe where we listened to music or played card games. Frequently we would go to the night club in the basement, where excellent performers played and I would dance. There was also theater. Young German artists had a chance to perform in many difficult roles. Modern plays were tried out in local towns before being performed in Vienna or a large German cities. There was also a Czech theater. For the most part, Germans and Czechs mixed such as at the tennis club or other events. The Czechs had instituted nationalism in their republic in 1918, as one of the carrying pillars. At first, the Jews sided with the German population. But in the 1930's, German universities in Czechoslovakia were under the influence of Nazi Germany so the Jews began to side with Czechs. But anti-semitism was prevalent as Nazi ideology spread across all of Central Europe. So my pleasant life was often overshadowed by events within and outside of my environment such as the rise of Nazism, the Spanish civil war and the Russian Purge.
I began my shift at 6 am to the sound of the factory whistles. I assisted in the production and manufacturing of castings. In 1937, the general manager retired and I was made his successor. I was the youngest man to be made general manager. I was, at that time, in charge of new orders and resolving disputes. I traveled to other factories and dealt with government agencies. We produced a variety of coal equipment, conveyor belts, small cranes, road building equipment and iron and steel castings of all sorts. Economic conditions were improving all over Europe. Hitler had started his huge re-armament program and all of Germany's neighbors and potential opponents followed suit. Czechoslovakia was France's ally in particular, and the backbone of the so called "small Entente" which consisted of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Poland.
All of this fell to pieces in 1938, when Chamberlain came to Munich and gave the Sudeten area to Germany. Czechoslovakia had a mixed population which consisted of Czechs, Slovaks, Germans, Carpathian Ruthenians, Hungarians, and Czech and German speaking Jews. The cutting away of all the German speaking area caused havoc. Immediately the Germans imposed driving on the right side of the road, whereas previously one drove on the left side. German portions cut into Bohemia and Moravia at many points. On one trip from Moravska Ostrava to Prague I had to change the side I was driving on 5 times. But the driving situation was the least of it. The Germans began a campaign to incite the German minority against the Czechs and any lie seemed permissible. One such example was that the Germans accused Czechs of throwing German workers into a vat of molten steel at Vitkovice. The other Jewish people I knew were very fearful and discussed the fate of Austria and treatment of the Jews there.
During the years in Moravska Ostrava I frequently visited Kunice (in Poland) on weekends. In a small mountain village in the Beskide mountains, the large miners union ran a rehabilitation and rest home. The medical director was Berthold Storch who had married one of my father's sisters. They had 3 children. Two daughters (Stella and Irma) survived the war. Stella came to the US with 3 children, one of whom became a law professor at Yale (Jan Deutsch). According to some records, Berthold was sent to Theresienstadt in September of 1942, and then was sent to Treblinka in October were he was killed. The rest of the family is believed to have been deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz where they died.
In March of 1938, Hitler occupied Austria. Robert (my brother) had been serving in the Austrian army his obligatory eight months when he and all the other non-Aryans were dismissed from the army. He then went to London where other family members on my mother's side of the family already resided having left earlier. (Mother had left Vienna in 1938 to go to England and my youngest sister had left in 1934. My other sister had gotten visa to go to New Zealand in 1938.) On March 15th, 1939, Hitler's soldiers occupied Moravska Ostrava and the rest of Czechoslovakia as well. Factory owners were dispossessed if they happened to be Jews, otherwise a commissar was set on top of the Czech managers. One of the department managers, Mr. Hamerak, appeared in my office and told me that he would be taking my place immediately and that I had no more say in the factory. I had felt for some time that being a factory manager in free Czechoslovakia was a gift which fate would take away. I knew right then I needed to leave Czechoslovakia.
It was the middle of March and heavy snow was still lying in the mountains. On the far side of the Beskidy Mountains was Poland, which was still free. All the borders had been closed by the Nazis and Poles to prevent people from fleeing across the border into Poland. But if one went through the mountains, which reaches an altitude of over 6000 feet, perhaps one could escape. One of our employees, pretended that he wanted to see a client and drove me towards the hills. I had taken skis, a rucksack, some utensils, my passport, and as much money as I could find. I was dropped off at an inn where I had been told there were some smugglers whose normal trade consisted of carrying coffee from Poland across the snow-laden mountains into Czechoslovakia and the cigarettes and tobacco the other way. Now they could make an excellent living by smuggling people who wanted to escape the Nazis into Poland. After night had come, one of them came and said to me, "Now it's time". I took my skis and rucksack and we drove in the smuggler's car for a few miles towards the mountains. Then a long night march started through country where I could hardly see a path, but the smuggler knew his way. At one point in time he reached into his pocket and took out a gun. I thought for sure he was going to take my money and all my belongings and leave me - whether it would be dead or alive I didn’t know. But when I asked him why he took out the gun, he said it was because this was the area where border patrols roamed around and it might be better to be armed. So we walked on to the peak of the mountain and then a few more miles across the border into Poland. Here he told me that I had go on alone. I gave him the money he asked for in payment, he wished me good luck and we parted ways.
After two hours on a reasonably good foot path, I arrived in a small town in Poland where Stella Deutsch (my cousin) and her family had come to live from Czechoslovakia not too long before. They lived in Teschen which was in the Polish part of the Silesian coal and mining district. Stella's husband warned me that as I had entered Poland illegally, I would be sent back to Czechoslovakia if I was found so I had to stay out of sight. He then took my valid Czech passport and a good amount of cash, and returned with a visa that gave me permission to enter Poland legally, but I could only stay for 10 days. Stella's husband learned that a steamer would leave from Gdynia, the largest Polish port, directly to London through the kaiser Wilhelm Canal. At that time no German guard entered the Polish steamer. In a matter of a few weeks Hitler declared the canal an entirely German piece of property. But I arrived safely in London on March 30, 1939, where my mother and brother were waiting for me as I had sent them a cable from Poland with a landing permit. The very next day, April 1st, England required a visa for Czech refugees. The Lord mayor of London had formed a big committee and fund to help Czech refugees. It seemed that the British had a guilty conscience for what Chamberlain had done and the English realized what Nazidom meant for the world. I then moved into a small apartment in London with my mother and brother at Courtfield Gardens, SW7.
Life in London
My memories of my days in England are very vivid. I remember events like the Battle of Britain, bombing, great speeches by Churchill, rationing , practicing with rifles in the Home Guards without any ammunition, dark streets because of four years of black-out, the first rockets over London , but also the firm belief that it all will end well and will serve a real purpose. The apartment where mother and Robert and I stayed in London was barely missed by a bomb. I could never understand how small window panes could create so many glass splinters. For days we tried to get them out of the rugs and furniture.
We lived in a two room apartment. I shared a room with my brother, and my mother slept on the couch in the living room. Gas was only available if you dropped a coin into a box which then meant we could have gas for four hours. We kept a box of coins near the meter. In winter the apartment was bitterly cold. There was a small gas fire in one room and a coal fire in the other room. It was only enough to make you feel warm on the front side. But at least we were safe. The refugee trust fund provided two British pounds a week. A meal would cost about an eighth of a pound. We were able to have fruit and plenty of food. The streets were clean, and largely crime free. The windows were full of goods. People were generally friendly and helpful to foreigners. The German refugees had come to England much earlier and had already started new businesses or lived in one of the many boarding houses in the West side of London. Just 6 months after arriving in England, war was declared. I was at my sister's home in Birmingham when we heard the announcement.
Towards the end of 1940, I got a work permit and a position as an assistant to the manager of Ryder Bothers Ltd. steel foundry in Bolton. The small foundry in Bolton was greatly enlarged and I was supposed to be helpful in the production of bombs and steel. We made the castings; the bombs were machined and filled with explosives elsewhere. We worked six days a week and felt that we were contributing to the survival of Great Britain. That summer was particularly rainy and as I only had Sunday off, and every Sunday it rained, I never saw the sun shining the entire summer. As I had been a Czech citizen I was registered as a friendly alien and was asked to join the Home Guard. Once a week every member of the Home Guard was on night duty and was given a rifle (but not ammunition) and was supposed to fight any Germans, should they land on the coast not far from the city. These night duties in our case took place at a very nice golf club. One could also play billiards. I was to stand on guard duty every Tuesday night. Robert, however, had been declared an enemy alien ( as he came from Austria whereas I had come from Czechoslovakia) and in 1941 (after the fall of France), was interned for a while. One day a policeman came to the door and asked for Mr Pollitzer and was surprised to learn that there were two Mr Pollitzers but only had orders to pick up one. Austrians and Germans in large numbers were deported to Australia and Canada, but Robert remained in England. Robert was first sent to a big camp on the Isle of Man. After several months he was released as the British had been able to sort out the true spies from the refugees. Later he was allowed to join the Pioneer Corps,and stayed with them for about a year. After that he joined the Royal engineers reaching the rank of Major and did highly classified work at M-I 5.
By then there were food rations and clothing coupons were also introduced. My sister always had enough milk for her son and she also had a large garden with many fruit trees such as apples, plums, and pears. Bolton was never bombed but we could see Manchester being bombed and then burning. One could hear the explosions and see one big fire after another. At one time, after the Blitz began, when I was visiting and staying with friends in London, the air raid sirens sounded. My friends took their children to the basement of the house. Several incendiaries fell on my friend's house, one of them right through a broken window onto the bed where the little girl had been sleeping just an hour earlier. Every house at that time had been furnished with a water pump and we were able to extinguish the fire in Helga's bed. Unfortunately, the neighbor's house burned down completely.
One day a friend at the Ministry of Supply asked me whether I would like to take over the job as Superintendent of a new factory in Doncaster. It manufactured tank track links made of special abrasive resistant steel. The desert warfare against Rommel required chains made out of a special material. I was manager there and even had a car which was a great exception in Britain during the war. It all came to an abrupt end when Rommel was defeated in Africa and only normal tank track links were needed, and the US provided those. The factory at Doncaster was closed a year before the end of the war.
One night during the blackout, I broke my leg and spent several days in the hospital and several weeks in a cast. After I recovered I obtained a position with the US Intelligence which was stationed in great numbers in England. I learned about positions with the CIOS (Combined Industrial Observation Subcommittee) under SHAEF, where they could use people who were bilingual and technically competent. I stayed with the US army but was not actually in the US army. I was given the assimilated rank of Lieutenant Colonel. I had all the officer's privileges and could eat the officers’ mess and buy PX goods in London. At our office, in the heart of London in Berkeley Square, we received the latest intelligence reports on Germany. The captured top German Leaders were interviewed at length in Germany and one got a first hand picture of what Germany and the German army and industry had looked like as seen by German eyes.
In August 1945, a small group of CIOS was the first group of non-army personnel to fly to Berlin. We flew from London to Frankfurt and then went by army transport to Berlin. All the bridges along the way had been destroyed. Auxiliary bridges over the Elbe and other rivers had been built by the US. On the way to Berlin we encountered a Russian convoy and were greeted in a very friendly manner. Berlin had been occupied only a few weeks earlier by the Russians and the US army's detachment had only been there for one week. We saw innumerable horse drawn carts pulled by small Russian ponies filled with German household goods and anything else the Russians could take. All telephones, machinery, and railroad cars were taken and shipped to Russia. The big factories which had not been completely bombed or burned were dismantled in a hurry by the Russians and everything was shipped east. We arrived on the day when the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and I was in Berlin when Japan surrendered. There was enormous jubilation and celebration for the US army in Berlin. Germany was in shambles. The cities had been bombed beyond imagination. As the partition into zones had not yet happened, we were free to travel all through Berlin. We wrote reports on the damage of factories, and on equipment that was missing or still in existence. We went into the Reichskanzlei (Reich Chancellery) which was Hitler's headquarters. Russian soldiers guarded the place. Hitler's desk stood in a large room and Russian soldiers would cut small slivers off of the desk with a big knife and give the slivers to the US soldiers as souvenirs for a pack of cigarettes. One of the Russian soldiers spoke a little German so I asked him how many US soldiers had visited this place. He answered very many, and went on to tell me that whenever Hitler's desk was sliced up to a large extent, they brought up a new one and slivers again went to the Americans as rare souvenirs.
After four days we left Berlin, drove to Frankfurt and then returned to London. I had much to tell of my trip and also had to write long reports. London had changed greatly since V-E day. The celebrations were unforgettable and everyone was joyful. There was light again in the streets after the long black out. Our London apartment house had survived the heavy bombing but the neighboring house was hit and was flattened. All our windows had broken and there were innumerable small pieces of glass all over the room and embedded deep into the furniture. My mother had gone to live with my sister and my brother had gotten married. I stayed on with the US army and waited for my visa to go to the US. I had originally applied for a visa in 1939, but the US had greatly restricted immigration. In the late fall my unit made the decision to move to occupied Germany. We were stationed in Hoechst which was a suburb of Frankfurt. My job was with a unit known as FIAT (Field Information Agency; Technical : US Army agency for securing the “major, and perhaps only, material reward of victory, namely, the advancement of science and the improvement of production and standards of living in the United Nations, by proper exploitation of German methods in these fields”. FIAT ended in 1947, when Operation Paperclip began functioning. )
