Photos from London, I am not sure when;
Most of the time, up til now, I have stayed in London and have enjoyed the amenities of the British Capital after some years of provincial life. The transition of war to peace takes place gradually. Thousands of motor cars run in London again, the blackout does not exist anymore. Food shortages are bad and queues for many important goods can be seen all over town. The shortage of housing is very serious. The new Labor Government has been elected and a new spirit has entered many aspects of British life. My job in Letchworth, in the factory with the Ministry of Supply in London, came to an end when the war production ceased.
I am now in Germany, in Hoechst near Frankfurt. I have had a very interesting job the last few months. I was lucky to find a position with one of the technical intelligence departments of the US Foreign Administration ( F.I.A.T. Control Commission) and have been working for them as a metallurgist, in my profession, since last May. The boss is Professor Stoughton. He was one of the best known professors of Metallurgy in the states. My immediate superior, Mr Tyler, is chairman of the Minerals and Metals Subcommittee. He does not speak German, so when we travel he is rather glad to have me with him. I thoroughly enjoy working with and for the Americans.
In July, I went to Berlin where I spent about two weeks. I was one of the first civilians, attached to the army, to be there. It was no pleasant trip. The situation in Germany is grim almost everywhere, but particularly in the Eastern Zone. We people with the army of occupation do not notice too much of it. We enjoy most of the luxuries which the US can offer. We have excellent food and drinks, well heated houses and offices, we stay at clubs which have been the seats of German princes and dukes only a few months ago. Last Sunday we went to an officers' club, which used to be the castle of the Empress Friedrich, the daughter of Queen Victoria. We eat from her dishes, marked V & A, and the English crown. The Duke of Hesse, the last owner, lives in a little house now somewhere in the neighborhood. We walk into any factory, interrogate the managers, and look at their secret papers. We have cars or jeeps to travel over the excellent autobahn. But everywhere we go we come to destroyed towns and all the pictures and movies will never give the true impression of how terrible a destruction this has been. We see people expelled from the eastern parts of Germany, starving, without any of their belongings, looking like prisoners of concentration camps, shipped from town to town and we wonder how human beings can exist in and under the ruins of their old houses. On the other hand, we see lovely and untouched countryside, small villages and a few towns, like Heidelberg, have escaped the bombing and it looks like peace and happiness. Never was there such a contrast between life in the major towns and the open country side as in Germany now. Lack of transportation prevents goods and food from reaching towns. Most of the bridges have been blown up by the Nazis on their last desperate stand. One never realized how many bridges there were and how important they are until you see river after river blocked with wrecks of bridges, blocking traffic in and over the water, or a railway line and a road, and forcing you to detours of an hour or more.
Conditions in the Russian zone are worse than in the West. Berlin and Vienna are really starving and one wonders how many thousands will die this winter. The lack of an overall policy, the disintegration of the economy, the cutting of both Austria and Germany into self-insufficient zones makes a grim picture. Mines cannot resume work because conveyor belts produced in the West are not available.Very few factories have started production. Most people still live off their savings. Of course, one cannot buy anything in civilian shops, and the official rations are extremely cheap. Here in the US zone they are regularly distributed and are just enough to keep soul and body together. Conditions in Austria are very hard. Most of the industrial equipment has been evacuated by the Russians and the town is starving and has no means to re-start life. The Russians are asking for reparations and are still taking the meager food supplies. So the Austrians just have to wait.
The future of this country seems rather dark. Some people have realized that a slum in the center of Europe will not be to the advantage of humanity, but little is being done. Certainly improvements can be seen. Most towns have light again. The water system is working. The gas has been restored in many districts. But production has hardly started anywhere, people are unemployed and dread the coming winter.
I have not heard much of the family factory in Czechoslovakia. The Russians are masters in that part of Europe and nobody can know what the future will bring. For the time being, all factories have been taken over by "workers committees" and I do not feel any longing to go back under present conditions. I don't want to live in a country where there is always a possibility of Siberia or jail. I have learned what freedom and democracy mean, and don't want to live in a world where you may not correspond with friends or relatives in other countries without severe censorship, if at all, or be able to read or say what you think. Most likely I will go to the US next year. I have taken the necessary steps and am very glad that I met many excellent US men in my profession during the last few months.
11/18/45
Berlin has changed its outlook beyond expectations. The streets have been cleared of rubble, underground and Stadtbahn run in most parts of town. Gas and electric lights are working again. Shortages exist in a terrible way, though. Just now they closed again all the cabarets, cafes, etc after dusk and restaurants after 8 pm, because they have not enough coal to light them.
I was at Siemens again, and whilst they employed about 700 men in July on clearing the debris, they have 7000 now. They managed to get some machines from the outside, to repair and assemble many machines hidden under the ruins. Conditions are still very bad, particularly the food situation is desperate and children are evacuated in great numbers to the country. Of course the partition into three zones remains the main source of difficulties. Transportation from one zone into the other is still difficult, although Germans may move now more easily from East to West. The expulsions of Germans goes on. I understand that many hundreds or even thousands are transferred every day into the British and US zones. Berlin is full of life, industrious good shops, plenty of luxury, as in inflation times. One can buy anything for cigarettes; beautiful porcelain, furs, glassware, but few normal consumer goods, at least at normal prices. Whereas ration cards are honored in the West, (both in the British and US zone), people in Berlin must wait two months for their rations of fat and meat. But one has the impression that the Germans, industrious and hard working as they are, will pull through, unless outside powers interfere too much. The Russian part of town is full of Russian posters, greeting the Glorious Red Army and celebrating the anniversary of the Revolution. They built a huge, beautiful marble monument in Tiergarten, which was unveiled on armistice day, which is guarded day and night. The Communists are generally hated. The women who have been raped and the men who have been prisoners of war both make sure of that, and the Russians obstruct every constructive idea in the Western zones. It looks as if they were convinced that war is inevitable and by being convinced and acting accordingly, they really make it unavoidable. I am rather pessimistic about the future.
Lately it seems like all the Americans want is to go home, and those who stay don't care. Everything can go to hell as far as they are concerned. They want to leave Europe and I cannot blame them. They are more concerned with which football team won last Sunday in Chicago than with European events. The Russians loot everything systematically, the French loot too, but are without a system, the British try to build up and are the best organized and most interested, but the Americans don't give a damn and want to go home. That makes working very difficult for those who have to stay.
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