June 14, 1947

I have taken a job with the Krupps team at the war crimes trials in Nurnberg. They needed somebody who knows a little about steel. The job is interesting, but would have been thrilling 2 years ago. But now no one cares so much about reading secret letters from Goering to Krupp officials, or on the building of the "Maus", (learn more about "Maus" tank) and on the damage inflicted by Allied air raids, or on the treatment of Eastern laborers, etc. I certainly think these Krupp leaders should hang, but it seems rather difficult to prove their guilt if one sticks to normal standards. Of course they just say that they got their orders from higher up, and so on. I personally am working on the aggressive war team and we have to show that Krupp or Houdremont (manager at Krupps) or others were guilty of preparing and fostering aggressive war. I personally should prefer to do something more positive. I become familiar with US law by meeting lawyers all day long and talking about other problems as well. My immediate boss is a very intelligent woman lawyer. ( Cecelia Goetz - for more about Cecelia Goetz  https://sites.manchester.ac.uk/wilnet/2017/05/15/cecelia-goetz-first-female-prosecutor-nuremberg-trials/  )Four other people and myself spent two weeks in Essen and Herford to check Krupp documents, it was quite strange to re-visit old places.

I would like to go to Vienna, but no permits are issued. the US authorities don't like visitors because billets are scarce and every bit of food has to be shipped for such a long distance. One can go to Salzburg or Innsbruck, and I have applied again. As Vienna was out I went to Prague and Moravska Ostrava last week. ( my note:  Moravska Ostrava is now the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border. Its history and growth have been largely affected by exploitation and further use of the high quality black coal deposits discovered in the locality, giving the town a look of an industrial city and a nickname of the “steel heart of the republic”  during the communist era of Czechoslovakia. Many of the heavy industry companies are being closed down or transformed, yet the city remains one of the most polluted in the EU.)  Prague is as beautiful as ever. The country has recovered to an amazing degree. Food is better than in England, they have a ration card, but in restaurants you pay 25% more and get everything without the cards. I spent an evening with an old friend who is in charge of the office of the World Jewish Congress. Both he and his wife had been in several concentration camps and luckily enough found each other again after everything was over. They, as well as other people I met, do not want to stay. One has a feeling slightly comparable to the one in 1938. Also then Prague was lovely, food plentiful, industry working- but a big shadow of uncertainty loomed over it all. One can talk freely in Prague, as one could in 1938, papers from London and New York are sold in the streets. But the question felt everywhere is how long will it please Stalin to permit all this? When I was in Moravska Ostrava, I visited my cousin Irma. No one from her family survived at all, except her sister, Stella, who is in New York.

I also visited the factory ( Elbertzhagen & Glassner - family steel factory that he managed until 1939, and was confiscated by the Nazis). Mr Bucala, who worked under Wluka in the old days in the accounting office, is now the procurist, and a new man from Witkowitz is the director. The factory has been enlarged very much during the war. Now it is called First Ostrauer Machine Factory, Nationalized Undertaking. Like all the big mills it has been nationalized, and there is not the slightest hope or chance ever to get this factory back. Laws about compensation have not been passed yet, but one may get finally a few thousand Kronen, if one is lucky, and if everything would be slightly less involved than it happens to be, due to the skill of Hugo, Tony, Ludwig and Alfred (his uncles). But the feeling against everything German, and capitalist is very strong, and it is absolutely ridiculous even to consider for a moment to return there, except on holidays to the Tatra ( a mountain range which forms a natural border between Slovakia and Poland, and are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains ) or Prague. I was not permitted to enter the factory, which made me rather sad, being slightly sentimental. But as the factory is working on government orders they still have got these silly orders, and since they think of me as "American" they were not willing to let me in. I spoke to one of the old bosses, who was very good and nice, but the other people did not like seeing me. They are Czechs, and antisemitism and anti-capitalism is very strong in these nationalized mills. Hatred of the Germans is terribly strong everywhere, much more than in Belgium or France. Ostrau itself is rather poor. There is hardly any damage, but most civilized people have gone. I went to the old cafe and felt glad to get out again. On the other hand, the workers seem to profit under the new system. Everybody agrees that the spirit of the workers is high and their condition is good.  I went to see Dr Kraleczek, who was and is a lawyer, and who looked after my things in 1939. His wife is Jewish, and all her family has been killed.