September 7, 1947

Germany is the poorhouse of Europe. Conditions have not improved much although you can see a fair number of houses repaired, and more goods seem to be available than six months ago. This particularly applies to the Ruhr, where the miners get big extra rations and live comparatively well off now. But otherwise, all incentive for work has gone and people do not care anymore. They cannot buy anything with their marks, earn much more if they spend a day in blackmarketeering than a week at honest work. This lack of incentive applies as much to large industries as to the tram conductor. Taxes are too high and factories lose money because they can never replace goods they have to sell at fixed prices. Germany is heading for a a tough winter. The army of occupation is less popular than ever. One can notice it quite often by the attitude of the Germans who have changed from extreme servility a year ago to an underlying hostility and passive resistance now. It does not seem that the Germans are ready for democracy.

My work here is steady and we have several interesting cases including Krupp, IG Farben, and Einsatzgruppen case .

( my note- SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting. The units targeted Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories; including Gypsies, and Soviet political commissars. The Einsatzgruppen operated throughout the territory occupied by the German armed forces following the German invasions of Poland, in September 1939, and later, of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The Einsatzgruppen carried out operations ranging from the murder of a few people to operations which lasted over two or more days, such as the massacres at Babi Yar (33,771 killed in two days) and Rumbula (25,000 killed in two days). The Einsatzgruppen were responsible for the murders of over 1,100,000 people, and they were the first Nazi organizations to commence mass killing of Jews as an organized policy.)
I occasionally find time to listen in on the other cases for short periods and find it amazing, inspite of everything one knows. Some of the defendants are very interesting people. I listened several times at the IG Farben and SS general trials. It seems incredible how harmless these SS generals appear. One could be an old professor and in fact he killed 150,000 Jews in a few months and has no guilty conscience whatsoever. My work with FIAT brought me in contact with mostly decent Germans, and one tends to forget what happened here for eight years. Nuernberg is a dreary bombed out city and one cannot do much in town.

November 14, 1947

     The Krupp's case will finally start on Monday. The trials show how big business helped Hitler in waging his war, but the average German has the impression that the choosing of just a few industrialists is an injustice or that the whole trial is just a stage show. In Essen, it seemed that everybody there was most antagonistic towards the idea of bringing the Krupp leaders to trial. One hardly has the feeling one is doing anything very useful, whether from a point of justice or of propaganda value.
     Germany is getting rather tense. The friction between East and West can be felt everywhere, and many Germans see their opportunity- particularly in the British Zone. I would not drive alone at night this winter. The hatred against the Allies is increasing and bad policy adds to the prevailing feelings. The Germans hate the Allies. They blame the Allies for all their misery and forget they started, waged and lost a war.  British women have been spit at in shops. I offered a girl at Krupp's, where I worked at Essen, a bar of chocolate, because she had been typing for me all day. She refused to take it as Krupp's employees feel particularly embittered. Democracy cannot be taught amidst hunger and ruins, and I think all such attempts will come to nothing. Money has lost its value and factories as well as private people try to barter goods for goods. Consequently, large stocks of odd material are kept at the wrong places. The cement factory may have traded a few tons of copper sheet for it cement, and has to put the copper in their store room until they can trade it for a small furnace, or food for workers. The Germans complain bitterly about the conditions they are living in, but they hardly ever make any efforts to improve them.
     The political situation seems to be deteriorating. Reports from Eastern Germany are sometimes uncanny. More and more people disappear, everything is much as it was four years ago, except the master have changed. But fear exists more than ever. The country is thoroughly demoralized and there is no ideal to which they may look to. Only the behaviour of the communists in the Russian zone prevents spreading of communism. There, concentration camps exist again, and people do not dare to talk on the streets. US Mil. Gov happened just to catch the few directors of the Askania Works in Berlin producing fuses for the Russians, but they can hardly catch all the Managers in Saxony and further east.(Askania was a manufacturer of aircraft accessories - from Wikipedia " The Askania works had a branch in the Mariendorfer Ringstrasse during the Second World War .  In Mariendorf, Marienfelde and Lichtenrade therefore there were numerous barracks for forced laborers of Askania works. Due to forced labor, the number of employees rose to around 20,000 in 1940. These came from western occupied areas such as Belgium , France and the Netherlands , but also from eastern areas such as Poland and later the Soviet Union, In a major air raid on Berlin by the Allies on August 24, 1943, at least 16 forced laborers from the Soviet Union died in a camp on Ringstrasse.  It is also known that near the end of the war, in 1944 to 1945, children of forced laborers from France and the eastern territories who were in camps of Askania works were starved.  )

December 3,1947

I came back from Vienna yesterday and am very glad that I could go. Vienna was a most agreeable surprise to me. I had not seen it for two years, the last time being Christmas of 1945. I could hardly believe my eyes. It is very different from Germany. One can see repaired houses everywhere, people are working, they do not look starved, and are well clad. The country is far from normal, but the progress made is great, unlike Germany where one has to spend all their spare time in getting a few additional rations in the black market. The American help is very great. 60% of all food consumed in the towns comes to Austria as free gift. All the people I visited had at least one warm room, and fair food. Very many people in Vienna get additional CARE packages as well. The   Opera is open, and the theaters are good. Prices are exorbitant, though. Just now they are converting their money to Schillings at a rate of 3:1. Everybody wants to buy as much as possible and get rid of the bad old Schillings. Consequently the shops are almost empty of goods and the shop owners refuse to sell anything. People pay debts to their enemies with the old Schillings, but not their friends. There are good jobs now and men and women who could not get any work before 1939, are in leading jobs now.Vienna is not what it used to be- the town is now without Jews, and somehow without culture. A new generation has come. My impression may be comparable to the one that one may have had in 1922, looking at Old Vienna of 1912. Perhaps it will be nice again- it certainly is interesting. Austria is the only country where the communists are losing ground, surrounded by communist dominated Eastern Europe. I felt strongly that I do not belong to Austria any more.

January, 1948

     Last week there was a bomb in our dining room in the Grand Hotel, which is our mess. I happened to be present when the thing went off; it was quite noisy. A big window was smashed but nobody was injured. I expect more trouble of that kind. It won't help them to get more food. But some stupid Nazis feel they have done something and so they rob cars, throw bombs and just try to stir up disorder. The bombs they dropped over London were rather more unpleasant. I shall be glad to be out of Germany, but not because I am scared, there is very little, so far, to be scared of. Bevin's speech and all it implicates is much worse. I am rather pessimistic concerning the general future of Europe. Conditions here are very bad. Yesterday the meat and fat ration was cancelled without warning and they won't get anything for the next two weeks.  The standards for decency and morality have disappeared. There is no German official who could not be bribed for a pound of coffee. In addition, the little food and goods which are available are badly distributed. Everybody tries to hoard whatever they can. The local shoe shop owner may have cement, or kitchen stoves which are urgently needed somewhere else.
     The Krupp's trial is at an interesting stage at the moment as most of the defending lawyers are in jail for contempt of court. I take it they will be released soon, but the whole atmosphere is rather strained. The other day two young Jewish girls came in as witnesses. They had been transferred from Auschwitz to a camp in Essen as slave workers and testified how they had been treated. Krupp did not use many concentration camp inmates, unlike IG Farben, who used many thousands. But the way these girls were treated was more than bad enough. Now they will go to the States, being DP's they have high priority, especially as they were born in what is now Russian territory. The trials are in my opinion too late in the game. Two years ago all this was necessary and important, today other problems overshadow the deeds of Krupp ( read more about Krupp) , Schnitzler (Read about Schnitzler here), and Flick.  ( Despite being found guilty in the Nuremberg Flick Trial, he quickly became one of West Germany's richest people by the 1950s and the largest shareholder of Daimler-Benz. He was awarded numerous honors, including the Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1963 and the Bavarian Order of Merit, and was an honorary senator of the Technical University of Berlin. At the time of his death, his industrial conglomerate encompassed 330 companies and around 300,000 employees.   read more about flick here) and Darre (read about Darre here). Three years ago it would have been thrilling to read through all these secret and top secret documents, to see Krupp, Weizsaecker, Darre, Flick,  Hans Malzacher, Schmitz, and VerMeer and many other leading industrialists as witnesses or as defendants and to talk to them. But now I think it is outdated and new problems overshadow everything else.
     Vienna was a pleasant surprise for me. I had not been there for almost two years. I could compare the progress made in Austria with the stagnation in Germany and wit the misery which existed in Vienna in 1945. Certainly conditions are bad, but I did not see as many repaired houses in any German town. People in Vienna work again and not every conversation turn round black market or food in general. The American help is tremendous, of course, but I had the impression the Austrians are pulling their weight, whereas the Germans complain and work little or not at all. The Russian question overshadows everything else. Austria and Germany are terribly short of good people. All my old friends have high positions in government or industry now. They all hope that Russia will not interfere too much in Austria and that they will be able to rebuild an Austrian democracy. Germany seems to be in utter misery. People have lost all will and initiative for work. They spend their energies on acquiring a few bags of potatoes and a pair of shoes and blame the allies for their plight. They have completely forgotten that they started the war. The plight of the Eastern refugees is worst of all. They have nothing to trade with, no friends, no home, and very often no profession or knowlege. Mostly women and old people and children came from the Sudenten areas and the German East. The standards of decency and morality have disappeared as there is no German official who could not be bribed for a pound of coffee. In addition, the little food and goods which are available are badly distributed. Everyone tries to hoard whatever one can. The shoeshop may have stocks of cement, food, or kitchen stoves which are urgently needed somewhere else. Money can hardly buy anything except the official rations. . Factories trade in the "grey" market (goods for goods), whether the partner needs the goods is another question. Five tons of potatoes are not shipped in one rail car but 200 individuals with rucksacks spend two days to bring that amount back home, offering the farmers outraeous prices and filling two railroad cars with their bodies, wasting working time and energy. It is difficult to see how all this can be remedied. Only a big injection of money from the outside might do the trick. Communism does not gain much ground her. POW's returning from Russia tell their tales.