April 20, 1946

     Last weekend I went to Nuremberg and listened to the trials for a morning. It was Rosenberg's turn and the actual questioning was not very exciting, but the arrangements are very interesting. One listens to the trials through microphones which are attached to each seat, and one can switch a little knob, in order to hear everything in English, French, Russian or German. Translators translate while the men are speaking. It is quite marvellous how they are doing it. Nuremberg itself is the most depressing sight of all I have seen, not one single house stands in the old part of the city; only rats can live there now. Atomic bombs could hardly have been more efficient. The town the "Reichparteitage, of the Nurenberger Gesetze" does not exist anymore. It is sad - is there eternal justice?
     Germans coming from the Russian zone speak unanimously about the efficient rebuilding and reorganization, and about the suppression of free thought. It all reminds me very much of Hitler times. People are arrested without reasons, for political opinions only, and freedom from fear certainly is a beautifully dream in that part of the world. But some of the other freedoms do not exist in the western zones either, and I wonder what the Germans will choose eventually, freedom or food. They have made the same choice once before and decided for Hitler. This time it will be Stalin.
     Last week I went to the French zone for the first time, and had to go first to Offenburg, our French clearance center. The zone is rather different from the British and US zones, far less is organized properly, civilians live much more intermixed with Germans, in the same houses very often. From there I managed to slip over to Strassburg, which is a lovely old town again, where the shop windows show goods, the people sit in cafes, and everything looks peaceful and normal. Strassburg is France proper, a big poster behind the Bridge at Kohl informs you, "you are entering the country of liberty". The French are extremely suspicious, and it was quite a job to get some information in Saarbruecken.
     I shall have to move out of my nice billets, and so have hundreds of other officers and civilians because the  officers' dependants are arriving in force and are taking over all the nice houses. Nobody knows what they are going to do with us, everybody is struggling for new billets.The rooms are classed according to the rank you hold, so I have the right to a fairly decent room.

July 1946

     I tried to get my Czech passport and citizenship papers in order because it is always better to have some kind of passport. They refused my application for renewal of passport and are not willing to consider me as a Czech citizen because I did not fight in the Czech army, which I of course, could not have done.
     I went for a visit to Belsen where friends of mine work at the D.P, camp. We went over the area of the infamous Belsen camp, mass graves all over the place - the ghosts of the camp can almost be felt. One furnace where people were burnt is left as a remembrance and a big poster at the entrance reminds you of the great new German culture. There are still millions of DP's, Jewish and non-Jewish who have lost everything and wait for a solution for their lives. The American Joint Distribution Committee is doing very good work there for Jewish D.P.s but it is a hard and unpleasant task. The old Belsen camp has been burnt down last year because of typhoid fever, but they live quite near to it in a new camp.  Many thousand of Jews are there and have nothing to do all day long so many indulge in the blackmarketeering and other nonsense. Most want to go to Palestine and wait for a place to go so they can settle down. They did not come on their own free will, and wait for help and rescue. Palestine is a difficult question. It is difficult for Great Britain to intervene in the highly explosive area expecially since the Russians have made themselves supporters of Arab nationalist claims, and the Americans criticize Britain but refuse to take a share of the responsibilities.
      I now work for the publications board scheme of the Department of Commerce. We are going to microfilm all important German scientific and technical research, and make it available to all Allied industrialists or government departments. One goes from one factory to another, or to universities, or institutes, and screens what seems to be of importance and not well know in general. A few days later microfilm operators arrive and film all the material. Then it is sent to Washington, indexed, short English summaries are attached and bibliographies are then sent to any interested agency. The Russian government has ordered copies of every film. Private industries can order either copies of the films or photostats for little money and avoid repetition of experiments and research previously conducted in Germany. That will be the only reparations which America will ever get out of Germany. I travel mostly though the British zone, as that is where the bigger metals plants are located. We work only in the three western zones.
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