Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - The Curtain Falls
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thinking: of those who -`cling to the faith that their
”Führer” some day will return in the same way as
Napoleon returned for a final deed during ”the
hundred days”. Hitler may have been murdered or
he may have committed suicide. The most important
fact is, and will be, to establish that he died an
ignominious death, that he realized that the system
he built had crumbled and that it constituted a
frightful disaster for all his people.
I can add that, on the surface at least, it appears
that there is little interest for Hitler in Germany
now. ”No one cares about Hitler and his
collaborators” is often the answer when one talks with a
German. Hitler destroyed Germany. They are through
with him. *
The Germany I knew in the spring of 1945 lived
in fear and trembling under an unscrupulous and
ruthless dictatorship. Nowadays we know all about
this regime of terror. We also know that even in
Germany certain efforts were made to replace the
cruel regime with sensible people. But these efforts
were often bungled and desperate and they were
confined to minor groups. The German people as a
whole never made a serious attempt to cast off the
yoke. They never seriously protested against the
persecutions of the Jews, against conditions in the
occupied countries, or against cruelties in the
concentration camps. ”We knew nothing of all this,” is
generally the answer when one puts these questions
in the Germany of today. Of course, one cannot accept
this explanation. One is thus faced with the problem:
what is the cause of German passivity? One can say
that it is easy to criticize when one is not in a position
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