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officials of the Allied occupation. During my
conversations with these men, the attitude of the British
authorities toward present conditions was expressed
in a very outspoken manner. For years and years,
Germany had been England’s most important
political problem. It was, they said, still a most serious
one. Germany, they felt, should be kept under very
strict control. At the same time, it should, within
certain limits, be put on its feet again economically.
Germany is the central part of Europe. In order to
solve the European problem, civil life in Germany
would have to begin anew.
On a grey and chilly February morning I also
talked with some outstanding representatives of the
German population, one of them a long time member
of the Communist party and a determined anti-Nazi.
We met in the canteen which was set up in the
destroyed Krupp factories, and where the soup
prepared by the Red Cross was being distributed among
the German children. Surrounding us, as far as we
could see, there was nothing but ruin. The German
I talked to had exact figures at his disposal when
I asked him about the housing conditions in bombed
Essen: fifty percent of all the houses were totally
destroyed, he said, thirty percent heavily damaged
but not beyond repair, ten percent were lightly
damaged and ten percent had escaped.
The conversation turned to the controversial
question of ”The other Germany”, the possibility that,
during the war there might have been an organized
and active opposition against the Hitler regime. The
reply to this question was, on the whole, negative. I
was told that, politically, active opposition had only
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