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Swedish aùthorities to resume these activities in the
autumn. I could now inform Douglas that the Swedish
government had given permission for this and that
we could resume work about the first of October.
It was not difficult to convince oneself that this
was essential. I will never forget certain scenes I
witnessed on my visit in Hamburg in November. With
a major of the English Salvation Army as a guide,
I went through the most devastated parts of the
town. In a cellar, under an enormous mound of
rubble, which had once been a house, we saw a faint
light. We knocked and a dirty, haggard and tired old
woman met us. When we had gone down into the
cold, damp and frightfully grim cellar, she told about
her present existence. She lived here with her son
and daughter. Her husband had been killed in the
war and her son was an invalid. He used the only
bed in the room while the two women had to sleep on
the floor. ”It is cold and horrible”, she said in her
monotonous voice. And it is not easy to sleep. There
are a great number of rats in the cellar and they
attack us during the night. We hardly dare fall asleep,
as we have to be continually prepared to defend
ourselves.” The daughter, who also looked like an old
woman, though she was really only thirty or forty,
had evidently suffered still more than the mother.
Through talking with her we soon realized that she
was a mental case.
When we emerged from these terribly depressing
surroundings, We saw a little boy about eight years
old in the street. ”Do you see that little boy?” the
English major asked me. ”He supports his mother
and his two small sisters by stealing. Whatever he
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