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March 6, 1960
Yesterday I spoke for several hours with the mayor of Beutelsbach,
Herr Plessing, and his wife. Our discussion turned among other things,
to the war and to the current political attitudes, and was, in addition,
a chance for me to think out several impressions that I have picked up
as to American misconceptions about Germany. I am going to set these
thoughts down in disjointed fashion so that I may have a record of them
and you may share in the insights of my experience here.

#1- It is, as many of us, surely realize, simply impossible for Americans
who have not seen it to imagine the destructive power of war. Even being
here and seeing what ruins remain (not very many!) We cannot visualize a
city 90% bombed out. And even less, could we understand the way this damage
was experienced by the people, how they lived during the war. Frau Plessing
described to me one very minor incident, the bombing of her small village
just soutside Stuttgart. In a matter of minutes there fell on this village
of 2000 people 980 fire bombs and 190 explosive bombs. In her house, nine
fire bombs hit simultaneously. They were very lucky though and saved all
but one bedroom. Many of these houses were built of straw. Of 89 of these,
2 remained standing. This in perhaps fifteen minutes, mostly with small fire
bombs. I myself cannot imagine what it must have been in the big cities
where the effort was concentrated and repeated. She also described living
under air raid conditions (going 3 or 4 times in the night on the run with
suitcases of the most important clothes) to the shelter- there to stand perhaps
for hours- silent (to conserve air) and motionless against the wall. This
perhaps until 4 AM, and then at 6 every day to catch a train for work at
Stuttgart (which might also be stopped for an air raid alert) without having
eaten to put in a long day's work. Back again at night to have sleep broken
again by the sirens.

#2- A second thing many Americans have trouble understanding is how
could Hitler have become so powerful, and how could the people have committed
such actions and ideas as he carried out? I surely don't claim to have the
answers to this but some factors loom out as important. In the early 30's
there were in Germany millions of unemployed, and such a time is receptive
to redical proposals. Hitler took several strong actions to mobilize re-
sources- building autobahns, etc. Took thousands into the army to give them
purpose and activity again and money to send home to pump into the sagging
economy. And, too, Germans were often caught up in the appeal of the "New Ger-
many", a "Glorious Fatherland" etc.- a sort of nationalism which has touched
many countries in the last hundred yers. As time progressed, however,
another factor came forth which we Americans almost always forget, I think.
Hitler's regime soon became an internal dictatorship with suppression
of news, immidiate police retaliation (away to a work camp) for giving aid
to a Jew or speaking against the government etc. It was on this reign of
fear that most of Hitler's atricities were built and not on a nationalism
of enthusiasm of the people (though these made his power possible).

Frau Plessing tells of having given food or clothing to Jews as much to
get them to leave the shop as to help them. Fear was a very important
reality and it effectively destroyed resistance.