Letter from Germany, 1945 February 20

Fully typed letter. Davis writes of reading in German to, sharpen his German and to, acquaint himself with the country and their attitudes. He explains his conversations with Germans and their views and ideals of Nazism. He ends by translating a German essay. Transcription: Pfc Robert D Davis 18107121 Military Government Section 29th Infantry Division APO 29, c/o Postmaster, N.Y. MR. R.L. DAVIS CITY HALL BUILDING MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA AIR MAIL 20 February 1945 Germany Dear Dad: Lately I’ve been doing a lot of German reading, for a variety of reasons; to sharpen my German, to acquaint myself with the country and its attitudes, and even for my own amusement. This evening I read some of the essays in Goebbel’s book, “Der Angriff,” (the Attack), which he wrote for his newspaper in the early days, “while Berlin was still asleep,” as he himself modestly admits. He is a very compelling writer, and when you take into consideration the general circumstances then prevalent, it is not difficult to glimpse the attention that he attracted. Many Germans with whom I have spoken about Nazism said that the early, and purely social objectives of the party program. (Thereupon they all hasten to add, that the party’s expansionism and racial policy later turned all except the actual party members against it, which is pure bosh. The German people was glad, as long as the others could be pillaged for their benefit, and didn’t scruple to take the best. We run across all kinds of stuff from other countries; liquor, shoes, radios, even Russian cigarette-lighters and .22 shells. After our hurried odessey across impoverished France and Belgium, it is incredible to be in a land so well provided for in general. What they do regret now, is that the gravey train didn’t last long.) Anyway, I have translated the opening essay for you, so that you can judge the style and intelligence of Herr Doktor Goebbels. Its title is somewhat reminiscent of Emil Zola’s “I accuse..” “WE DEMAND…” The German people is a slave people. Today, in the scale of nations, it ranges below the lowest Negro colony on the Congo. All our sovereign rights have been taken away, and now we are only a gold sack, from which the international capitalists can fill their purses with rents and percentages. That and nothing else is the result of a many-hundred-year history of heroism. Have we worked for that? No and No! Therefore we demand: that we declare war against this condition of shamefulness and emergency, and break these chains of slavery by any means, and any means would be lawful, from the men who now control our destiny. Amonquor population are three million men, whom bread and work are denied to. And indeed, the authorities strive to conceal this pitiful thing. They prate of it gets worse for us. The illusion of freedom disappears more each day, and also peace and daily bread, with which they used to try to deceive us, when we tried to take our destiny in our own hands. The complete collapse of our people will be the only result of this irresponsible policy. Therefore we demand: for every working German the right to work and bread. While the Front-line soldier defended his Fatherland with his life in the shellholes, the East-Jewish pusher came, and took his home and garden away. Now the Jew site triumphant in the palaces, and the proletariat, the worker, is housed away in holes too pitiful to be called “dwellings”. This is neither necessary nor unavoidable, it is an injustice that cries to heaven for redress. Any government, that silently observes all this, is worth nothing, and must disappear, and the sooner the better. Therefore we reguire: dwellings for German soldiers and workers. If we have not enough money to build them. Let us drive out the intruders, in order that Germans can live on German soil. As our population gets larger, the other populations grow smaller. It means the end of our history, when they bind our youth thru’ cowardly and lazy Moral codes, our youth which should be called up to complete our mission before history. Therefore we demand: ground and fields, upon which grain grows, in order that our children can be fed. While we have dreamed or slept, or chased strange and impossible phantasies, they have stolen our property. Money is only taken steadily from the pockets of the poor, and stuffed into the pockets of the rich. This is a betrayal, a shameless and filthy betrayal! This condition of pauperization is the triumph of the government. whether it is looking after the interests of the Germans, or the interests of the capitalists, I leave to each person to decide. We require however: a government of national labor; statesmen, who are men, and for whom the shaping of a German state the aim of their policies is. Everybody has something to say in Germany: the Jew, the Frenchman, the Englishman, the League of Nations, the “World’s Conscience”, and the devil knows who else; but not the German laborer. He has to knuckle under, and work. Every four years he elects his tormentors over again, and every time it all stays the same as it was before. That is an injustice and a betrayal. We need not tolerate it any longer. We have the right to determine, that in Germany only that German has a word to say, who has bound his destiny to Germany’s, for better or for worse. Therefore we demand: Destruction of this system of exploitation! Up with the German Workers-State! Germany for the Germans! 25 July, 1927, in the paper, “The Attack.” Consummately clever writing isn’t it? And it doesn’t lose any of its wild appeal by translation. And for 1927, he had some pretty good points. If I run across any other particularly interesting one I’ll write them out for you. Drop me a line sometime. Love, Bobhttps://openworks.wooster.edu/davisworldwarII/1019/thumbnail.jp