comfortable office quarters in back ofone of the plants. There were eight ofthem, well- groomed, suave, and ex-tremely self- confident. On the floorwere three cases of wine, and the bigelectric icebox was full of bottles. Hourafter hour the host kept filling ourglasses, and then the tongues loosened.
" The whole world hates us Ger mans
," said the banker.
" I am not so sure," said the silk
manufacturer." Last month I was inHolland and was cordially received,even by the Jews ."
" Bah, the Jews !" exclaimed the de-partment- store owner." They'd dobusiness with anybody."
" Nah, that's not right," the ma-chine- plant owner objected." The Jews are like us Germans . They're smartand efficient, just as we are. That'swhy people don't like them and don'tlike us."
" Anyhow," said the building con-tractor," the world doesn't likeus,that's certain. But we'll show them.Brains and German energy will win."
I said I thought they were conceitedand living in a fool's paradise. Where,I asked, were they going to findmarkets?
This led to long and intense argu-ments, among themselves and with me.Boiled down, their thought ran as fol-lows:" There is no question about it,we are now a force to be reckonedwith again. Europe needs us; it can-not be rebuilt without Germany . After-wards we'll see. Situated as we are,we have two choices. We can turnwest, if the United States opens upmarkets to us, gives us a chance todo business in South America , for ex-ample. Or we can turn East towardour traditional field of operations.If the Americans don't provide uswith markets or treat us as equals, thenRussia might again become ourfriend."
I said that I was shocked to hearcapitalists wanting to make an eco-nomic alliance with Communists .
" Pfui," exclaimed the banker, whoby now had become spokesman forthe group." Such Unsinn, such naivete!Communism, that's merely dope forthe ignorant masses. The Russian rulers know that. Like us, they arehard- headed. We and the rulers ofRussia understand each other."
Thrown out by old neighbors, unwanted by new,nine million refugees haunt the western state
The summer sunbeat on the dustyflatlands of Dachau .From the sprawlingbarracks, whereonce the inmates ofthe concentrationcamp had lived, there streamed almosttwenty thousand shabby men and
women.
Many of them looked intense andangry as they massed in the wide squareopposite the gray building which hadhoused the gas chamber. They squeezedas close as possible to a platform onwhich a middle- aged man with burn-ing eyes began to speak, graduallyworking up the controlled rage of apracticed orator.
" Let them remember," he shoutedin German which had the intonationof the Sudetenland ," that we are Ger man , too, that German blood runsfiercely through our veins. Let themno longer dare to treat us as aliens inan alien land. When the might of theFatherland was marching in triumph,we marched along. Let them care forus now in defeat."
The audience- all Germans who hadbeen expelled from other European countries after the war- roared ap-proval, but the speaker waved for si-lence." We must not let them provokeus to violence," he said more gently." That's what they want- to break anddestroy us.
" Yet I tell you this," and again hisvoice rose," when they say to us,' Wehave no money to care for you,' wemust demand that they find money.When they say,' there are no jobs, nohomes,' we must reply,' find jobs, findhomes, or we will rise in our righteousmight against you.'
" And if," he shouted," the German treasury cannot provide for our needs,
let the Americans take care of us. Theyare spending billions in preparing tostart the next world war. Let them takethat money to feed and clothe us."
For an hour he ranted on againstthe German and the occupation au-thorities. Every once in a while heasked his listeners to" remain calm,"but these appeals only incited thecrowd to noisier anger, as, it seemed,they were meant to. When he finished,with a crescendo of denunciation, theinhabitants of Dachau picked up clubsand stones, stormed out of the camp,and did their best to smash severalneighboring towns and villages, beforepolice managed to round them up.
The speaker, Egon Hermann, who isknown as the" demagogue of Dachau ,"is something of a mystery. He arrived.in the former concentration camp inJune, 1948, after having, he said, beenexpelled from Prague . Investigatorswho have looked into his movements,however, believe that he and his wifeleft Czechoslovakia in 1946 for theRussian Zone of Germany , and that,from then until May, 1948, he returnedto Prague freely and worked there in-termittently. His wife still lives in theSoviet Zone .
Hermann has been called both a neo-Nazi and a Soviet agent. His ownwords provide some support for bothaccusations. He proclaims with pridethat he was a Nazi. He denies that he isa Communist , but he has said:" Mypolitical conviction is the color of myheart's blood. The day will come whenwe shall take what we want."
Whatever Hermann's political col-oration, his political ambition is plain.He aspires to be the Führer of all theGermans repatriated to Germany , andultimately, perhaps, of the whole coun-try. After the Dachau incident
The Reporter, October 11, 1949
16