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.He had suggested taking her out to a meal anda movie but she had seen he was very tired, and had put him to reston the family sofa listening to music.He had gone to sleep andwoke up to find a rug over him and the light dimmed.He hadbeen touched and grateful and only wished that he were allowedto live with a German family instead of being segregated in an ex-clusive American billet.It is indeed a curious fact that United States policy fosters prosti-tution and makes normal decent social intercourse almost out ofthe question for the occupation forces.After World War I, theUnited States and Britain observed international law and billetedtheir officers and soldiers in German families in the towns we thenoccupied in the Rhineland.But this time, wishing to punish thewhole German people and prevent our soldiers from being con-taminated by contact with an accursed people, we threw the Ger-mans out of the houses we requisitioned instead of letting themoccupy a part of their old homes.This practice, which still continues, was not only particularly 238 THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCEbrutal in view of the bombing which had destroyed so many housesin almost every German town.It also penalized our own soldiers.Officers and civilian officials on permanent duty in Germany, in-stalled in emptied German houses, with German servants hired toattend to all their wants, and with their social needs cared for byintercourse among themselves, enjoyed more comforts than athome.But the GI s, and also the pilots doing temporary duty onthe air lift, are deprived of the homelike comforts they might other-wise have enjoyed in their leisure hours.They are permitted to pickup girls on the streets, but they are carefully excluded from thesociety of respectable German families.Some of them, of course,break through the Jim Crow barriers, and some of the girls theypick up are no worse than those they knew in their home townswould be if driven by the drab misery and hopelessness of theirstarved lives in cellars and bombed-out buildings to seek a substi-tute for love, or some food and a few hours enjoyment of light andwarmth at movies or other entertainment.The fact that many German girls, casually met, win the real loveand affection of American soldiers and marry them is a tribute tothe qualities of German women, not a reflection on the AmericanGI.Many of the latter have displayed the best qualities of the Amer-ican tradition in helping children, giving food to the old and weak,and in general helping whole families to exist, without thought ofpersonal advantage.Others, of course, take advantage of their posi-tion as conquerors to take everything and give nothing, accumulatesmall fortunes by exploiting the acute want of soap, cigarettes,candy and other luxuries which can only be bought in the PXstores for American money, and can be disposed of at a huge profiton the black market.By 1948 it was no longer easy for every American soldier andcivilian to make his fortune by importing cigarettes and coffee andexchanging them for silverware and precious china, furs, heirlooms,cameras, and anything else the Germans had left to exchange, butit was still easy for the clever and unscrupulous to trade on theblack market.It was quite usual to see huge consignments of coffeearriving at the Frankfurt Press Center for correspondents whoknew how to sell what had cost them one mark a pound at theofficial rate of exchange for fifteen marks a pound.They might usethe marks to pay their servants or to dine in German restaurants,or they could buy the German luxury goods which had appeared HOW NOT TO TEACH DEMOCRACY 239in the shops since currency reform.Without joining the big rack-eteers engaged in shipping abroad via the French zone large quan-tities of German goods needed on the home market, many Ameri-cans still did their bit to undermine the value of the new currency,stimulate inflation, and deprive the German workers of the neces-sities of life.Although German women can no longer be hired for a carton ofcigarettes or some food now that famine conditions no longer pre-vail, labor is still the cheapest thing in Germany.So Army wivesand those of civilians who would do their own work and look aftertheir own children back home in the States have servants to attendto all their wants so long as their husbands work for the MilitaryGovernment.Some few take an interest in the condition of theGerman people and organize charities, but for many of them bar-gain hunting is the favorite pastime.The remark I heard one eve-ning in the Bar of the Grand Hotel at Nuremberg was typical ofmany conversations among the women of the occupation forces. My dear! said a shrill voice rising above the din, You can getwonderful Madonnas there for a carton. The contrast between America s desire to teach the Germans tobe democratic and the undemocratic treatment they receive at ourhands was strikingly illustrated as late as the spring of 1949, whena group of German women was brought over to the United Statesas the guests of the Military Government to study Americandemocratic institutions under the direction of the Carrie ChapmanCatt Foundation.The indignities, abuses, privations, and discom-forts these women suffered before they arrived in the United Statesmight well have disgusted them with democracy for the rest oftheir lives.Nora Melle, whom I have already mentioned in my chapter onBerlin, was one of them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.He had suggested taking her out to a meal anda movie but she had seen he was very tired, and had put him to reston the family sofa listening to music.He had gone to sleep andwoke up to find a rug over him and the light dimmed.He hadbeen touched and grateful and only wished that he were allowedto live with a German family instead of being segregated in an ex-clusive American billet.It is indeed a curious fact that United States policy fosters prosti-tution and makes normal decent social intercourse almost out ofthe question for the occupation forces.After World War I, theUnited States and Britain observed international law and billetedtheir officers and soldiers in German families in the towns we thenoccupied in the Rhineland.But this time, wishing to punish thewhole German people and prevent our soldiers from being con-taminated by contact with an accursed people, we threw the Ger-mans out of the houses we requisitioned instead of letting themoccupy a part of their old homes.This practice, which still continues, was not only particularly 238 THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCEbrutal in view of the bombing which had destroyed so many housesin almost every German town.It also penalized our own soldiers.Officers and civilian officials on permanent duty in Germany, in-stalled in emptied German houses, with German servants hired toattend to all their wants, and with their social needs cared for byintercourse among themselves, enjoyed more comforts than athome.But the GI s, and also the pilots doing temporary duty onthe air lift, are deprived of the homelike comforts they might other-wise have enjoyed in their leisure hours.They are permitted to pickup girls on the streets, but they are carefully excluded from thesociety of respectable German families.Some of them, of course,break through the Jim Crow barriers, and some of the girls theypick up are no worse than those they knew in their home townswould be if driven by the drab misery and hopelessness of theirstarved lives in cellars and bombed-out buildings to seek a substi-tute for love, or some food and a few hours enjoyment of light andwarmth at movies or other entertainment.The fact that many German girls, casually met, win the real loveand affection of American soldiers and marry them is a tribute tothe qualities of German women, not a reflection on the AmericanGI.Many of the latter have displayed the best qualities of the Amer-ican tradition in helping children, giving food to the old and weak,and in general helping whole families to exist, without thought ofpersonal advantage.Others, of course, take advantage of their posi-tion as conquerors to take everything and give nothing, accumulatesmall fortunes by exploiting the acute want of soap, cigarettes,candy and other luxuries which can only be bought in the PXstores for American money, and can be disposed of at a huge profiton the black market.By 1948 it was no longer easy for every American soldier andcivilian to make his fortune by importing cigarettes and coffee andexchanging them for silverware and precious china, furs, heirlooms,cameras, and anything else the Germans had left to exchange, butit was still easy for the clever and unscrupulous to trade on theblack market.It was quite usual to see huge consignments of coffeearriving at the Frankfurt Press Center for correspondents whoknew how to sell what had cost them one mark a pound at theofficial rate of exchange for fifteen marks a pound.They might usethe marks to pay their servants or to dine in German restaurants,or they could buy the German luxury goods which had appeared HOW NOT TO TEACH DEMOCRACY 239in the shops since currency reform.Without joining the big rack-eteers engaged in shipping abroad via the French zone large quan-tities of German goods needed on the home market, many Ameri-cans still did their bit to undermine the value of the new currency,stimulate inflation, and deprive the German workers of the neces-sities of life.Although German women can no longer be hired for a carton ofcigarettes or some food now that famine conditions no longer pre-vail, labor is still the cheapest thing in Germany.So Army wivesand those of civilians who would do their own work and look aftertheir own children back home in the States have servants to attendto all their wants so long as their husbands work for the MilitaryGovernment.Some few take an interest in the condition of theGerman people and organize charities, but for many of them bar-gain hunting is the favorite pastime.The remark I heard one eve-ning in the Bar of the Grand Hotel at Nuremberg was typical ofmany conversations among the women of the occupation forces. My dear! said a shrill voice rising above the din, You can getwonderful Madonnas there for a carton. The contrast between America s desire to teach the Germans tobe democratic and the undemocratic treatment they receive at ourhands was strikingly illustrated as late as the spring of 1949, whena group of German women was brought over to the United Statesas the guests of the Military Government to study Americandemocratic institutions under the direction of the Carrie ChapmanCatt Foundation.The indignities, abuses, privations, and discom-forts these women suffered before they arrived in the United Statesmight well have disgusted them with democracy for the rest oftheir lives.Nora Melle, whom I have already mentioned in my chapter onBerlin, was one of them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]