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  • True Storyof a Strange.Honeymoon

    ByMARGARET PORTER REINKE(Cop)'rllrht:1839: The ChkaJroTrl~.)

    "'{X THAT will America say?V V _.This was my first reoaction to the startling

    news Karl brought me thatMarch morning in 1938 whenHitler invaded Austria. In FrauHoffman's pension at Mitten·wald in the Bavarian Alps theatmosphere was tense. Theradio was just beginning to tellwhat was happening.••What will America. say? "I repeated my question out

    loud.••Karl, does this mean war? '••Not at all," he rep 1i e d.

    ••The democracies dare not Inter-fere." Then he became the thor-ough German, the lecturer, thesounder of warnings. ••Showno excitement," he commanded.••Everyone knows you are theonly foreigner here, and theywill be watching you."That was how the news of the

    an8chlu88, the swift seizure ofAustria, came to us. The rest ofthe world apparently was justas startled. Schuschnigg ofAustria was turned. out withno notice. Hitler was con-queror. He had taken advan-tage of France's ditncult domes-tic situation to master the littlerepublic that had been set upafter the war.Overnight the Reich reor-

    ganized Austria, absorbed hermillions. Currency regulationswere announced 1mmediately.Passport regulations were abol-ished at once and the customhouses on the old border werechanged into Youth hostels.The next day we heard the

    noise of approaching troopsagain in Mittenwald. This timethey came from the direction 'OfInnsbruck. . Austrian soldierswere being transrerred to Ger·man garrisons to take the placesof Germans sent into old Austria.As the new alltes arrived

    the villagers ana, the visitorscheered Little girls ran tor-ward and presented the Aus-trlans with fiowers. CI.caretswere showered on the' matchingcolumns from the windows. Themayor, standing on a chair com-mandeered from a care, made aspeech when the detachmenthalted. It ended with « 8W3gHeW" Then the Austrian bandplayed the two German anthems.As the march was resumedwe all stood with hands outsstretched in the Nazi salute.

    • • •Slowly my husband and I

    went back into the pension. Adeep feeling of discouragementoverwhelmed me. Another idylwas ending. The prospect of anevening alone with Karl was de-pressing. He would deliver aspeech about Hitler and the dev-ilishness of democracies, or hewould be silent, ignoring an un-educated foreigner. Politics hadengrossed him again.I was more glad than sorry

    when he sat down to the radio,eagerly absorbing the news ofthe anschlus8, and let me go up-stairs alone.So we had come back again

    to German politics. Mittenwald'speace was ended~ Nazi actionand Nazi propaganda were trioumphant here, as they wereeverywhere else in this nationof many millions. Airplanesroared over our heads. The Nazifiags, so seldom seen when wearrived, hung fro m all thehouses now, and both Inhabl-tants and tourists chattered in-cessantly of Hitler and Ger-many's return to power.It was a welcome relief when

    we left the village for a one-daytrip. Our first stop was Ober-amergau. There was nothingdisappointing there; the dignitythat has wrapped itself aboutthe actors in the famous Passionplay was unaltered. They wereall preparing calmly to give thenext performance in 1940.We halted later at Fussen to

    visit Kin go Ludwig's magnif·icent castle of Neuschwanstein,perched on a mountain crag andsurrounded by mists. It lookedlike the pictures of fairy palacesin the books that little girls in

    • When in 1937 the author marrW3d Karl Reinke. a Germanliving in Haiti, he was gentle, kind, ftdl of the love of life. Ona honeymoon to his family's home in Hamburg, Karl camerapidly under the influence oitbe Nazi ideology, and the happi·ness of their marriage as rapidly was tarnished. On a wintervacation trip to the Bavarian Alps the Reinkes learn that

    Hitler is marching into Austria.

    America get at Christmas time.The interior was splendid. Onthe walls were paintings repre-senting scenes from the greatoperas :-- ••Tristan,': ••Tannhau·ser," ••Rienzi," "Parsifal," ••Lo-hengrin," and the Ring trilogyof Wagner. Karl and I weretouched, as usual, by beautifulthings associated with music.Soon we bade farewell to Mit·

    tenwald. The day we left wesaw 800 Italian laborers beingbrought in 'to aid the German

    . farmers with their spring plant-ing. Their train, its coaches cov-ered with Fascist and Nazi ban-ners and portraits of Mussoliniand Hitler, was halted at the vll-lage station. The Mittenwaldband played the patriotic musicof the two governments as theworkers were fed spaghetti andgiven red wine in the stationdining room.

    • ••We were to make a slow prog-

    ress back to Hamburg, stoppingat each interesting city. Munich,scene of Hitler's first attemptsto seize power, and, therefore.saered to the Nazis, showed uswhat Germany had become sincethe f,ln8chluss. The whole townbubbled with enthusiasm overfue victory,and soldiers by thehundreds swaggered throughthe streets.One of the frequent ••solldar-

    lty " days was being observed.Funds were being collected forwinter relief. Soldiers rattledboxes. After contributing we

    (Acm. photo.)Fraul.iu of occupi.d t.rritory gr•• t

    G.rman .oldi.ra.

    were given little dolls thatmade us exempt from furthersolicitation. Twenty pfennig, orthe equivalent of a nickel, wasall that was demanded or ex·pected. But every German giveswillingly, and a surprisingamount is raised. High officials,including Hitler, Goering, andGoebbels, often act as collectors,and long lines await an opportu-nity to contribute to them.Before we left Munich we vls-

    ited the memorial crypt wherethe bodies of the fallen Naziheroes of the first putsch lie inhug e bronze coffins. StormTroopers stood guard, and everyvisitor as he arrived stood atattention and gave the Nazi sa-lute.It was all so solemnly theatrl-

    cal- as if tribute were beingpaid to godlike personages-thatI could not help but wonderwhether it was an artfully en-couraged bit of propaganda.But the Germans do not see itthat way. The suggestion, I amsure" would have been regardedby Karl as blasphemous. Likeall the others, he was worshipingthe memory of the heroes whohad died for the Fuehrer. Onsuch a premise few Germanswill recognize any limit of sen-timentality.. We halted next at Nuremberg,where the atmosphere was fullyas martial. Some of the trans-ferred Austrian troops werequartered there and were ap-plauded roundly as they marchedin the streets.A street car took us to the

    city's most famous structure,the huge stadium in which theannual Nazi rally is held in Sep-tember. We climbed to thespeakers' stand and looked outover a vast expanse of field andmasonry. I asked Karl if hecould imagine how Adolf Hitlerwould feel, standing where wewere and listening to the roarof a hundred thousand loyal rol-lowers.

    ••What he hears are cries ofjoy from a unified people-some-thing you r democracies cannever know," he said. .••Must people who do not Iike

    that kind of unity remain for-ever sllent t " I asked." Why," he demanded, ••do

    Americans always think of re-bellion as the way to achieve agood life? We do not like revo-lutions. By hard work andstrong governments 'we Ger-mans are trained to obedienceand loyalty. We woula ratherhave Hitler as lie is than be runby criminals and Jews and com-munists."He continued this lecture at

    . length. It was the old, old themeof German necessity and Ger-man superiority. You heard 'itwherever you went, from radios,from newspapers, in casual eon-versatlon. It was the Germanobsession; to rise to power andthen to justify the methods.Karl was gripped by it. It was

    hard to believe that the calmyoung man of the Haitian days,with the international viewpoint,had become so thorough an ad-vocate of the policy of bloodand iron. And, after all, whichwas the real Karl? Was myhusband only changed to fit thescene, and capable of changingback when he reached America?Or was lie only now throwing oftthe shell that was the first' Karland appearing in his true char-acter as a serious, fanatical ad-vocate of National Socialism?The answer was' not yet plain.

    • • •From Nuremberg we went to

    ancient Rothenburg on the Tau-ber. Karl was gay on the trip.His good humor increased whenwe viewed the clock commerno-rating the titanic encounter ofTilly, the great general of theThirty Years' war, and Burgo-master Nusch of Rothenburg.Legend has it that Tilly, hav-

    ing taken the town by storm,was about to put it to sack andto kill the burgomaster and thecouncillors. But the womenand children pleaded with theconqueror and presented himwith a three-liter goblet of thefine old wine of Rothenburg.••If there is a man here who

    can empty this goblet at adraft," sajd the general, ••thenI will spare the city."The i n t rep i d burgomaster

    stepped forward and withouttaking breath downed the wine,Figures of Tilly and Nuschstand, one on each side of theclock, quaint representatives ofa time when a bargain was abargain.We laughed over the whimsy

    of it. Arid then on a round towerI saw a great black and yellowposter containing one of JuliusStreicher's denunciations of theunfortunate German Jews. Iasked Karl if he thought suchtreatment of a helpless minor-ity was fair or even necessary.His reply was tart.••You'll have to get used to

    that," he said. "You must real-ize that nowhere in Germany isthe Jew welcome. He must getout."We went on to Heidelberg.

    Flowers already were in bloom.The air was soft with spring,and we lunched in an open-atrcaf~. In the afternoon weclimbed through the forest tothe wide- spreading cemeterywhere the city's World war deadlie buried.Before us, row on row,

    stretched the concrete crosses,each marked with the name,rank, and age of the soldier itrepresented. So many of themhad been mere boys when theydied for the fatherland! Therein that peaceful spot, as the sunwent down, Karl began talkingagain of Germany and the suf·ferings of his people."Three million dead," he said,

    ••and millions more wounded,incapacitated. Can you wonderthat we were outraged by thetreaty of Versailles? Brandedas the criminals of the civilizedworld, called on to pay to theAllies more gold than the wholehuman race possessed!" Picture our terrible situation

    February J9, 1939

    -the loss of the war, the Redrevolution creeping in. Picturethe communist swarms, Thinkof the Intlatlon, of the poverty,of the undernourishment.••Now we have a leader who

    has dared to lift Germany to herfeet again, in defiance of theworld's distrust and hatred.Enemies we have, but we are thegreatest nation in Europe. A,llbecause of Adolf Hitler. He isour leader: He is our savior.He ·is forever great. All thisyou will understand much betterwhen you have been marriedlonger to me."I think I understood Karl bet-

    ter then than I had ever under-stood him before. Dimly I beganto see how the hardships, the'terrors of his youth there In thatdefeated country had returnedto possess him; how the constantreiteration of the Nazi phraseshad given back to him the home-land Viewpoint that had beenalmost obliterated by his rest-dence. in the tropics.It was something tragic, that

    he could not overcome, some-thing stronger than intellect.Blood and nationality were. call-ing him. What could I ofter inexchange, I who knew that Icould-never be happy in this landwhere 'Hitler boasted that noOerman would ever be free,where there was no sympathyfor the 'Ideals and the politicalaspirations of America?There was but one hope: that

    a visit to the United States wouldchange Karl.We traveled on; to Frankfort-

    on - the- Main, where we visitedthe home of Goethe; to Eisenach,and at length to Hamburg. Allalong the route farmers werepreparing to sow their crops. Itseemed early, but Karl told methe farmers had no choice. Theyhad to follow orders. Govern-ment officials told them whento plant and what to plant. Theydecided what acres should becultivated, what fields should liefallow. There was a vast Inte-grated program of agriculture,and its object was the maximumpossible production.Germany had so many mouths

    to feed! Only by regimentation,he said, could the aim be accom-plished. The farmers, like every-body else, bowed to dictatorship.Men and women worked togeth-er in the fields, and their villageswere decorated with the swas-tika banner.On the way we had agreed

    Prop.r d.ntol cor.can molee a lot ofdiff.r.nc. in thebeauty and "cI.onf•• I" of your t•• th.S•• for you".lfl

    reelLiquid D.ntlfrlc. Ison amaltln, newpnHfud d.velopedby Prode, & Gamble

    laboroterles.

    (Associated Pre •• photo.)Hy.terical crowd. eh•• r Hitler • • • ••.tanding alon., .rect • • • the

    burd.n of .mpir. r•• ting on hia .hould.r ••••

    that I should leave Germany amonth earlier than Karl would.That way each of us would havea month with our relatives. Iwas, moreover, to look up busl-ness opportunities for him. Hehad made no, change in theplans for American residence,and I was confident that allwould be well when he followedme.The first days in Hamburg

    were busy. Our lease on theapartment was up, and wemoved our furnishings out. Ibegan packing. Karl was .en-gaged in ,almost endless formal-ities necessary before he couldget his visa from the UnitedStates consulate. The Reinkefamily, unchanged and kindly

    Fuehrer, but Karl knew thateven under the unfavorable con:'ditions we would find no placeof vantage if we waited muchlonger.Storm Troopers already were

    lined up from the railroad sta-tion to the harbor entrance,blocks distant, where Hitler wasto board a launch to the drydocksand the new liner. Already thou-sands, adults and school children-marched to their stations bytheir teachers - were crowdingup close to the lines. Rain-soaked but patient, shiveringbut determined, they would re-main until they had seen theFuehrer.We stood on the steps of a

    care, whence we had a fine view

    (Acm. photo.)Nazi c.lebration in Adolf Hitl.r plat:e, Nur.mb.rg.

    and hospitable, assisted us allthey could, and gradually ourproblems were solved.Then, three' days before I was

    to sail on the S. S. Manhattan,Hitler came to Hamburg. Hewas to christen, to dedicate thenew Strength Through Joy linerjust completed, a huge ship onwhich the red-faced workers ofthe Reich would take low-costtours to the Mediterranean andto points of interest on the Bal-tic and North seas.I was almost as enthusiastic

    as the Hamburg folk at this op-portunity to see the man.The great day came; with cold

    and rain and wind in gustyblasts. But this was disregard-ed. At 10 a. m, we stuffed sand-wlches into our pockets and'started out. It would be hoursbefore the appearance of the

    of the first gate of the Landfngs-brucken, where Hitler was towalk down to the launch. There,with the throng constantly In-creasing, we waited for fourweary hours.Shortly after noon the Brown

    Shirts and the Schutz8talJel, theblack-uniformed Hitler guards,went into action. They cleareda huge circle about the gate.This gave us a better view, butit thrust the crowd back uponus. The packed caf~ steps be-came more and more congested.The hard heels of Hitler Youthtrampled my toes. Literally wehad barely room to breathe.Two-thirty came, and with it

    the electrifying message, ••He iscoming!" Paper Nazi flags weredistributed by the thousands tothe crowd. Over toward thestation cheering arose. Its vol-

    Paae Three

    ume rose as Hitler came near-. er. The shouts of " Heil Hitler! "and" Sieg heil!" came nearerand nearer to the pitch of hys-teria.Next we eould see hands rafsed

    in the familiar Nazi salute.Some I,>fthose near us had tearsin their eyes. Hamburg wasgoing on an emot'ional jag, andeven I, firm as I was, in myAmericanism, was caught in thetense surge of feeling. I wavedmy banner and shouted with therest.There was Hitler! He stood

    alone, erect in an open car. Therain was over, but he wore thefamlliar trench coat. His brownmllitary cap rested firmly onhis head. Just before the carstopped he raised his hand insalute and, turning, bowed ineach direction to the clamor.The ovation r 0 s e to new

    heights, and I wondered whathis thoughts must be. He lookedtired. His face was white, al-most a dead white, and tense.But there was something mag-netic .about him. It was easy tobelieve here in this burst of al-most idolatrous enthusiasm thatHitler could feel the burden ofempire resting on his shoulders.Somehow one forgot under thecircumstances that this was theman who had murdered so manyerstwhile friends, who had madelife a hell for hundreds of thou-sands of Jews, who had sent somany thousands into eoncentra-tion camps.All the vast crowd in the

    streets was electrified at thesight of him. There may havebeen some, present who shoutedbecause they feared not to, butI ,am convinced that with thegreat majority the applause wassincere and unforced.As cries of "Hen! ' continued,

    the Fuehrer was received at thelanding stage by Nazi officialsand escorted slowly down thecarpeted gangway between filesQf Schutz8taIJel men.

    • • •Karl asked me almost breath-

    lessly what I thought of Hitlerthen. Still swayed by the massexcitement, I replied, ••He iswonderful.""Come now," he said, ••must

    even an American say that?","I am glad I felt that way

    just for a moment," I told him."Now I can understand the holdhe has on the German people."

    (Continu.d on page •••• n.)

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