Berlin Diary (35 page)

B
ERLIN
,
August
26

With Henderson off to London this morning and not expected back before tomorrow (Sunday) night. I think we’re in for a breathing-spell over the week-end. There is certainly no sign that Hitler is weakening. But the Wilhelmstrasse still hopes that Chamberlain will weaken. Our Embassy today issued a formal circular to all Americans here asking those whose presence was not absolutely necessary to leave. Most of the correspondents and businessmen have already sent out their wives and children. The big Nazi rally at Tannenberg
scheduled for tomorrow, at which Hitler was to have spoken, has been cancelled because of the “gravity of the situation,” so I shall not have to go there. Talked with Murrow on phone and he readily agreed we should cancel our “Europe Dances” program. Some choice headlines in the German press today: The
B.Z.
:
“COMPLETE CHAOS IN POLAND—GERMAN FAMILIES FLEE—POLISH SOLDIERS PUSH TO EDGE OF GERMAN BORDER!”
The 12-Uhr Blatt
:
“THIS PLAYING WITH FIRE GOING TOO FAR—THREE GERMAN PASSENGER PLANES SHOT AT BY POLES—IN CORRIDOR MANY GERMAN FARMHOUSES IN FLAMES!”

Another hot day and most of the Berliners betook themselves to the lakes around the city, oblivious of the threat of war.

L
ATER
.
One thirty a.m
.—Broadcast shortly after midnight. Have been trying not to be a prophet, but did say this: “I don’t know whether we’re going to have war or not. But I can tell you that in Berlin tonight the feeling is that it will be war unless Germany
’s demands against Poland are fulfilled.” Tomorrow morning’s (Sunday’s) papers reveal for the first time that Hitler is demanding now not only Danzig and the Corridor but everything Germany lost in 1918, which means Posen and Silesia. Just before I went on the air DNB informed me that rationing will be instituted beginning Monday. There will be ration cards for food, soap, shoes, textiles, and coal. This will wake up the German people to their situation! It is just possible, however, that Hitler is doing this to impress London and Paris. The Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg was called off tonight. This will also arouse the people from their apathy. Tomorrow morning’s papers will steep up the
tension. Headline in
Völkische Beobachter
, Hitler’s own newspaper:
“WHOLE OF POLAND IN WAR FEVER! 1,500,000 MEN MOBILIZED! UNINTERRUPTED TROOP TRANSPORT TOWARD THE FRONTIER! CHAOS IN UPPER SILESIA!”

No mention of any German mobilization, of course, though the Germans have been mobilized for a fortnight.

B
ERLIN
,
August
27 (
Sunday
)

Hot and sultry today, which makes for an increase in tension. Henderson failed to return today as expected, causing the Wilhelmstrasse to accuse the British of stalling. (In another fortnight the rains start in Poland, making the roads impassable.) Some Nazis, however, think Henderson’s delay in London means the British are giving in. Tomorrow’s
Völkische Beobachter
will ask the people to be patient: “The Führer is still demanding patience from you because he wants to exhaust even the last possibilities for a peaceful solution of the crisis. That means a bloodless fulfilment of the irreducible German demands.” This is a nice build-up to convince the people that if war does come, the Führer did everything possible to avoid it. The
V.B
. ends by saying that Germany
, however, will not renounce her demands. “The individual, as well as the nation, can renounce only those things which are not vital.” There you have German character stripped to the bone. A German cannot renounce vital things, but he expects the other fellow to. Hitler this afternoon addressed the members of the Reichstag in the Chancellery, though it was not a regular session. No report of his speech available. A DNB communiqué merely says the Führer” outlined the gravity of the
situation.” This is the first time the German people have been told by Hitler that the “situation is grave.”

Food rations were fixed today and I heard many Germans grumbling at their size. Some: meat, 700 grams per week; sugar, 280 grams; marmalade, 110 grams; coffee or substitute, one eighth of a pound per week. As to soap, 125 grams are allotted to each person for the next four weeks. News of rationing has come as a heavy blow to the people.

Representative Ham Fish, who seems to have been taken in completely by Ribbentrop, who gave him an airplane to rush him to the inter-parliamentary meeting in Scandinavia the other day to tell the assembled democrats how serious was the situation, arrived today and struck us as very anxious to continue on his way. Joe [Barnes] and I observed him talking very seriously at lunch in the Adlon courtyard with Dr. Zallatt, a minor and unimportant official of the Foreign Office who is supposed to be in charge of American press matters there, but whom no American correspondent bothers with because he knows nothing. Later, after keeping the press corps waiting an hour, Fish emerged from lunch and in a grave tone said: “Excuse me, gentlemen, for being late, but I have just been having a talk with an important official of the German government.” The boys suppressed their laughter only with difficulty. Fish left this afternoon on the first train. Geoffrey Parsons, chief editorial writer of the
Herald Tribune
, calm, intelligent, tolerant, profound, left last night for Paris. He had seen Churchill last week and believes it will be war.

Despite everything the odds in the Wilhelmstrasse today are still for peace.

B
ERLIN
,
August
28

They’re all putting themselves way out on a limb. Difficult for any of Europe’s leaders to retreat now. At two this morning we get the text of letters exchanged Saturday and Sunday between Daladier and Hitler. Daladier in a noble tone asks that Hitler hold back from war, says that there is no question which cannot be solved peacefully, reminds Hitler that Poland after all is a sovereign nation, and claims that France will honour its obligations to Poland. Hitler regrets that France intends to fight to “maintain a wrong.” And then for the first time he reveals his demands. Danzig and the Corridor must be returned to Germany, he says. He realizes full well the consequences of war, he claims, but concludes that Poland will fare worse than anyone else.

There was a fine line in Daladier’s letter, the last sentence: “If French and German blood is now to be spilled, as it was twenty-five years ago… then each of the two peoples will fight confident of its own victory. But surely Destruction and Barbarism will be the real victors.”

Ed [Murrow] phones from London at one thirty p.m. He is tired, but in good spirits. We are both broadcasting four or five times a day—from noon until four a.m. Ed disagrees with what Bill Stoneman told me on the phone last night from London: namely, that the British were selling out. Ed says they can’t now. He thinks Henderson, who is returning to Berlin from London this afternoon, will bring an answer to Hitler “that will shock him.” Announcement of food cards and the publication of the text of the letters of Hitler and Daladier seem to have made the people in the street at last realize the seriousness of the situation, judging
by their looks. An old German reading the letters said to me: “
Ja
, they forget what war is like. But I don’t. I remember.”

Troops, east-bound, pouring through the streets today. No crack units these. They were being transported in moving-vans, grocery trucks, et cetera. Germany
has assured Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg, and Switzerland that it will respect their neutrality in case of war.

L
ATER.—
Henderson arrived back by plane at eight thirty p.m., went to the Chancellery at ten thirty p.m., and stayed until eleven forty. No reliable news about this crucial meeting, though the official line at the Wilhelmstrasse at midnight was by no means pessimistic.

B
ERLIN
,
August
29

The average German today looks dejected. He can’t get over the blow of the ration cards, which to him spells war. Last night when Henderson flew back with London’s answer to Hitler’s demands—on a night when everyone knew the issue of war or peace might be decided—I was amazed to see that less than 500 people out of a population of 5,000,000 turned out in front of the Chancellery. These few stood there grim and silent. Almost a defeatism discernible in the people. One man remarked to me last night: “The Corridor? Hell, we haven’t heard about
that
for twenty years. Why bring it up now?”

L
ATER
.
Three a.m
.—At seven fifteen tonight Hitler gave Henderson his reply to the British
proposals.
⁶
To the surprise of the Wilhelmstrasse, the British Ambassador did not fly off to London with it, though the Germans had a plane ready for him at Tempelhof. He merely filed it in the regular diplomatic way. It looks as though the British were getting tough at last. Some of the correspondents, including myself, at the Taverne tonight had the feeling that the British had the corporal on the run. The German editors were not so boastful tonight at the Taverne. The truth is, Hitler is hesitating. Many ardent Nazis think he should have moved last Friday. If it’s true that the British have him on the run, will the English conservatives still make a deal to save him? I dropped into the British Embassy this evening to see an old friend. The halls were full of luggage. “We’re all packed,” he laughed.

B
ERLIN
,
August
30

The British reply to Hitler’s latest came bouncing back to Berlin tonight. With what result, we don’t know. Henderson has seen Ribbentrop again, but no news of it. Tonight may well be decisive. DNB [the German news agency] has announced it will be issuing news all night tonight. This sounds ominous. The Wilhelmstrasse took pains this evening to point out to us that the non-aggression pact with Russia is also a consultative pact and that this part of it had been put into operation the last few days. This puzzles me, but I said in my broadcast tonight: “That would seem to
mean—and, indeed, informed circles in the Wilhelmstrasse leave no doubt about it—that the Germans and Soviets also have been doing some talking the last few days, and, as one writer says tonight, ‘talking about Poland
.’ In this connection the German press tonight does not omit to mention a dispatch from Moscow to the effect that not only has Russia not withdrawn her three hundred thousand men from its western frontier, as reported, but on the contrary has strengthened her forces there—that is, on the Polish border. I don’t know the significance of that. I only know that it’s given some prominence here.”