Berlin Diary (37 page)

In 1914, I believe, the excitement in Berlin on the first day of the World War was tremendous. Today, no excitement, no hurrahs, no cheering, no throwing of flowers, no war fever, no war hysteria. There is not even any hate for the French and British—despite Hitler’s various proclamations to the people, the party, the East Army, the West Army, accusing the “English warmongers and capitalistic Jews” of starting this war. When I passed the French and British embassies this afternoon, the sidewalk in front of each of them was deserted. A lone
Schupo
paced up and down before each.

At lunch-time we gathered in the courtyard of the Adlon for drinks with a dozen members of the British Embassy staff. They seemed completely unmoved by
events. They talked about
dogs
and such stuff. Some mystery about the French not acting in concert with the British today, Coulondre’s ultimatum not running out until five p.m., six hours after Britain was at war. But the French tell us this was due to faulty communications with Paris.
⁸

The High Command lets it be known that on the western front the Germans won’t fire
first
against the French.

L
ATER.—
Broadcast all afternoon and evening. Third night of the black-out. No bombs, though we rather expected the British and French. The newspapers continue to praise the decree against listening in to foreign broadcasts! What are they afraid of?

B
ERLIN
,
September
4

After midnight and no air-raid, even with the British and French in the war. Can it be that in this new World War they’re not going to bomb the big cities, the capitals, the civilians, the women and children at home, after all? The people here breathing easier already. They didn’t sleep much the first couple of nights.

On the feedback from New York tonight I heard the story of the sinking of the
Athenia
with 1,400 passengers, including 240 Americans, aboard. The English said it was a German U-boat. The Germans promptly denied it, though the German press and radio have been forbidden to mention the matter until tomorrow. I felt lousy talking from here at all tonight after that story and went out of my way to explain my
personal position as an American broadcaster—that I had been assigned to give the news from Germany, that official statements such as the denial that a German submarine had torpedoed the
Athenia
were part of that news, and that my orders from home were to refrain from expressing my personal opinions. The High Command has installed military censorship of everything I say, but fortunately the chief censor is a naval officer, an honourable and decent man. I have had some warm words with him the last couple of days, but within the limits of his job he has been reasonable.

The war is starting to hurt the average man. Tonight a decree providing for a surtax on the income tax of a straight fifty per cent and a big increase in the tax on beer and tobacco. Also a decree fixing prices and wages.

The staffs of the French and British embassies got away today in two big Pullman trains. I was a little struck by the weird fact that while the killing goes on, all the diplomatic niceties were strictly observed by both sides to the very last.

The faces of the Germans when word came in late tonight that the British had bombed Cuxhaven and Wilhelmshaven for the first time! This was bringing the war home, and nobody seemed to like it.

B
ERLIN
,
September
5

Very strange about that western front. The Wilhelmstrasse assured us today that not a single shot has been fired there yet. Indeed, one official told me—though I doubt his word—that the German forces on the French border were broadcasting in French to the poilus: “We won’t shoot if you don’t.” Same informant claimed the French had hoisted a streamer from a balloon
saying the same thing. Today the RRG
⁹
gave its first broadcast from the front, and it sounded plenty realistic. It was of course a recording. The Germans say they will let me do radio recordings at the front, but American networks won’t permit the broadcasting of recordings—a pity, because it is the only way radio can really cover the war from the front. I think we’re throwing away a tremendous opportunity, though God knows I have no burning desire to die a hero’s death at the front. The fortress of Graudenz fell today and the Germans have smashed through the Corridor. After a slow start they seem to be going awfully fast. In the south Cracow is surrounded.

B
ERLIN
,
September
6

Cracow, second town of Poland, was captured this afternoon. The High Command also states that Kielce has fallen. Looking for it on my map, I was amazed to find that it lies way to the east of both Lodz and Cracow, almost due south of Warsaw. Nobody had any idea the German army had got that far. In one week the Germans have pushed far beyond their 1914 frontiers. It begins to look like a rout for the Poles.

I learned tonight that the liner
Bremen
has succeeded in evading the British blockade and today put in at Murmansk on the northern coast of Russia after a dash from New York. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in town who knows it and I led off my broadcast with the yarn. At the last minute the military censor rushed in and cut it out; said I couldn’t mention it.

L
ATER.—
Joe [Barnes] and I met in my room at one a.m. to talk things over. We have an idea
that Britain and France will not shed much blood on the western front, but will maintain an iron blockade and wait for Germany
to collapse. In the meantime Poland
will of course be overrun.

B
ERLIN
,
September
7

Have heard much talk today about peace! Idea is that after Germany’s victory over Poland Hitler will offer the West peace. I wrote this rather carefully for my broadcast this evening, but the censor wouldn’t allow a word of it.

It’s just a week since the “counter-attack” began and tonight I learn from an army friend that the Germans are within twenty miles of Warsaw. A new decree today providing the death penalty for anyone “endangering the defensive power of the German people”—a term which will give Gestapo chief Himmler plenty of leeway. Another decree forces workers to accept new jobs even if they pay lower wages than jobs previously held.

B
ERLIN
,
September
8

The German High Command announces that at five fifteen p.m. today German troops reached Warsaw. The radio broadcast the news at seven fifteen p.m. Immediately afterwards a band played
Deutschland über Alles
and the
Horst Wessel
song. Even our military attachés were stunned by the news. There was no wild rejoicing in the streets of Berlin tonight. In the subway going out to the radio studio I noted the strange indifference of the people to the big news. And while Poland is being overrun, not a shot yet—so the Germans say—on the western front! The first person to be executed under yesterday’s decree—Himmler has
lost no time—is one Johann Heinen of Dessau. He was shot, it’s announced, “for refusing to take part in defensive work.”

NBC and Mutual have stopped their European broadcasts. Ed Klauber cables we shall continue alone. Smart we were to build up a staff of American radio reporters. Home early tonight at one a.m. for the first time since the war started and shall get a night’s sleep for once. Heard Ed broadcasting from London tonight. He sounded dead tired, as am I after being on the air night and day with practically no sleep for a month.

B
ERLIN
,
September
9

The second air-raid alarm of the war at four a.m. today, but I did not hear it, being engulfed in my first good night’s sleep in ages. No more news of the German army’s entry into Warsaw and I begin to suspect yesterday’s announcement was premature. O. W., back from the front, told me this noon that he’d seen some of the horribly mutilated bodies of Germans killed by Poles. He described also how he’d seen the Germans rounding up Polish civilians—men, women, boys—and marching them into a building for a summary court-martial and then out into the back yard against a wall, where they were disposed of by German firing squads. Our military attaché says you can do that, that that’s the way cricket is played with franc-tireurs, but I don’t like it, even if they are snipers, and I doubt from what O. W. says that the court-martial makes any great effort to distinguish actual franc-tireurs from those whose only guilt is being Poles.