Berlin Diary (55 page)

B
ERLIN
,
March
20

Last night the British answered for the bombing of Scapa Flow by strafing the German seaplane bases on the island of Sylt for nearly seven hours. As usual, the High Command claims no damage was done. The British, according to the BBC, did a lot. At noon the government offered to fly us up to see for ourselves, then called it off. I had written of the offer in good faith in my script; word came of the cancellation while I was speaking, and so I announced it at the end of my talk. Tonight while waiting to go on the air, I turned on the BBC. To my surprise (and embarrassment, because a RRG official was sitting at my side) the British announcer broadcast my entire noon script. He imitated my voice so exactly, especially my closing announcement about the cancellation of our trip to Sylt, that he could only have got it from a recording which the BBC must have made of my talk. I probably will hear more of this.

All Berlin papers on orders from Goebbels headline the attack on the German base at Sylt:
“BRITISH BOMB DENMARK!”
It seems that a couple of bombs did fall on Danish territory. But it’s a typical falsification.

Headline in the
12-Uhr Blatt
today over its report
of Chamberlain’s speech in the House last night:
“HOLIDAY OF LIES IN LOWER HOUSE.—THE PIRATES CONFESS THEIR CRIME AGAINST THE NEUTRALST!”

B
ERLIN
,
March
21

They took the American correspondents up to Sylt after all today, but I was not invited. They telephoned Berlin tonight that they had not seen much damage at the chief seaplane base at Hoernum, which was the only one they were shown—a fact I pointed out in my broadcast tonight. The Nazi press has been ordered to make a terrific play tomorrow morning of the reports of these American correspondents.

Three more Poles sentenced to death at Posen today for allegedly slaying a German during the war. I hear sixteen Polish women are in a Berlin jail waiting to have their heads lopped off, all of them having been sentenced to death.

B
ERLIN
,
March
22

Induced Irwin, of NBC, also to point out that the American correspondents were not shown all of Sylt. This afternoon the High Command was very angry with me for having mentioned this.

Good Friday today. The sidewalks thronged. No special Easter joy noticeable in the faces. Long lines the last few days before the candy shops. How patiently Germans will stand for hours in the rain for a tiny ration of holiday candy! Last week’s ration of one egg was increased by two eggs; this week’s by one.

L
ATER.—
Radio people called up. They will fly Irwin and me to Sylt tomorrow to inspect the
northern
part of the island.

B
ERLIN
,
March
23

At midnight last night the RRG phoned to say our trip to Sylt could not be arranged after all. What did the British do on the northern end of the island that the Luftwaffe does not want Irwin and me to see?

Great goings-on at the radio this noon. An officer of the High Command accused Irwin and me of having sabotaged our newspaper colleagues. He said that after we spoke yesterday no American newspaper would publish the stuff the agencies were putting out about Sylt from their Berlin correspondents. However, the Germans certainly publish what the American newsmen wrote. It makes wonderful propaganda.

It is announced today that all church bells made of bronze are to come down and be melted up for cannon. Next week begins a nation-wide house-to-house collection of every available scrap of tin, nickel, copper, bronze, and similar metals of which the Germans are so short. Today the army ordered all car-owners whose automobiles are laid up by the war-time ban—which means ninety per cent of them—to surrender their batteries.

Easter tomorrow. The government tells the people they must remain at home and not try to travel as in other years because there won’t be any extra trains. No private cars will be permitted to circulate tomorrow. It would be pleasant to be home. Last year, too, I was away, speeding through this town from Warsaw to Paris, and Europe jittery about Mussolini’s invasion of Albania and rumours that Hitler would walk into Poland. Long ago, it seems.

B
ERLIN
,
March
24

Easter Sunday, grey and cold, but the rain has held off. I cancelled my engagements with some German friends for lunch and tea. Couldn’t face a German today, though they are no friends of Hitler. Wanted to be alone. Got up about noon and listened to a broadcast from Vienna. The Philharmonic, and a nice little thing from Haydn.

In the afternoon, a stroll. Unter den Linden thronged with people. Surely the Germans must be the ugliest-looking people in Europe, individually. Not a decent-looking woman in the whole Linden. Their awful clothes probably contribute to one’s impression. Comparatively few soldiers in the street. Few leaves granted? Meaning? Offensive soon?

I was surprised to notice how shabby the Kaiser’s Palace at the end of the Linden is. The plaster falling off all over the place. Very dilapidated. The stone railing of the balcony on which Wilhelm II made his famous appearance in 1914 to announce to the delirious mob at his feet the coming of war appeared to be falling to pieces. Well, they were not delirious before Hitler’s balcony when this war started.

I tried to read in the faces of the thousands what was in their minds this Easter day. But their faces looked blank. Obviously they do not like the war, but they will do what they’re told. Die, for instance.

B
ERLIN
,
March
25

The DNB today: “At some places along the Upper Rhine front Easter Sunday, there were on the French side demonstrations against the English war,
which clearly showed how foolish the French troops consider it to be that Germany and France have become enemies as a result of British connivance.”

B
ERLIN
,
March
28

Germany cannot stay in the war unless she continues to receive Swedish iron, most of which is shipped from the Norwegian port of Narvik on German vessels which evade the blockade by feeling their way down the Norwegian coast and keeping within the three-mile limit, where they are safe from the British navy. Some of us have wondered why Churchill has never done anything about this. Now it begins to look as if he may. The Wilhelmstrasse says it will watch him. For Germany this is a life-and-death matter. X assures me that if British destroyers go into Norwegian territorial waters Germany will act. But how is not clear. The German navy is no match for the British.

I hope I didn’t put myself out on a limb, but from what I’ve heard this week I wrote tonight in my broadcast: “Some people here believe the war may spread to Scandinavia yet. It was reported in Berlin today that last week a squadron of at least nine British destroyers was concentrated off the Norwegian coast and that in several instances German freighters carrying iron received warning shots…. From here it looks as if the neutrals, especially the Scandinavians, may be drawn into the conflict after all.”

I often write a paragraph like that to see how the military censor will react. He made no objection, which is interesting.