THE DAY BEFORE

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 266, 10 November 1939, Page 5

THE DAY BEFORE

NAZIS ON WAR EVE.

OUTBREAK MOT EXPECTED. AVOKLAXD GIRL IK BERLIN. In Berffln three days before war was declared. That was the experience of an Auckland girl, who for some months bad been teaching English in Prague, and in a letter to friend* in Auckland •he tells a vivid story of Nazi Germany in thoee fateful days. On the Taat long-distance train to leave Prague a party of about 20 English people travelled from the Czechoelovakian capital to Berlin five days before the war. "Jew of my Czech friends thought there would be a war," she writes. "I am afraid they half expected another Munich agreement, and I am even more afraid that they would not have been very tiorry on Poland's behalf, for th«y were so bitter against the Pole* for failing them last September." Berlin, when she epent the whole of .Angnst 30, looked if anything more peaceful than Prague, because in Prague there were plenty of German soldiers and many more German police. "But Berlin was its quiet, unexciting •elf," she continues. "The food seemed fairly normal; there was plenty of butter for the morning rolls, though I cannot say that the cups of coffee weretrue to label in anything but colour. The only signs of possible war were the entrances to two air raid shelters—a poor bag after a day's watchfulness. "People talked, of course, of the possibility of war, even witn us, but didn't seem to think it great. One and all hated the thought of war—'but in their yell'-drilled manner added that if their

leaders decreed it they would accept, li A waiter .was very pleased to hear I 1 had 'bought a return ticket to Prague, i That surely was-a hopeful sign. He ran j after u« as we left: 'You really were 1 speaking the truth when you said you c had a return ticket? That's fine!" But there was an illuminating interpretation of the Nazi viewpoint at a travel agent's, says the Aucklander. "Wipe Them Out!" "There won't be war," volunteered one of them. "England won't fight. But Germany will certainly have Poland. Who are these Poles? Wipe them out! They're a blessed nuisance, always causing trouble. All small nations would 'be wiped out. Of course, that doesn't mean Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland— they're peaceful. But these little nations irt Eastern Europe—pst!—wipe theim out. If England didn't hate Germany , there would be peace. Germany was forced to take Czechoslovakia because England had given the' Czechs' millions I of pounds to fortify the frontier so she could attack Germany there." ( But Berlin next night, the Aucklander later learned, was full of war emotions. Soldiers marched along garlanded with flowers, while weeping, hysterical crowds lined the streets. The train from Berlin to Cologne was the next. step. It was packed to the doors. It was two hours late at Cologne and the only train of the day had left for Flushing, in Holland. But then they were without money. Ten shillings was the largest amount that could be taken out of the protectorate. Thanks to the British Cologne consul, however, the party of six who had stuck together arrived by slow train and private car at the German-Dutch frontier. "We. must have been the -most interesting thing that happened at the German Customs house that .afternoon, and they made the most' of us," she continues. "Documents and. money were all the Germans hoped to find. All letters and papers were looked through, all l>ookfl shaken and covers removed, a map of Prague was peered at closely for infonnatory marks, a suspicious finger poked Under the. .top layer of a box of chocolates," a page of an' old 'Times' was shaken out and studied. Political 'booklets,. liable to "confiscation in normal times, aroused no interest after it was found that they concealed nothing in their pages. I was asked

hadn't I come pictures of my stay in | Prague. I said no, first because I hadn't a camera, and secondly because I was going back as soon as possible. The latter comment caused a raising of eyebrows. Stripped and Searched. "One of the Englishmen carried a violin case. He was made to take it out and play it as proof that it was genuinely his possession and not a means of carrying anything illegal." ! Eventually the party was waved on, but the officials changed their minds ' and they were called back. There was a long wait and then a middle-aged and quite friendly woman asked the Auck--1 land girl to come into the room. "Any 1 documents or money on your person? ' No?" she said. "Then please take off your clothes." The woman poked inside shoes, under the hat band, under shoulder pads, groped about in handbag and 1 pockets, shook out clothing. At last the 1 party walked under lifted Dutch barriers ■ and a surprise awaited them. . . . Help for Refugees. Two small, dark, elderly men left their cars and came over to the English party. They were, they explained, German Jews living in Holland who «|>ent their days at the frontiers to help any German refugees. It was the day of Queen Wilhelmina's birthday, but it was not celebrated. The next two days the whole of the country was to be moliblised, and the , train to Flushing was packed with soldiers and young men with suitcases. "There were few other signs of war ' preparations—but Holland is most cer- \ tainly ready should trouble arise, and , will celebrate no more until the end of the war," the letter continues. "That day troops marched into Poland " and the last hope for peace vanished. We landed at Harwich, which was barri- » caded against submarines, and a long ! line of seaplanes lay nose to sea like ' hounds in leash." The "six Britishers now found them- , selves in London with hardly a penny, , but things straightened themselves out. 7 And off they .went to the different cars' ners of England. j i "Twenty-four hours later England 1 declared war," the letter concludes. . "We shall probably never meet again in l England. But I haven't torn up my t return ticket yet! And we have made I the most -complete arrangements for I reunion in a free Prague." J