INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LX, Issue 89, 9 November 1939, Page 1

INTERESTING SIDELIGHTS

REVELATIONS IN/ LETTERS' A private letter written during the Second week of the war by a German, living in a town in Western Germany reveals some interesting sidelights on the conditions prevailing. He says:— "Food was extremely bad and scarce during the first few days of the war. Now it has slightly improved. People are very depressed; They still listen eagerly to foreign broadcasts. So far, wireless sets have not been confiscated. We listened in to the Austrian refugees' vow of vengeance. Foreign stations Should improve their propaganda against Hitler. They should reply immediately to mendacious German news. The broadcasts of records of Hitler's speeches from France were very impressive. They ought to go on. Someone gave me a leaflet that fell from the air. These leaflets have an effect. Mine found its way to me from a town about forty miles off. They are so clearly printed that it is not even necessary to pick them up. You can read them as they lie on the ground. "Butter, fat and oil are practically unobtainable. It is no, longer possible to buy fresh fish or even smoked fish. Boys of the "Hitler Youth" aged fourteen or fifteen go about giving orders to adults about blacking-out their homes ~ . The fact that almost all the higher officials of the party have still got their jobs and have hot been called up does not improve the attitude of the general public towards the Nazis. "Many women were quite desperate when the final mobilisation began. On Saturday, August 26, there were scenes of open protest in the streets. Women refused to let their men go until military officials of high rank appeared and they had to. Quite a number of men failed to report for service with the colours. They were at once arrested and sent away. Their families do not know where they are. In a small town nearby a women went mad wjhen the police came to take her husband away. In a rural district not far from here a woman drowned herself after her husband had been taken off. There is the case of a man who was at the front for four years in the last war. He refused to report for service this time. He was shot, and his wife was informed that her husband had been sentenced to death and that the sentence was carried out on such and such a date ... No casualty lists are published and it is forbidden to wear mourning ... During the last few days all the civilians who were left here received evacuation orders. I hope and pray that we shall soon hear more from France and England. What is the trouble there?"