GERMANY BEFORE CRISIS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19805, 6 December 1938, Page 4

GERMANY BEFORE CRISIS

MUCH OP FOOD RATIONED WOMEN POORLY DRESSED PINE TYPE OF MANHOOD In Germany in August, just before the recent crisis came to a head, Dr. R. J. B. Hall, medical superintendent of the Cook Hospital, and Dr. Theodora Hall found much to interest them apart from purely medical matters, the main cause of their tour of England and the Continent, from which they have just returned. They were very hospitably treated and so far as the tourist was concerned food was plentiful, but for the past 18 months the German people had been on rations. For a family of three, only three eggs a week were allowed for the whole household, while each person was allowed no more than half a pound of butter or its equivalent in other fats per week. Meat was restricted to ,11b per day per person when it was obtainable. Plenty of poultry could be secured, if it could be paid for, while there was no restriction on fish, which was cheap. The flour was poor. There had been a wonderful harvest, but labour was short.

Despite the rationing, the people appeared to be very healthy. The women were poorly dressed, and lipstick and cosmetics were conspicuously absent. The men looked very fit, and the German youth had good physique. An interesting point was noted in connection with the Martin Luther Krakenhaus (hospital), built during the Nazi regime. In every ward and corridor and in the kitchens was a large photograph of the Fuehrer and occasionally one of Hindenburg. Due deference was given, especially to the photograph of the Fuehrer, in the form of the "Heil Hitler" salute. Also in the hospital in Hamburg as the resident medical officer detailed to escort the New Zealanders round left each ward the salute was given to Herr Hitler's photograph. Most of the best shops in Berlin seemed to be Jewish owned. These were identified by the names of the proprietors being painted in white letters on the window, and no good German was expected to patronise them. "We could not ascertain what was the other side of the picture," Dr. Hall said. "Those we were associated with would talk only in favour of the present regime, and nothing was heard against it. None of them tried to conceal their dislike of the Jews. They said the Jew's would have to go. When I asked where they were expected to go, the reply I received was: 'We do not care, but we do not want them in Germany.' "