Did they know it? -- translation attempt

[Jeremy Osner]

<caution: begin amateur translation>

Displaced History: the German Mentality

Saul K. Padover belonged during WWII to the American OSS and was the leader of a
small team which began, immediately after the US incursion into German
territory, to question the German population. The interviews took place in
1944-45 in the vicinity of Aachen, and then in Westphalia and Lower Saxony, and
ended with the surrender. The oppressively [?] documented how the German
mentality was as yet little clouded by any rationalization. Nearly all of those
questioned knew of the German crimes in regards to forced laborers and Jews.
Their criticism of the Fuhrer were based only on the accusation that he had lost
the war. The German consciousness came through [?] as unfeeling and hardhearted;
central to this is an ever-reoccurring self-pity (which has also shown up [?]
regularly in today's changing times).

A particular dobument portrays the conversation with the Bishop of Aachen of the
Fields, whose legitimation of his cooperation with mass murder culminates in
this sentence: "The church did not want any martyrs." Padover is disturbed by
the results of his field research. Above all he cannot comprehend, that despite
the knowledge of the Nazi crimes and despite the apparent defeat, effectively no
resistance against the regime could be found. His disconcertedness would perhaps
have been yet greater if he had happened on the government documents concerning
the financial supervision [?] in Cologne, which Wolfgang Dressen presents in his
volume.Already in 1958, the materials concerning "Aryanization" and the
"Dejudification" which was bound up with it were available. Jewish property,
from real estate to household effects and clothing, were systematically seized
and auctioned off in the course of the deportation, and account was kept to the
penny of every obtainable transaction record. There were for example in August
1944 almost daily auctions in the mess halls of Cologne, the harbors of Hamburg
and in many East-german cities. After a brief introduction, Dressen collects
important documents of the so-called "M-Action".

The books together document an important piece of the history of the German
mentality, one which is constantly pushed away.

Wolfgang Hippe

From: Sociopolitical Communications, No. 87

Saul K. Padover: Lie Detector; Investigations in
Occupied Germany 1944/45, Frankfurt/Main: Eichhorn
Verlag 1999, 336 pp. ISBN 3-8218-4478-7, 44,90 DM

Wolfgang Dressen: Concerning "Action 3"; Germans
Exploit Jewish Neighbors. Documents of the Aryanization. Berlin:
Aufbau-Verlag 1998, 256 pp.

<end amateur translation>