The Pete Quiñones Show - Pete Reads 'Blockade' by Anna Eisenmenger Part 5

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

54 MinutesPG-13Pete continues a reading and lite commentary on "Blockade: The Diary of an Austrian Middle-Class Woman 1914-1924."FoxnSons Coffee - Promo code "peter" for 18% off - https://www.foxnsons.com/VIP Summit 3-Truth To Freedom - Autonomy w/ Richard GroveSupport Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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Lidl, more to value. I want to welcome everyone back to part five of my reading of Blockade by Anna Eisenmanger. A quick reminder, Thomas and I, we're doing movie reviews now. We did the 1976 classic Martin Scorsese directed Paul Schrader-Ritton. Taxi driver. You can get it at Gumroad. You can access to Gumroad links at my website, Freemamandbeonthewall.com, forward slash taxi driver. Taxi driver, all one word.

All right. Let's get into it. We're going to start on Christmas Day of 1918. Christmas 1918 and still no peace on earth. On the contrary, a recent extension of the armistice without any raising the block. i.e. without improving the food and fuel conditions for millions of hungry and freezing persons. A few Christmas presents for us poor harassed Vienna housewives, such as the cutting off of electric heat, complete stoppage of the gas supply, discontinuance of the tram service,

and suspension of the railway traffic. Christmas 1918 is not a Merry Christmas for the people of Vienna. I turned over the pages of my diary and found the last Christmas festival before the terrible world war, December 1913. How many things have happened in these last years? The official list of casualties for the central powers on the Entente give the total number of dead as seven and a half million. The number of those who have returned from the front wounded or invalids for the rest of their lives is as difficult to determine by statistics as the number of civilians of the hinterland who have perished owing to the consequences of the war and the present ravages of the armistice. If these are set down at two and a half million, this will certainly not be too high an estimate.

On the 24th of December 1913, 10 million men, for the most part young and healthy, celebrated a happy Christmas festival. The greater part of these are now dead. At the best, they have returned to their homes from the trenches crippled and maimed and body and soul. 10 million men. Where, among all the gruesome wars of antiquity, the Middle Ages or modern times, is there anything that compared with the horrors of the world war. War before this war in the age of kingdoms was basically local wars, cousins fighting over a little bit of land or fighting over a throne, and they had to pay the men. They didn't, yeah, I mean, this is just what you get with the modern

state, what you get with democracy, what you get with republicanism, what you get when I've said before that I believe World War I, and I'm not, this isn't an original thought, although it came to me originally, but every, you know, people have said this a million times, was to end the monarchies. So to get rid of the monarchies and the monarchies that would be left over would be weak, parliamentary monarchies in name only. 10 million men celebrated the Christmas Festival of 1913 without the faintest foreboding of the terrible future, which they were inevitably approaching. A philosopher once said that if man had the power to see into the future, he would reject life as not worth living. I do not share this opinion, and my inextinguishable optimism includes me, induces me to believe that in spite of all, almost everyone would give the attempt to live his or her. her life, would make the attempt to live his or her life. But it is well that fate has denied us a prophetic gift of gazing into the future. Having read through the pages of my diary referring to

Christmas 1913, I propose to avoid any tedious comparisons by simply setting side by side the facts as they were then and they are now. Then, a silver fur is highest a room, eagerly and tastefully decorated by my four children, and bearing seven little wax white wax candles. Now a meager little fur tree hardly as high as the table, procured with difficulty in exchange for some expensive cigars, hung with decorations preserved from World War days, but only lit with a few unsightly tallow stumps cut from one of the rationed candles. Then, 11 persons at a well-furnished and decorated table. My husband, Aunt Bertha Rudy, lies Beth Carl, Otto, Ernie, two of my husband's unmarried assistants, a professor at the

Academy of Music, my husband's best friend, and myself eagerly and happily intent upon making the evening as enjoyable as possible for everyone. Now, of the above-mentioned happy and unsuspecting company, four dead, three disabled, and two ill. Then, after playing and singing the lovely Christmas carol, Stelnacht, Heilch-Hilag-Knoct, and distribution of gifts at a Christmas tree radiant with candles, a cheerful evening meal in a well-lit and well-heated dining room. Now, today, too, we sang the Christmas Carol, Stilnach, Ili Schnaq, accompanied by Lisbets' violin, and by Blind Ernie at the piano. Edith's lovely voice mingled with Wolfie's childish trouble, but Wolfie was today,

probably the only one among us who looked forward to the coming distribution of gifts with eager excitement. To the rest of us, the old Carol had a melancholy ring, like an echo from happier days. Carl, who regarded the Christmas festival as an absurd and insipid survival from a past age, left us to attend the political meaning. Then, the traditional Vienna Christmas menu, fried carp with potatoes and bean salad, and a poppy and nut pancake concocted with special care, with a beer and light moselle wine. Afterwards, punch pastry and fruit. Now, Christmas was accompanied by a sharp frost and icy winds. The little iron stove even supplemented, by the oil stove, could not bring the temperature of the room above 11 degrees, Ramore.

We were therefore all obligated to wrap ourselves up warmly so that there was no question of festival attire. Lysbeth, particular, suffers from the low temperature of the rooms. The smoking candles on the Christmas tree and the acetylene lamp, which lit our sitting room so poisoned the atmosphere that I advised Lysbeth to go to bed early in her unheeded. but well-aired room. Although our rabbit farm could easily have supplied us with meat, we adhered to the traditional meatless Christmas supper. The preparation of the Christmas menu was fraught with difficulties. At a great pecuniary sacrifice, I bought a few Portuguese sardines at an exorbitant price. In Vienna, there is even now a great deal of talk about Christmas garp, the carp,

as everyone likes to revive the memory of the Vietnamese Christmas carp festivals, but for ordinary mortals, among whom I count myself, carp is absolutely unobtainable. Possibly a millionaire or war profiteer or someone more ingenious than myself in procuring where our delicacies may have succeeded in procuring this Christmas dainty, smuggled across the Czech frontier from the numerous carp ponds of Bohemia, which used to supply Vienna. We were obliged to content ourselves with sardines, with which I was able to serve the Christmas present from the Swedish Relief Organization,

four ounces of rice each. A good loaf baked by the farmer's wife at Luxembourg and presented to me as Christmas gift together with eight ounces of butter, heightened the enjoyment of what was to us an unusually varied supper. I had long since resigned myself to the fact that at the table, that at table the conversation was concerned almost exclusively with food, with the food that was unprocurable and the food that might possibly be procured, with novel dishes prepared for inadequate substitutes, and with the efforts required in order to obtain the most. necessary articles of food. For years in our own and every other household, these things had formed the ordinary and almost exclusive topic of conversation, a sufficient proof of the pitiful daily anxieties concerning our food supplies which weighed upon us all. The fact that in order to save soap, which has long since become a luxury article of the first drink, we sit around a table covered only with oil cloth and without serviettes. For we, serviers,

For even paper serviers have become unobtainable is only a trifling circumstance at a time when lack of the most primitive household requirements is the order of the day. Then, my husband gave Lisbeth and myself, as usual, a small piece of jewelry. I received an artistically wrought gold brooch, and Lysbeth a pretty gold pendant for her bracelet. Carl, Otto, and Ernie each received something for which they had heard to express a special wish in the course of the year. Carl and Otto got a pair of skis, while Ernie had asked to have money. Aunt Bertha received one of the latest books, and each of the guests some simple but carefully chosen gift. Now, wishes enough and to spare, but even those which seem absurdly modest measured by peace standards are unrealizable today. Lysbeth is expecting her second child

in four months' time. With a craving for certain articles of food peculiar to pregnant women, she wants a stick of chocolate. Up to now, I have not succeeded in satisfying this wish. As the Czech shoes, which I bought for Carl, Ernie, and Wolfe at such a heavy pecuniary sacrifice were not watertight, necessity made me inventive. And out of an old solid leather trunk and an armchair, upholstered and calf, our shoemaker, who can only work if he is supplied with the materials, manufactured three pair of quite presentable watertight shoes, which I set on the Christmas table for Carl, Ernie, and Volfi. Carl, who was still wearing his old uniform and whose own civilian clothes were too tight for him, received one of my husband's suits, which had been altered to fit him.

As Carl refused to take any part in our Christmas festivities, I handed him the suit and the shoes before he left the house, but they did not appear to afford him any special pleasure. Wolfie had also received a pair of mitten gloves lined with rabbit skin, which I made for him myself out of scraps of material. Aunt Bertha, whose health underwent a noticeable improvement during the first weeks of her stay with us, had been bedwritten again for some days. I got her a few secondhand books, with which she was very delighted. My presence of Rudy consisted of a few tools, since he always manages to make himself useful in the house with repairs and all kinds of improvements, and also invents and makes way,

toys for Wolfie. Since Rudy learned that it was impossible to sell his war loan at the moment, he has been very depressed. As it is doubtful whether he will receive his pay, and the pensions of disabled soldiers is absurdly small. He talks of earning money in some way. I thoroughly approve that this aspiration and have promised to help him. Edith left us immediately after supper, as she did not want her father to be alone. Carl had asked her to go with him, to his friends, but she refused in the plea that she was not interested in politics and did not wish to concern herself with them. Wolfie, who was the most cheerful and contented of us all, was particularly delighted with a jigsaw puzzle which his father had made for him. When I sent him to bed, he thanked me

eagerly for the beautiful Christmas day. The poor little fellow knew no better for our really beautiful Christmas days he had been too young to enjoy or remember. When Edith left us and Lysbeth and Wolfey retired to bed, I stayed up for a little while with Ernie and Rudy. I had said nothing to anyone about my conversation with Edith, as the latter had particularly asked me not to betray her relations with Carl. It was Ernie, who again and again wanted to know whether Edith was prepared to tell Carl the truth, quite frankly. He also constantly referred to the training of Edith's voice and was delighted when Edith, in order to please him, sang a few songs to his accompaniment. If you can't persuade Carl to let me give you singing lessons, I shall ask him my son.

self. Edith begged him to be patient and reminded him of Carl's wound, for which we ought to make allowances. Ernie, who was already able to find his way about the flat with the greatest ease, accompanied Edith to the door. Then he came back to the sitting room where I and Rudy were seated at the dining table, and its glaring, ill-smelling, acetaline lamp. Ernie threw himself into the armchair and rested his head on his hands. All the immense ineffable sadness which grips the heart of anyone who looks forward to the future with fear, looks towards the future with fear and mistrust lay heavy upon the three of us. In the bitter years that have passed, misfortune has swept over us like a devastating hurricane. Summending up all our strength, we sought for some firm support to which we could cling.

I found the support in my children's need of my help. Rudy, after he had, though not without moments a bitter agony, resigned himself to be in a cripple, found this support in his courageous facing of life and joy in his work. In the days of our common sufferings, I had learned to appreciate him as a man of Sterlingworth and goodness. Optimism, which in his case frequently found expression in a rather boisterous gaiety, formed the basis of his character, as it did of my own. As with me, this natural optimism was never entirely dispelled or crushed, like an inostable, an Inexhaustible spring, even if obstructed for a time by the rubble and slime of life, it found its way back to the surface.

With Ernie, it is quite a different matter. Ernie has borne his wound bravely, but always in the firm conviction that the loss of his sight is only temporary. The kindly professor at the Eye Clinic had hitherto made Ernie come to him every fortnight. He had infused courage into him and had not robbed him of the hope of seeing again. The last time that we went there together, it was a few days of. ago, the professor told Ernie that only an operation might possibly restore his sight. There could be no question of this operation. However, before the expiry of a year, he begged Ernie to be patient and to consider me. He advised him with a tinge of bitter, though well-meant humor, just to continue

accustoming himself to a blind existence and then to come back next year. Ernie at first received this announcement with great composure, but when we reached home, he succumbed to a violent nervous crisis, which was succeeded by a mood of dull apathy and deep depression. He could not be persuaded to leave his bed or take food. When anyone tried to speak to or console him, he begged them not to torment him, but to leave him alone. The condition lasted for three whole days. Not until my own nerves too gave way at the sight of my blind, helpless, despairing child, and found relief, I'm ashamed to say, in a violent fit of sobbing. Did Ernie's love struggle, heroically towards me through a melancholy that had finally reached the point of disgust with life.

Now it was he who consoled me and begged me to forgive him and who promised not to make it more difficult for me to look after him. He had, however, continued taciturn and melancholy ever since he learned that the terrible darkness which surrounded him was to last still longer. We encouraged him to play the piano and to compose, and he obeyed us silently as if he had pledged himself to not to resist and to fulfill our every wish, and it was this docility which touched us all and alarmed me. Rudy saw my eyes resting anxiously on Ernie and broke the silence. Mother, this Christmas evening, has not given all of us what we hoped and desired, but next Christmas we shall celebrate in real peace. We shall be able to eat what we like and work as we like, for the fact that, in spite of

everything. This Christmas evening, too, has been beautiful. We have only you to thank, and therefore, in the name of the whole family, I say now with all my heart to the bravest of all mothers, may God reward you. He stretched out his hands to me across the table, and I grasped it. Ernie heaved a deep sigh. Mother, I too, thank you for everything. Children, I said, you make me ashamed. Everything I have done is a matter of course. I know, mother, you would give me your eyes if you could, said Ernie. I reflected for a moment, then I replied, not both Ernie. You would have to be content with one. Oh, mother, only to see, only to see again. My God, when will that be? And will it ever be? The professor really wanted to try this operation on Ernie, although he told me that he had very little

hope of success. But this faint hope did help me to preserve my optimism with Ernie. And when I told him that I firmly believed he would be cured and only begged him to endure this great trial, bravely. He stepped up to me and said, seizing and stroking my hand, now roughened with housework. Mother, I too mean to believe that I shall be cured. Then he bade us good night. Rudy and I discussed our present situation, and were agreed that now, when things seemed worse, not one of us must lose heart. Misfortune is like a beast of prey. So long as one looks it straight in the eyes, one can master it. But if one falters or stumbles, one is lost. After I had helped Rudy into his wheelchair and lit a stump of candle for each of us at the acetylene lamp.

Before putting it out, I accompanied Rudy to his bedroom door and opened it for him. I pushed his wheelchair cautiously into the room so as not to disturb Lysbeth, who was already fast asleep. Rudy is already able to dress and undress himself unaided, as well as to fix on his artificial legs. I stole back to my room very quietly so that I would not wake Ernie and Volfi. cautiously I crept into my bed and heard Ernie sigh painfully several times. I folded my hands and prayed to God to give me strength to bear all my burdens. I wonder if she could be this strong just for herself. If it was just her, I think she'd have given up by now.

I think anybody at this point who was alone would have given up and would probably, you don't even have to take your own life. I've known people in my own life who, when they had a diagnosis of something, not something even fatal, but you'll never be able to, you know, use that leg again or something like that. Within three or four weeks, they were dead.

So I look at this and I see, at least they have each other at this point. And I think that's the only thing that's keeping them all going. New Year. January 1st, 1919. No peace negotiations, no servants, no light, no heat, no food. For us, housewives, the war seems to have only just begun. It has a stout ally, namely panic. It has said that the French means to decimate the German population, also the terrible armistice is to remain in force, and that in three more months we shall all have died of hunger.

Panic bids defiance to all legal decrees. Even the most respectable of Austrian citizens, breaks the law unless he is prepared to starve for the sake of obeying it. On December 27th of last year, i.e. four days ago, the first food train arrived in Vienna from Switzerland. The Swiss are the first to substitute humanity for their wartime neutrality towards us. The food which arrived by this train is to be employed by the government for maintaining half the ration card allowances during the coming week. The price of these foodstuffs are, owing to their depreciation of the corona, four times as high as to previous official prices, but the quality is better.

Moreover, it is now practically impossible to get any but the rationed foodstuffs for money, the illicit trade consisting almost exclusively of barter transactions, so that all housewives welcome the opportunity of once more procuring pure sugar, a little cocoa, chocolate, and good rice. Unfortunately, the share of the individual in the contents of this charitably release train is very small. We, for instance, for the eight members of our household, got a total weight of just over three pounds of all the above-mentioned foodstuffs. But we were pleased and grateful nonetheless and appreciate the humanity of the honest Swiss, who, let us hope, have set a good example to the Entente. Lysbeth is particularly delighted, for she got the little tablet of chocolate for which she had been longing, though she insisted that each of us should taste a small piece of it.

Wolfey was very amusing over this chocolate, which was the first taste he had tasted in the six years of his life, and I was very glad that he did not think it particularly nice, for heaven knows when I should be able to get it to him again. The fact of Switzerland had barred her frontiers from Austrians and Germans in search of work had been adversely criticized by many people here, but I can appreciate the necessity for this measure for if all are unemployed here were to take refuge in her territory, Switzerland would be overrun with superfluous workers and her own would suffer in consequence. Wow. Wow. She realizes something that most American citizens don't realize because they can still go to the grocery store and buy food.

Neither Switzerland nor the regions belonging to the Entente and occupied by the Entente troops allow Austrian and German travelers or those in search of works across their frontiers. Moreover, the fact that the future is so uncertain has led us to a great state. in industry and public works, and this, again, has enormously swelled the number of unemployed. As these unemployed are supported by the state, and in addition, if they feel any inclination to work, make money by casual labor, we have here in Vienna the remarkable situation that, with half a million unemployed, it is at present impossible to get domestic servants or indeed any sort of workers. If at the present day one of those described as needing work does declare himself willing to take a job. His demands are so preposterously high that one gives up trying to

negotiate with the needing works. This grotesque fact is the result of the heightened class consciousness, which is daily being instilled into the manual workers by the socialist government, and in heads bewildered by catchwords, leads to an enormously exaggerated estimate of the value of manual labor. Only in this way could it come about that the wages of manual labor are now far higher than the salaries of intellectual workers. Even our otherwise honest old house porter is demanding such extravagant sums for performing little jobs that I prefer to do the heavier and more unpleasant housework with Kathy's help. Kathy has not let herself be infected or bewildered by the socialist innovations. Socialistic innovations. It's a great term.

She laughed when I told her that there were no longer any serving girls and mistresses, but only domestic helps or employees and employers. Moreover, since the eight-hour-a-day has been introduced for domestic helps, and Kathy starts her work at 7 o'clock in the morning, I told her that, according to the new law, she had the right to refuse to do any more work after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. She might, however, work up to 6 o'clock if she took 2 hours rest during the day. good heavens not frau exclaimed kathy after i had told her about her new rights then the ladies will not keep servants anymore

kathy was also kathy was also visited by representatives of the socialistic organization of domestic helps who questioned her as to the treatment she received from me and informed her of her new rights as kathy gave me a splendid testimonial i was not troubled anymore but one question i should like to address to these very pre-rele were the protectors of the servant class. Who is going to secure an eight-hour day for the poor? Harassed Vienna housewives with their exhausting and responsible duties. The procuring of food is becoming more and more difficult in order to obtain the rationed bread and pickled cabbage.

The only foodstuffs which are still regularly distributed, though in very small quantities, Kathy had to stand in a queue for hours. The official meat ration, according to the food cards, is 12 decograms, about a very small. four ounces per head and week. Every other week eating of meat is officially forbidden. Game, poultry, and fish may be eaten on meatless days, but these are only obtainable in very small quantities and extortionate prices through illicit trade channels. The fact that these attractive species

of meat are not controlled by the state is sufficient proof that the possibilities are procuring them are so slight that they do not interest our card-producing foster fathers. Food cards I have in plenty. Lying in my writing-table drawer is a whole pack of unredeemed cards. They are unfulfilled promises made by the state. I recall the remark of my bank advisor. Just try to exchange a 20-croman note for a 20-croman and silver and gold. I survey my remaining thousand cronin notes lying by the side of my cards in the writing-table drawer. They do not lie there. long, for one after another disappears into the vortex of trade with alarming rapidity. I survey them mistrustfully. Will not they perhaps share the fate of the unredeemed food cards

if the state fails to keep the promise made in the inscription on every note? The state still accepts its own money for the scanty provisions it offers us. The private tradesman already refuses to sell his precious wares for money and demands something of real value in exchange for them. The wife of a doctor, whom I know recently exchanged her beautiful piano for a sack of wheat flour. I, too, exchanged my husband's gold watch for four sacks of potatoes, which will, at all events, carry us through the winter. My friend at Luxembourg made her husband give me this precious food when he drove to Vienna. This is a risky thing to do at the present time when everyone claims the right to requisition any non-ration provisions which he finds in private possession.

The farmer, however, as a producer, is allowed to keep larger stocks, though from these he is constantly being called upon to furnish supplies to the government. My farmer had hidden the sacks of potatoes under straw on top of which he had placed some apples. The apples were duly stolen, but the potatoes reached me safely. Using every possible precaution, we transported the potatoes into the cellar, but to guard against betrayal by other inmates of the house, I had to give our porter half a sack of as hush money. The farmer who came into our flat to warm himself, devoured his good country bread spread with lard and drank a glass of plum brandy. I introduced him to Rudy and Ernie and expressed my appreciation of his help.

When his eyes rested on the beautiful grand piano at which Ernie was seated, improvising, he took me aside and said, My wife has been wanting one of those for a long time. If you'll give it to me, you shall have all you want for three months. I declined this suggestion with such horror that the honest countryman was amazed. Come, isn't it better to eat your fill than to have a bit of music, but just as you like? As I was afraid that I had annoyed him, I tried to appease him with a few good cigars and was apparently successful. When I told Rudy and Ernie about this proposal after the farmer had left us, they were both indignant at his presumption,

and Rudy declared the egoism of the peasant class, which is extolled as being said. so healthy, is gradually assuming revolting forms, as he had already had sufficient opportunity to observe during the war. I soothed Rudy's vexation and explained to him how greatly I needed these people, and that I did not even recoil from humbling myself before them for the sake of four sacks of potatoes. All for our sake, said Ernie, for mother doesn't find it easy to bear humiliation. All for my own sake, I retorted, for if things are better for you, they are better for me, too. Prices rise from day to day, so the state has to be obliged to put 10,000 Cronin notes into general circulation. 10,000 Cronin, that is equivalent to two years' income from my capital.

Never before have I had a note so large an amount, nor had I ever dreamed it possible that one purchase so little for 10,000 cron. Rudy, on the strength of his knowledge of foreign languages, he knows English, French, and Italian, intends to look for a post as correspondent in a bank, but he has no civilian clothes. From an illicit dealer, I procured a piece of material for a suit. Our old tailor undertook to make it up. The material is of inferior quality, but with this making, the suit will cost 1,200 cronin. In pre-war times, a first-class suit cost 200 cron. This represents a six-fold increase of price, yet for some things, particularly for foodstuffs, prices have risen 100-fold and 200-fold. The following are a few examples of present-day prices.

The ration of fat per head is four decograms, about one and a half ounces weekly. That is to say, practically nothing. Fat from the illicit dealers cost 150 to 200 kronin per kilogram, about three pounds to four pounds per pound. Butter, which is only available, obtainable through illicit channels, cost 200 to 250 cron per kilogram, about four pounds to five pounds per pound. Is that four sterling? I can't remember. Beef and corned beef also only obtainable through illicit channels cost 80 to 120 cron per kilogram for about one to three, 13. 1 pound 13 sterling per pound sorry my international money is terrible very bad hungarian or check sausages also only through illicit channels cost 90 to 120 cron per kilogram as linen and dress materials equally with woolen articles and shoes are unattainable paper clothes are being sold a paper suit costs 300 to 400 kronin January 17, 1919.

Here and there are a note of humanity, Wilson and Paris, the tortures of the armistice continue. Our newspapers report that the English press has contained protests against a continued cruel delay of peace negotiations and appeal for an alleviation of the blockade. The Daily News has declared that it is in the interest of the Allies to improve food conditions in Germany and Austria and to supply them with raw materials. The newspaper does not yet dare to make it. its demands in the interest of humanity, but it does dare to make it, and that at the present day, when the victors are blinded by chauvinism and hatred, is already a great deal. On January 13th, a date which, according to my one superstition, contains within itself in the number 13, the seat of misfortune, the first peace conference met in Paris. In the meantime,

within the frontiers of the old Austro-Hungarian monarchy, three wars are being waged. The Czech campaign against the Germans in Bohemia and Moravia and against the Slovak-Hungarian comitats and the Serbian invasion of the Alpine regions where the Carinthians have up to now, by dint of heroic efforts, succeeded in resisting alien rule. In defiance of Wilson's points referring to the freedom and self-determination of nations, Germans, Hungarians, and Bulgarians are to be treated with brutal violence. are being treated with brutal violence. Millions of Germans have been placed under Czech, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, and Italian rule.

As the children of German parents, I have always felt myself a German, without being conscious of any national arrogance or intolerance. Now, since we Germans have lost a war, and excessive national pride has grown up in my heart. The fact that now, regardless of the right of self-determination, millions of Germans are to come under the alien rule of the small Slovak, races rouses in me, a burning sense of injustice. I recognize the good qualities of these little Slavonic peoples, whether they be Serbs, Romanians, Czechs, or Poles. Each of them may possess excellent

national qualities, but where culture and civilization are concerned, not one of them can compare with the Germans. All of them have looked to the Germans more or less as their teachers. The checks in particular have learned and gained a great deal from the culture of pre-war Austria. but they have not yet learnt enough to justify them in subduing three and a half million Germans to their rule, but of what use is it for my national pride to revolt at this thought? We Germans are disarmed and weakened by hunger. We are dependent at the present time upon the magnanimity of the entom, a magnanimity which, in connection to the cruel prolongation of the armistice,

is conspicuous by its absence. Mr. Hoover, who has been sent by President Wilson to Germany in order to study the food situation there and in Austria, has declared that the alleviation of the famine conditions in these two countries is far beyond America's powers. In Vienna, the Save the Children Fund and the Society of Friends have founded organizations which were devoting themselves to the relief and assistance of children and invalids. Thanks to these two relief schemes conducted by generous American and English men and women, Wolfie Lies Beth Hanon, Brunsons. are once more receiving their tinned milk of which they had been so long deprived. The Argentine, too, is organizing a big relief scheme for the distribution of food and clothing to the most needy. The news that President Wilson is to attend the peace conference in Paris rekindled our hopes of a tolerable peace at a time when we were reduced almost to despair by the

inhumanity of the armistice. Wilson will put matters right, said the optimist. He will insist on the observance of his 14 points. We waited eagerly for the good news which Wilson would send us from Paris. Wilson said in his address to the victorious powers, the task of those who are gathered here is greatly simplified by the fact that they are the masters of no one. They are the servants of mankind. Here, once more, Wilson, the idealist, was speaking with his unshakable faith in human altruism. Unfortunately, he left Paris earlier than he intended. depressed and disheartened by the obstinacy of the European victors. Germans get so much crap for their attitude toward the checks when Hitler took over.

I mean, the Jews still complained about Kemmelnetsky, and that was 400 years ago. They still hate the Russians. They still hate that section of the world. For 400 years ago. This is what? less than 20 years later, and they're not going to forget. The Iranians in Iran in 1979, who took over the embassy, they weren't going to forget the coup in 1953. You think people don't have long memories? Obviously, some have longer than others, and nowadays we have no memory whatsoever.

He refused to be a part of the dismemberment of the central powers, and it must have been a or blow to his pride and his sense of justice when at Paris he was told politely but firmly that his 14 points were of no importance in connection with peace negotiations. His humane and natural wish that the blockade should be raised was also disregarded. Thus the hope which we set on Wilson had been scattered to the winds. But if only peace would come at last and bring a certainty as to our fate into the end of the hunger blockade, but the hearts of the European victor states are hard and their years are deaf to our repeated entreaties that peace should at length be concluded. The fact that here in Vienna, we have not yet all died of starvation, is due to the benevolence

of private civilian circles in America, England, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden. We are living literally on charity or on imports of food from which the state guarantees payment and which is distributed among the population in exchange for money. An English relief train has just arrived in making a formal presentation of the contents to the mayor. Major Bethal remarked that they represented the thanks of the English people for the humane treatment accorded to British prisoners of war in Austria. It is pleasant to hear this after all the calumny, which has been heaped upon us. An Italian food train was held up on the Brenner, owing to an avalanche.

The result has been that the official bread ration is cut down, to one half. In pre-war times, Vienna consumption of bread per head and day was 15 to 16 decograms, about 5 to 6 ounces. At the present time, we get 25 decograms about 9 ounces per head and weak, and even this quantity is dependent on supplies from abroad, which we owe to the generosity of foreign citizens. Such a state of things is unendurable and a tremendous tax on the nerves of the harassed population who are in constant danger of losing their mental poise as well. Discontent, revolt, and pillage are rife everywhere. The Spartacists in Berlin are trying to get control of the city. Only after six days of street fighting did the government succeed in quelling this revolt.

At Lins, the capital of Upper Austria, almost all the shops have been plundered. The new national government did not check this plundering. The soldiers of the Volksverd placed themselves on the of the offenders by protecting the plundering mob. Lysbeth, who has been staying with my relations for about two weeks, has been an eyewitness of the terrible devastation wrought in Lins, and the neighborhood by people rendered frantic by hunger and privation. My cousin's small but admirable, admirably managed farm, is about half an hour's drive from Lins further up to Danube.

The normal railway traffic to Lins is suspended, so my cousin, when he joyfully agreed, agreed to my request that he should take charge of Lysbeth for a few weeks, arranged with the captain for Lysbeth to travel on a steam tug from Paisau. Lysbeth reached Lins by this steamer. My cousin and his wife, who were both very good-natured and hard-working, took great delight in their little farm and have labored persistently and devotedly to improve and develop it. A very bad harvest had, however, compelled them to reduce their livestock to eight cows, two

horses, and twelve pigs. They also had a poultry farm which supplied lins with fowl and eggs. By dint of careful management, they had enough fodder for their animals and poultry and were able to feed themselves in their two maids simply but sufficiently. The little farm also yielded a modest net profit, which was always employed in improvement and repairs since they had no children. My cousin was popular with his neighbors and respected by the authorities. He had never tried to evade the taxes demanded by the state, although they were heavy burden on his farm. Lysbeth wrote to me that she had been placed in a pretty sunny attic room with a view over the lovely, hilly hinterland of the Danube, and had felt herself very much refined by the resting good air.

My cousin and his wife were not able to give her much of their time, for there is work for the farmer even in the winter, but they gave her plenty of delicacies such as fresh milk, butter, eggs, and honey. of which we in the towns had long been deprived, and my cousin spoke of having Wolfie to stay there for some time at which Lisbeth was overjoyed. Then came the fatal Sunday on which all their hopes and fruits of years of toil were sacrificed to a mob of plunderers. I quote Lisbeth's letter. I had driven with uncle and aunt to church at Lens. The nearer we approached Lins, the more crowded became the usual deserted high road. All kinds of odd-looking and individuals met us. One man wearing three hats, one set on top of the other, and at least two

coats, excited our amusement. My uncle declared he must have a great deal of money to spare to be able to dress so extravagantly. We met people drawing carts that were piled high with tinned food of every description. The nearer we approached the town, the more remarkable, became the scene which presented itself to our eyes. A man and woman were seated in a ditch by the side of the road, and without the least embarrassment, we're changing their very ragged garments for quite new ones. Hurry up, the woman shouted to us, or there'll be nothing left. We did not understand this remark until we passed the first plundered shops.

Lens, a prosperous provincial town whose citizens are as a rule, well, if not fashionably dressed, now present to quite a different aspect. Individuals who did not seem to belong here at all, and who look suspiciously like Russian soldiers were mingling with the new Volksfer, and with the numerous shabbily dressed men and women. All of them seemed very excited. They were running to and fro and yelling. Bundles were being tied up and dragged away. Our styrian cart was held up several times, and we were frequently hailed with shouts of which we took no notice. The church square was so packed that it was hopeless to think of proceeding

any further. We saw that the inn at which uncle and aunt usually stopped for a little refreshment after the mass was completely devastated. The innkeeper caught sight of us and hurried up. The old man was almost in tears. He could not open his inn because the whole of the furniture had been smashed and all the provisions had been stolen. He strongly advised my uncle to drive home, since the ringleaders of the mob, having done their work thoroughly at Lins, were inciting their followers to ransack the neighborhood. A police force of 200 men were expected that very day, but they would be too late to avert disaster. We resolved to drive home immediately.

Peaceful lens looked as if it had been visited by an earthquake. Articles of furniture smashed beyond all recognition littered the pavements. But not only provision shops, inns, cafe, and drapers, shops had been ransacked. Jewelers and watchmakers, too, had been unable to defend their wares from the mob. My uncle urged on the horse while aunt was filled with evil forebodings. in the lane, which winds in the direction of my uncle's farm at the foot of the hill through wintry fields and meadows, we noticed a troop of about 80 to 100 men and women. They were bawling and singing and driving in their midst, a cart harnessed with a brown horse.

The distance was too great to enable us to distinguish individual faces, but suddenly, Uncle exclaimed, they're driving away Hansel in our cart. With that another word, he leapt to the ground, throwing the reins to aunt, as he had a still leg, owing to an injury to his knee, he could only advance slowly across a frozen snow-covered fields toward the road, where he meant to intercept the troop. Not until then did Aunt and I grasp the situation. Frantzel called my aunt into the sparing voice. Frantzl state, please stay here. And when my uncle refused to listen, she threw the reins to me, jumped from the cart, and began to run after him. I was not used to managing horses and sat there in the cart,

helpless and agitated with the reins in my hand, looking anxiously after my uncle and aunt as they hurried across the frozen fields toward the chain of hills about 800 paces distant. But it seems that when our need is soreest, God's help is nearest. Already in the distance I saw approaching me on the high road at a rapid pace of motor lorry packed with men. When it was nearer, I saw that it contained about 20 gendarme. As our cart was standing in the middle of the road and the big lorry could pass neither to the right nor the left the chauffeur began to sound his hooter. I did not dare, however, to turn the horse to the side of the road so that I unintentionally forced a chauffeur to bring the lorry to a standstill.

What's the matter he called out to me, not understanding why I did not move the cart out of the way? One of the gendarme had jumped down and came up to me. I explained my predicament and pointed to my uncle and aunt, who were steadily advancing toward the lane. I told the gendarme that the horse had been stolen from my uncle, and pointed to where the robbers were now hidden in a bend of the road screened by a hill. Is Bokling of Lingbok, your uncle? asked the gendarme.

And when I answered in the affirmative, they've sacked the place. We've just come from there. And we walked over quickly to the other gendarme, who had now all jumped down and were hurriedly after my uncle and aunt. The gendarme ran better than uncle and aunt, and had soon overtaken them. I became more and more agitated with the troop of plunderers once more, once more came into sight. I heard a few shots fired after them by the gendarme, and then I saw robbers disappear among the hills in disorderly flight.

Horse and cart were left behind. Some of the gendarme set out in pursuit, while Uncle took counsel by the bridle and led him towards me with the cart jolting along behind. Aunt joined him, and they stood by the side of the road, deeply agitated and distressed. In the cart, I saw three slaughtered pigs. In addition, some pieces of slaughtered cows and pigs and a few dead hens were lying in an untidy heat. My God, my God, wailed my aunt. What will things be like at home? I daren't go there.

Uncle did not say much. Aided by the driver of the lorry, he got the cart onto the road. Then he picked up the reins and drove on with Hansel, while my uncle took charge of this styrene cart. Two gendarme accompanied us in order to ascertain the damage. If only, they didn't always destroy everything, said one of them. As for their being hungry, that's not surprising. We were prepared for the worst.

The gates of the farmyard were wide open. There was not a sign of the servant girls. A pig was apparently seriously injured, but still living while lying in its own blood in the yard. The other pigs had run out through the open door. stall into the road. The cow shed was drenched in blood. One cow had been slaughtered where it stood, and the warm flesh torn from the bones. The monsters had slid up the utter of the finest milked cow, so that she had to be put out of her misery immediately. In the granary, the stores of grain and fodder

were in a state of utter wild confusion. A rag soaked with petroleum, which was still smoldering, showed what these beasts in human form had intended. In the kitchen living room of which my aunt was so proud, not a thing had been left whole, yes, said one of the chandarm. If we had not happened to pass here on our way to lynx, you would have found nothing but a heap of ruins. Underestimus the damage of a hundred thousand piece cron over four thousand pounds,

and no insurance company will pay him any compensation for his loss. He begs me to ask you whether you can lay him have a little money so that he may be able to at least be able to carry out the necessary repairs. This is Liesbets account. It is, of course, impossible for her to stay at Langbochle, and I must rack my brains to think of a place where she can spend the rest of the winter without imposing two greatest strain on my budget. Here in Vienna, the labor leaders, on the whole, have the masses well in hand. Attempted revolts by the Vienna communists are, thank heaven, only passing episodes.

This comparative security of life and property in Vienna is mainly due to the efforts of the Viennese police under the police President Schober, who have thereby earned the lasting gratitude of the citizens of Vienna. The Viennese police remained almost entirely unaffected by the poison of party politics and were constantly faced with the difficult task of calling outbreaks of party feelings and rendering them innocuous. In Hungary, the revolution is said to have been complete, and the communist leader Belakoun is reported to have seized the reins of government. Carl talks of going to Budapest.

Lately, however, he has been persistently urging Edith to marry him. His nervous quarrel Samud is a trial to us all, and Edith has decided to break off her engagement. On birth, his illness has taken a serious turn, and our hands are kept full looking after her. Edith and I share the nursing, and this at least affords Fords Edith a good excuse for giving Carl less and less of her company. In addition to chronic bone softening, Aunt Bertha is suffering from acute inflammation of the left lung, which is dangerous at her age. We all do our best to alleviate and fight against her disease, but in this too, we are thwarted by the difficulty of the food situation. Only one of our hens is laying, and the difficulties of procuring fodder are increasing daily. Already, I have to pay the illicit traders five to six crown in each for

eggs and always have to reckon on finding some bad ones among them. Eggs, however, are still the only food which Aunt Bertha can take with any appetite so that I am obliged to get them. My rabbit farm enables me to produce to procure a quarter pint goat milk daily in exchange for two rabbits a month. One of my neighbors, whose husband is a higher-grade government official, keeps a goat in her cellar. As they are only two in family, she has plenty of milk for her needs. On the other hand, she has hardly any meat, so we are able to help each other. As the milk keeps fresh for days in the open air, I was able to skim it on one occasion, and from the cream to churn a very small quantity of butter. Bulfi, Lysbeth, and Aunt Bertha each received a small piece of bread and butter, though

unfortunately I was obliged to spread the butter very thin. It would never have occurred to any of us in peacetime to eat butter made of goat's milk, if only nothing worse befalls us. I said to liesbeth, I was turning up her, I said to Lysbeth, who was turning up her nose a little. Wolfie ate up his portion with relish, and Aunt Bertha would have praised the taste of something far worse just to please me. Edith has asked me to be present at a conversation which she means to have with Carl tomorrow. I'll end it right there. Just a reminder, this is being imposed upon them. This is being done to them purposely. It will happen again after World War II.

They're targeted. They're targeted for no other reason than who they are. They're Germans. And there is, there are people out there who want to exterminate Germans to this day. Okay. You see that, how important borders are and how important is to have a government or else you have Kami fucks coming over the border. from Russia, as they did, to destroy everything you have.

I won't venture, I guess, as to what they are. As most people know what the commies in Russia were, this is all on purpose. This is all targeted. But when you fight back, when you target back, you're the bad guys. You can support the show and get these. episodes early and ad-free by supporting me you go to my website freeman beyond the wall.com

forward slash support he can support me there substack gumroad subscribe star or patreon and get the episodes early and ad-free all right until the next time thank you for tuning in i appreciate it