Siren Years : A Canadian Diplomat Abroad 1937-1945 (9781551996783) by Ritchie Charles

Author:Ritchie, Charles [Ritchie, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-55199-678-3
Publisher: Random House Digital
Published: 2012-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

24 November 1941.

Visited by my familiar devils which I fondly thought I had exorcised. I do not know what brings on these attacks when I am reduced almost to idiocy by ridiculous nervous compulsions, tics, obsessions, and all manner of foolishness. I used to think they were brought on by living “too chaste” but that can hardly be the case at the moment. Or it may be discovered when they have my brain in a bucket that there has been some recurrent form of pressure on it.

My finances are in a bad way which means dining alone in clubs and missing good chances. Now is the time for culture to come to the rescue and fill up the void. She seems to come on lame feet.

Went with Miriam to a party given by Lady Victor Paget for Bea Lillie.1 Noël Coward sang “London Pride” in a manner which I found all the more revolting for being sincere. There was a gathering of pansies and theatrical blondes interspersed with Lord S. and latest girl-friend and Hore-Belisha2 – an obscene spectacle. Old Lady Crewe3 having a “diplomatic” conversation with the Counsellor of the Washington Embassy. David Herbert4 looking more racé than he knew. General atmosphere: a réchauffé of a gay twenties party with everyone looking that much older and trying to get back something which is not there any more.

29 November 1941.

Weekend at Miriam Rothschild’s at Ashton. Miriam is becoming a friend – she certainly has no time for me in any other capacity.

She was talking about her cousin Baron Louis’s imprisonment by the Nazis in Vienna. He was kept in solitary confinement in a space four feet by six feet. His glasses were taken away from him and he was not given anything to read. He was not ill-treated physically. Almost every day some neighbouring prisoner was taken away and shot, and he was continually expecting to be the next. One thing that worried him was that he was never able to make out how the Germans’ minds worked. For instance, they legalized every step they took to deprive him of his fortune in the most tortuous manner instead of just grabbing it. One day a whole string of lawyers came into his cell laden with account books. He thought, “Now it has come – they want me to sign something which will show that I have been swindling the shareholders.” The lawyers said, “We regret to inform you that there has been a swindle in your affairs.” “Yes,” he replied, “I know. Who have I swindled?” “No, Baron, it is you who have been robbed.” Then they explained to him in detail how one of his agents in Germany had been cheating him. The lawyers then went away leaving him baffled that when they were robbing him they should take the trouble to show him that someone else had been cheating him.

One day Himmler was announced in the cell. He came in, sat down and after a few platitudes said,

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