Swansong 1945 by Walter Kempowski

Author:Walter Kempowski
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2015-11-08T05:00:00+00:00

Wilhelm Hausenstein, 1882–1957

Tutzing

Slept passably throughout last night, woken now and again by loud explosions in the distance. Some of those explosions, I was assured, were caused by blasts that the German army thought it necessary to unleash in the frenzy of doom. It is telling that in an area where an agent of the devil has ruled for twelve, almost thirteen years, every last thing is being ruined: the devil’s final balance sheet will be Nothing. It would be quite in line with the monstrosity of the dying system if the autobahns had been built only to be destroyed in the end.

The war seems to be over for our undamaged district. This afternoon the white flags were flown in the village. Negotiations for surrender to the occupying powers seem to have happened very quickly, as far as I can tell.

This morning three Hungarian Jews from Dachau camp begging at the door: indescribably wretched, figures of extreme misery, but polite; humanity, far from being crushed, was more apparent than it is in the bulk of people we’ve seen walking around in freedom around here over the past few years. The beggars took away what we gave them (cheese sandwiches and beer) to distribute it among their own people, who were even worse off.

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