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.Either because they are naturally kinder and more polite thanwhite people, or because they are accustomed to treating all whitepeople with respect, or because they sympathize with the Germanswho are subject to the same insulting discrimination in their coun-try as they themselves suffer in America, the Negro soldiers seemto have behaved more chivalrously than most white Americans.The cynical and the racially prejudiced say that the Germans whoconsort with the negro GI s are thinking only of their PX cards,and that the Negroes are only interested in the opportunity to havesexual intercourse with white women.But there is certainly moreto it than this.The colonial soldiers whose cruel lusts were givenfree license by the French in the early days of the occupation arestill regarded with fear and loathing by the Germans.It seemedfrom what the Germans told me that the colored United Statessoldiers had taken less advantage of their position as conquerorsthan the white GI s and officers.Like other Americans, colored soldiers appreciate the qualities ofGerman women; their loyalty and readiness to give as well as take.Driving from Nuremberg to Frankfurt with a Negro corporal asmy driver, and a young white American as my fellow passenger, Ilistened with interest to the two of them discussing the reasonswhy American soldiers and officers who had fraternized with Ger-man girls so often fell in love with them and married them.Bothsaid it was because American women were so spoiled and selfishthat no one who had had a love affair with a German woman wouldever again be satisfied with what passes for love in the States.Theastonishing thing to me was that the young colored corporal criti-cized the women of his own race in the States for the same short-comings as white women in America: that they wanted you to en-tertain them all the time and spend all your money on them;whereas German girls were not spenders and were quite happy tosit quietly at home with you; that American women never thoughtthat you might be tired after a hard day s work, whereas Germanwomen would attend to your comfort and give you peace and rest. HOW NOT TO TEACH DEMOCRACY 243These sentiments, of course, reflected the natural liking of themale for women who were ready to serve and wait instead of de-manding and dominating.While listening to this conversation aswe rushed through the night, I remembered Nietzsche s dictumthat the function of women is to give pleasure to the warrior, andreflected that their experiences as conquerors was hardly likely tofit the men of the occupation forces, white or colored, for marriedlife in the United States.My Negro driver did not confine his conversation to the qualitiesof German women.He disserted at length and in graphic fashionon the absence of a color bar in Germany which made it so muchhappier a place for colored people than the United States.Thatwas why there were so many reenlistments, and why men orderedhome had been known to commit suicide or desert.It was, he said,a funny thing that the Germans, whom Americans had beentaught to believe were the most brutally race-conscious people inthe world, had proved to be just the opposite.I told him that I had learned years ago in China that most Ger-mans had far less of the inbred white man s superiority towardthe colored races than the British and Americans and had conse-quently been the most popular foreigners in China before Hitlercame to power.I also said that this was no doubt due to the factthat the Germans had never possessed extensive African or Asiaticcolonial empires or any Negro slaves, so that they had not neededto create the kind of race theory required to justify the oppressionand exploitation of colored races.Hitler had invented the myth ofAryan superiority in order to provide an ethical basis for the con-quest of Europe, just as the Anglo-Saxons had subscribed to themyth of white superiority to justify colonial empire and Negroslavery.So it was only natural that the Germans were comparativelyfree of prejudice against the Negroes, whom they had no reason tohate or despise, while regarding Poles and Russians as inferiorraces.To each his own prejudices according to his interests.While on the subject of race prejudice, it should be noted thatanti-Semitism in Germany before Hitler came to power was noworse than, if as bad as, it is in America today.The Nazis wereable to whip up anti-Semitism into a destructive and cruel passion,and carry out their pogroms only by making the Jews the scape-goats for German economic distress.Unfortunately for the future, the revengeful attitude of someMilitary Government officials who were Jews, the fact that Mor- 244 THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCEgenthau gave his name to the policy of genocide underwrittenby President Roosevelt, and the abuse by many non-German Jewsof their privileged position as DP s have converted more Germansto anti-Semitism than Hitler s racial laws and propaganda.Underthe Nazis many, if not most, Germans sympathized with the Jewsand were ashamed of the atrocities committed by the Nazis.Butaccording to what I was told by German Jews, since the defeat ofGermany and the Allied occupation more and more Germans for-merly free of anti-Semitic prejudice are saying that after all Hitlerwas right: the Jews are the cause of German misery and the unjusttreatment Germans receive at the hands of the victorious democ-racies [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Either because they are naturally kinder and more polite thanwhite people, or because they are accustomed to treating all whitepeople with respect, or because they sympathize with the Germanswho are subject to the same insulting discrimination in their coun-try as they themselves suffer in America, the Negro soldiers seemto have behaved more chivalrously than most white Americans.The cynical and the racially prejudiced say that the Germans whoconsort with the negro GI s are thinking only of their PX cards,and that the Negroes are only interested in the opportunity to havesexual intercourse with white women.But there is certainly moreto it than this.The colonial soldiers whose cruel lusts were givenfree license by the French in the early days of the occupation arestill regarded with fear and loathing by the Germans.It seemedfrom what the Germans told me that the colored United Statessoldiers had taken less advantage of their position as conquerorsthan the white GI s and officers.Like other Americans, colored soldiers appreciate the qualities ofGerman women; their loyalty and readiness to give as well as take.Driving from Nuremberg to Frankfurt with a Negro corporal asmy driver, and a young white American as my fellow passenger, Ilistened with interest to the two of them discussing the reasonswhy American soldiers and officers who had fraternized with Ger-man girls so often fell in love with them and married them.Bothsaid it was because American women were so spoiled and selfishthat no one who had had a love affair with a German woman wouldever again be satisfied with what passes for love in the States.Theastonishing thing to me was that the young colored corporal criti-cized the women of his own race in the States for the same short-comings as white women in America: that they wanted you to en-tertain them all the time and spend all your money on them;whereas German girls were not spenders and were quite happy tosit quietly at home with you; that American women never thoughtthat you might be tired after a hard day s work, whereas Germanwomen would attend to your comfort and give you peace and rest. HOW NOT TO TEACH DEMOCRACY 243These sentiments, of course, reflected the natural liking of themale for women who were ready to serve and wait instead of de-manding and dominating.While listening to this conversation aswe rushed through the night, I remembered Nietzsche s dictumthat the function of women is to give pleasure to the warrior, andreflected that their experiences as conquerors was hardly likely tofit the men of the occupation forces, white or colored, for marriedlife in the United States.My Negro driver did not confine his conversation to the qualitiesof German women.He disserted at length and in graphic fashionon the absence of a color bar in Germany which made it so muchhappier a place for colored people than the United States.Thatwas why there were so many reenlistments, and why men orderedhome had been known to commit suicide or desert.It was, he said,a funny thing that the Germans, whom Americans had beentaught to believe were the most brutally race-conscious people inthe world, had proved to be just the opposite.I told him that I had learned years ago in China that most Ger-mans had far less of the inbred white man s superiority towardthe colored races than the British and Americans and had conse-quently been the most popular foreigners in China before Hitlercame to power.I also said that this was no doubt due to the factthat the Germans had never possessed extensive African or Asiaticcolonial empires or any Negro slaves, so that they had not neededto create the kind of race theory required to justify the oppressionand exploitation of colored races.Hitler had invented the myth ofAryan superiority in order to provide an ethical basis for the con-quest of Europe, just as the Anglo-Saxons had subscribed to themyth of white superiority to justify colonial empire and Negroslavery.So it was only natural that the Germans were comparativelyfree of prejudice against the Negroes, whom they had no reason tohate or despise, while regarding Poles and Russians as inferiorraces.To each his own prejudices according to his interests.While on the subject of race prejudice, it should be noted thatanti-Semitism in Germany before Hitler came to power was noworse than, if as bad as, it is in America today.The Nazis wereable to whip up anti-Semitism into a destructive and cruel passion,and carry out their pogroms only by making the Jews the scape-goats for German economic distress.Unfortunately for the future, the revengeful attitude of someMilitary Government officials who were Jews, the fact that Mor- 244 THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCEgenthau gave his name to the policy of genocide underwrittenby President Roosevelt, and the abuse by many non-German Jewsof their privileged position as DP s have converted more Germansto anti-Semitism than Hitler s racial laws and propaganda.Underthe Nazis many, if not most, Germans sympathized with the Jewsand were ashamed of the atrocities committed by the Nazis.Butaccording to what I was told by German Jews, since the defeat ofGermany and the Allied occupation more and more Germans for-merly free of anti-Semitic prejudice are saying that after all Hitlerwas right: the Jews are the cause of German misery and the unjusttreatment Germans receive at the hands of the victorious democ-racies [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]