And that's an incredible book; he sees everything but also, as an
innocent young man, meets genuinely nice people & gets taken care of
all the way along...
I need to read the next volume...
Doug
Quoting "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>:
> Interesting, Max, I'm currently reading the first volume of Patrick Leigh
> Fermor's travel-memoir, 'A Time of Gifts', which recounts a journey on foot
> and through the Germany of 1933
>
> On 24 August 2011 01:54, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>
>> Waiting for Hitler
>>
>> We docile villagers
>> standing shoulder to shoulder
>> awaited the Fuhrer.
>>
>> Any minute he would appear
>> in his shining black Mercedes.
>> He'd get out as we cheered
>>
>> and step inside this school
>> where the children would be edified.
>> How evil he was I had some idea -
>>
>> no one in world history
>> a more worthy candidate
>> for assassination - at the cost
>>
>> merely of his killer's life.
>> Without Hitler Germany
>> might come to its senses.
>>
>> We waited. I had no gun.
>> All I might be capable of
>> was not saluting,
>>
>> preferably unobserved.
>> This occupied me to my shame
>> and the wait went on.
>>
>> Alternatively, I was beyond
>> on the open ground
>> along which that cavalcade
>>
>> would soon glide in and stop.
>> Guards were everywhere.
>> They could see I was unarmed.
>>
>> In my arms I had something white,
>> soft, no possible missile.
>> Still no black vehicles.
>>
>> Two enormous dogs appeared.
>> Frightened but not terrified,
>> I knew I must keep between
>>
>> the dogs so they'd move past
>> and into the village.
>> I ducked and weaved,
>>
>> they glanced disdainfully
>> at me, used to cowards.
>> Baffled, I felt a notion form:
>>
>> the future is already history.
>> Still I waited for Hitler,
>> clutching my soft white something.
>>
>> Max Richards
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>
>
Douglas Barbour
11655 - 72 Avenue NW
Edmonton Alberta T6G 0B9
That’s not a cross look it’s a sign of life
Frank O’Hara
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