Abstract

Behind the Enemy Line

A German song seems destined to become popular even with the enemy in this war. Word comes from Africa that the British and American soldiers have taken a fancy to the tune, which they have heard sung by German prisoners. Supplied with English words, it is fast becoming a hit in U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower's army. From there it will presumably find its way to general people. As everyone knows who has lived in Germany, the Berliners have always been a race by themselves, smarter, more skeptical, more caustic than their provincial countrymen. They are as little typical of the average German as the New Yorker is of the average American or the Parisian of the average Frenchman. Nevertheless, it is interesting to hear that "despite the Gestapo, Berliners talk quite frankly in the streets, discuss the situation very critically, and perhaps too opportunely make a distinction between themselves and the Nazis."