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Timebinder, v. 1, issue 4, 1945
Page 8
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dy -- was not represented by the menial clerical job that he now had, nor by the good times that a soldier could have in Paris -- but by the meeting of the people and the opportunity to assist them, at the same time learning from them. His contribution to the war effort per se had been zero. His career in the Army had been turned into complete failure by circumstances. Even the typing of a 140 page warehouse inventory had been useless, because the war had been finished by that time. But now the peace effort was as difficult and even more complicated than the war effort, and there were so many things a person could do to make a few people happy and ease their way back into whatever sort of normal life they could lead in Europe. Aside from the routine contributions of candy and cigarets there were other things, some obvious and others not so obvious. He gave them their first taste of an orange in five years. He gave the boy from Germany his first toothbrush in two years. He wrote letters to America trying to trace lost families. He took the Polish girl to the Opera, because he knew that that could sometimes be more important than something to eat. And above that, he gave them the feeling that an American soldier was their friend, and was one of them. That was not a small thing. Men's minds need to be lifted from the outside. He did not flatter himself that it was necessarily he, himself, which was important to them. Any American soldier could have done it if he had only taken the interest. It was the generality: an American soldier. Nay, a Jewish American soldier. (At that he felt like an imposter.) For America was a great thing to those people. America was the ideal of the people of Europe. The time had long passed since America looked up to Europe; now America was above Europe in every conceivable manner. That was probably the most important thing the Soldier learned during his stay in Paris. Still, this could give trouble when exaggerated. He heard things like: "If we were in America we would live in hotels." They expected many things, and if some of them ever got to America they would not get what they would expect, and they would be angry, unappreciative. The Soldier knew of cases where that had happened. So here were these people: only a few of the millions of displaced persons in Europe who were wondering what they were going to do. France was no place for them. In France they went from one organization to another. Every few days there was a benefit concert for the aid of one group or another. Frenchmen, apparently, were more interested in dying for their country, putting on a show or a parade every few weeks, than in buckling down to work to put their country back on their feet. Could they go back to their homeland? Anti-Semetism had not 8
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dy -- was not represented by the menial clerical job that he now had, nor by the good times that a soldier could have in Paris -- but by the meeting of the people and the opportunity to assist them, at the same time learning from them. His contribution to the war effort per se had been zero. His career in the Army had been turned into complete failure by circumstances. Even the typing of a 140 page warehouse inventory had been useless, because the war had been finished by that time. But now the peace effort was as difficult and even more complicated than the war effort, and there were so many things a person could do to make a few people happy and ease their way back into whatever sort of normal life they could lead in Europe. Aside from the routine contributions of candy and cigarets there were other things, some obvious and others not so obvious. He gave them their first taste of an orange in five years. He gave the boy from Germany his first toothbrush in two years. He wrote letters to America trying to trace lost families. He took the Polish girl to the Opera, because he knew that that could sometimes be more important than something to eat. And above that, he gave them the feeling that an American soldier was their friend, and was one of them. That was not a small thing. Men's minds need to be lifted from the outside. He did not flatter himself that it was necessarily he, himself, which was important to them. Any American soldier could have done it if he had only taken the interest. It was the generality: an American soldier. Nay, a Jewish American soldier. (At that he felt like an imposter.) For America was a great thing to those people. America was the ideal of the people of Europe. The time had long passed since America looked up to Europe; now America was above Europe in every conceivable manner. That was probably the most important thing the Soldier learned during his stay in Paris. Still, this could give trouble when exaggerated. He heard things like: "If we were in America we would live in hotels." They expected many things, and if some of them ever got to America they would not get what they would expect, and they would be angry, unappreciative. The Soldier knew of cases where that had happened. So here were these people: only a few of the millions of displaced persons in Europe who were wondering what they were going to do. France was no place for them. In France they went from one organization to another. Every few days there was a benefit concert for the aid of one group or another. Frenchmen, apparently, were more interested in dying for their country, putting on a show or a parade every few weeks, than in buckling down to work to put their country back on their feet. Could they go back to their homeland? Anti-Semetism had not 8
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