Signs of Sense

Between the extremes of sullen impenitence and dumb docility, some German civilians seemed to want to make sense:

P: The women of Heidelberg wrote a letter to General Eisenhower: "You wanted to enter Heidelberg as victor, and all you found were people with smiling faces and open arms. . . . We despise the hypocritical holier-than-thou attitude of the National Socialists and did not flee with them. At the same time we do not beg your favor. . . . Give us peace, based on wisdom, and you will receive our admiration."

P: One greying German mother led her pink-cheeked soldier son by the hand to an American prisoners' camp. "He is my son," she said. "I fetched him from his regiment in the woods. You'll take him? Good. Now I know he won't die. Tonight I shall sleep."

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