MODERN DOCUMENTS
465
For the time being there was peace, and we were safe. A glance at the map
showed how narrow
an.
escape it had been. But where would we go?
Nobody knew.
The train went on. Back in
Toulouse.
"We are German exiles," we
said to people we met in the street. "Men without a country." Their
answer was: "And we had one that betrayed us, which is worse than hav·
ing none." They were kind and helped us get a warm meal. Later we
talked to a group of laborers who worked on the tracks. "We don't care
which side won," they said reluctantly, "for this is not our war.'' They
were very serious and pensive. We also spoke to a group of demobilized
soldiers, sitting on a train homebound. The country ·was in a bad state,
they agreed. But what could
they
do about it? "Russia will lick the Ger–
mans one day," said a young fellow naively. He was obviously glad to be
relieved of the duty to do anything about it himself.
Back in
Narbonne
•..
Beziers:
Trainloads of soldiers pulled in and
out of the station. At each stop the officers did a lot of telephoning to find
out where we could go. Nobody knew.
Somewhere we met a train with Czech troops. The men looked un–
washed and tired. They said they had been in the rear of the French and
forced
t~
retreat with them. Now they hoped to he able to get to England.
They were defeated twice, once at home and now again in France without
fighting a single battle.
At each prolonged stay large and small crowds of us went off to take
a walk or to buy themselves something to eat. Each time some of them
had to be pulled in by their arms and legs because they were late and the
train had started moving. Each time some of them missed the train and
were left behind. Among these was a queer old man who had cut off half
of his trousers' legs, when it grew hot and removed his waistcoat and jacket.
In this odd costwne he stood leaning against a pillar, looking after the
departing train with an air of despair.
Glancing across the tracks we noticed at one place large wooden tubs
of the kind people use for watering horses. A group of us immediately
made for those tubs, to give themselves a thorough scrubbing. While they
were there, another train came in and shut them off from us. Warned by
our loud shouting, they came running back and crawled under the cars
of the other train to get on to ours. One of them came running stark naked
and reached the last car just in time to catch on to it.
The train went on. Where would we go. Nobody knew. In the dis–
tance the blue waters of the Mediterranean were glittering in the sun. One
guard after the other had during our journey asked and received permis–
sion to go away and all failed to return. For two more days our train
went from place to place until the officers, too, tired of the vain effort to
find a refuge for us, walked away. Finally the railroad officials came and
told us to get off. Where would we go? Nobody knew!
I stood with my white-haired friend on the shore of the blue sea.
"There is no place for us in Europe," he said. "And America?" he added,
"America was not discovered for people like you and me."
