Memories of Germany in 1936

Memories of Germany in 1936

Leicester in WW2

An extract from an oral history interview with Bob Martin describing Germany in 1936.

EMOHA

LOHA

EMOHA

,mp3

English

Oral History

Tape

1 min 47 secs

Hitler in Germany was being a complete and utter ogre. We appreciate that history says, okay, Germany was going bankrupt, he had to do this or else, but on the other hand, he did it in a rather nasty way. I was in Germany buying some elastic web for the firm just prior to the war, and I particularly remember going into a town for an evening out with our supplier there and seeing the things plastered on the doors of the nightclubs that says ‘Juden und Jazz Verboten’, which means Jews and jazz are forbidden. Which sums old Hitler up in a nutshell, as far as I’m concerned. He had already started exterminating, or imprisoning anyway, his Jews and...

You knew about this?

Of course, yes.

They were extremely arrogant. They were extremely warlike, they were marching up and down, brown shirts, black shirts. All sorts of shirts, and I remember meeting a flying man over there. I had a little badge on to say that I belonged to the RAF VR (Voluntary Reserve), and he said, what is that, you see, and I said, that's the English Air Force, reserve, and he said ah, our friend Mr. Goering has said that you will never fly over our borders, and we shall exterminate your German (sic) Air Force. And this was the general attitude.

Jo Rostron

Bob Martin

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