Traveling in Hitler’s Germany: Kochattil Kalyanikkutty Amma

[Excerpt from Kalyanikkutty Amma’s autobiography, Pathikayum Vazhiyorathe Manideepangalum, in which she writes about her travels in Europe in the mid-1930s. She had, in the 1930s, written an account, in English and Malayalam, on this trip, as part of a women’s delegation invited by the International Student Service, called ‘A Peep at Europe’ in English and Njaan Kanda Europe, in Malayalam. In her autobiography, some chapters of this book have been included. I have translated the Malayalam version.]

Germany – though we had great respect for the Germans’ extraordinary, unique abilities in scientific matters, great love for the deep regard they had for India’s ancient culture, and great sympathy for the undeserved suffering that they underwent after World War I, the happenings in Germany at the time of our visit were so terrible that such sentiments changed drastically. Germany was under the Nazi government then. Its ruthless behaviour towards communists, Jews, and indeed anyone who did not support the government – especially the  vicious repression as part of the purge that happened on 30 June that year – all these were  highly objectionable indeed.

When we got off at the clean and beautiful town of Dresden, there were some Indians also among those were waiting to greet us. The sights we saw there are still so fresh in my memory! The unforgettable, praiseworthy plays in the theatre, the demonstration of fire-fighting on Fire Safety Day, the Art Museum with portraits of the important Western artists – besides all this, the Hygiene Museum where such things as blood circulation, digestion, the stages of progression of various diseases, the working of the human nervous system, and other such matters were presented for the education of the public in such a  wonderfully engaging, simple manner that even the most uneducated person could grasp them…!  This exhibition truly made the visitor to Germany fully aware of the extent to which science had progressed there.

The questions about India raised by secondary school children of Dresden, just eight or ten years old, were so fully of curiosity and really interesting. Some of them danced and sang for us and let us leave only after some of us had sung songs for them!

Everywhere we turned we found Herr Hitler’s unpleasant face frowning down upon us from the walls. Everyone we talked to turned out to be a blind follower of Hitler.

Some of us asked to be shown the concentration camp (the place were those who were subjected to the government’s wrath were confined in). We were taken only to the vicinity of one such place. When I asked the Nazi officer who had accompanied us about the activities there, I of course knew of the torture that went on inside these places, which I had learned about from A C N Nambiar who had spent some time in there as a communist. The Nazi officer replied: “Oh, we give the inmates books and pamphlets in a friendly spirit and try to reform them so that they may get back on the right path.”

This officer gave us some short articles about the Race Theory that was current in Germany then. To the question “Was not Christ a Jew?” the resolute response was “Oh, no, never!” “Alright, then are you of the Nordic Aryan race?” I asked him, but he did not answer and remained silent.

A German youth who wished to marry an girl who was not of ‘pure Nordic Aryan blood’, whose blood, it was suspected, contained even a trace of the ‘inferior’ blood of the Jewish or other races would have to choose between his beloved and his employment. Because life would be unbearable without employment, he would surely abandon his beloved.

From Dresden, we went to Berlin. The excellent hospitals, art institutions, electric advertisements that shone in many colours, the sprawling parks, and not just these, but also the massive palace, the churches, and the imposing Monument of Victory – all these sights were highly engrossing for visitors. Our guide pointed us to the residences of President Hindenburg, General Goring, and Hitler. We wanted to meet Hitler in person, but he was not present there then.

We visited two major institutions for women – a school where three thousand girls were taught cooking, laundry, photography, weaving, painting, and so on, and a central institution of the German working classes where the theme of ‘motherhood’ was especially studied with reference to the different movements among German women.

While India was regarded with much love and respect by Max Mueller, Paul Duessen and indeed by the German people in general, this was changing under the Nazi regime. The book that German Nazis revere as their ‘Bible’, Hitler’s ‘My Struggles’ contains many derogatory references to India. Hitler’s right-hand man, General Goring had apparently insulted Gandhiji in his interviews with the press. Herr Rosenberg, considered to be a representative of Nazi culture in his book ‘Mythos of the Twentieth century’ has evidently belittled Indians by claiming that the Germans are ‘truly Aryan’ while Indians are most degenerate. Though the chief reason for the Race Theory Movement in Germany was their hatred of the Jews, the hostility gradually spread to Asians in general. They believe, or try to believe, that Europeans, and among them, the Nordics (and therefore the Germans themselves), are the world’s superior-most race. Even though in the ancient past the Aryan race with its culture was present in India, they claim that this culture deteriorated later and Indians ended up as an inferior race. This is why the openness that was once shown to Indians has waned under the Nazi regime. This is why when now Indians walk through the streets of Germany, they hear the abusive epithet ‘Nigger’ hurled at them – their dark skins — in some places.

Though it is a negative attitude towards India that seems to be growing in Nazi Germany, when we visited the place, people were quite friendly to us everywhere. The English language was unknown to most of them. This lack led to some amusing scenes. In some places we were greeted with ‘Good bye’ instead of ‘Good Morning’. The German word ‘Frau’ means both ‘woman’ and ‘wife’. Because of their poor knowledge of English, some interpreted the address ‘Oh! Ladies’ as ‘Oh! Wives’!

The most interesting part of the palace of the German Emperor Frederick the Great at Potsdam are the magnificent rooms that were prepared as the permanent residence of the Emperor’s bosom friend, the famous French thinker Voltaire. Some young men of this country who were forced to spend a year in military school after completing high school and before college travelled with us on our way back from there. Because all students, male or female, who intended to enter college had to compulsorily spend some weeks doing manual labour, there was a sharp fall in the students who competed hard to enter colleges.

Some of these youths who had a little knowledge of English began to ask us about Gandhiji. One of them tried to establish that Gandhi and Hitler were the same. Another young man who tried to justify this claim said, “Gandhi-Hitler Same. No smoke, no drink.” When we pointed out the very different paths of each, he thought for a while and said, “I will try to be like Gandhiji. I would like to have his photograph.” Till we stepped out of the boat, the topic of our discussion remained Gandhiji.

But there is one more thing that I must say about Nazi Germany. On the way to Germany during a conversation in which two or three Jewish women were describing the repression and torture suffered by the Jews under Hitler, another Jewish woman who had been silent till then told us after her friends had alighted from the train that “Our people too are responsible to a greater or lesser extent for the terrors we suffer under Hitler. During the First World War, it was the German Jews that supported the Allied forces with much financial help to fortify their arms and defeat Germany. Outside Germany, some impartial people let us know that  Hitler was born from the terrible rapes perpetrated against German women by the soldiers of the victorious Allied forces and the enormous burden of debt that was imposed on the younger generation of Germans who had nothing to do with the war.