Maria of Monschau

When the Americans marched into Monschau on the German-Belgian frontier last September, pretty Maria, a 17-year-old German, watched them in stony silence. But she confided her feelings to her lover, Peter, an SS man, in letters which she could not mail to unoccupied Germany. The letters were discovered when Maria was arrested last week for talking to a would-be Nazi saboteur.

"I feel it clearly," wrote Maria, "that we, the youth, are a sorely tried, but also a steeled youth and as hard as iron, destined to fight on for the ideal of our indispensable Fuehrer. When everybody deserts the Leader, he will be able to depend on his real youth. They will never betray him. . . .

"Besides all our other troubles, we have to have these Americans in the street. These pigs are afraid of us. . . . I hate the Americans. One thing they cannot take away from us. We will start our new life under the old principle that we have been taught: to live means to fight. . . . I wish the new secret weapon would appear. The flames are licking up to the Rhine. My Cologne, Peter! Isn't there any justice any more to make these culprits pay?

"The American is altogether a comical soldier. He stands guard with an umbrella. . . . The American comes and then he gets no farther. . . . They are not soldiers--jitterbugs and tango lovers--'fight' and 'advance' are foreign words to them. . . ."

As an afterthought she added: "Today I just about rushed into a buried mine. An American saved my life."

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