In early 1946, Backhaus drew a sketch of popular feeling among the German population in his region at the beginning of the year, which provides something of a balance sheet for 1945:
Characteristic for the majority of them is a feeling of profound numbness; emotionally they have not yet got over the collapse of last spring, indeed one can say that they have not yet comprehended the significance of those events at all. They still frantically cling to the more than vague hope that the former familiar rhythm of life will return, and regard what is unfolding at the moment more as a bad dream from whose gloomy images they can escape again when they awake. This is entirely understandable, as the misfortune that has befallen every individual is so unspeakable that it exceeds all measure. The people appear so tired and without hope [that] most are devoid of any emotion, to say nothing of being in a condition to make plans again for the future.
Thrown into the maelstrom of a general collapse, the individual sees only his own fate. The city-dweller stands before the ruins of his house, laments the loss of his furnishings that for him, in most cases, were not only the external trappings of his existence but an indissoluble part of his own life as a result of the memories associated with them.
Even worse for families is loss of relatives who have not returned from the war, the death of fathers, brothers and sons as well as the agonizing feeling of uncertainty about the fate of the prisoners of war and the missing, of those about whom there often has been no news for years. Added to this pain about what has been lost irretrievably is the agonizing worry about their own future. Countless people have had to give up their former occupations, in part for political reasons, in part, however, also as a result of the complete dislocation of economic conditions. […] Precisely when one appreciates what work signifies for most Germans does one grasp the emotional condition of these people. For their vocation was not only a means for them to earn money but was at the same time the essential content of their life.
Source:
Bessel, Richard. “The Great Disorder.” Germany 1945: From War to Peace. New York, NY, HarperCollins, 2009. 335-36. Print.
Original Source Listed:
‘Bericht des Regierungspräsidenten in Hildesheim für die Monate Januar bis März 1946’, printed in Michaelis and Schraepler (eds.), Ursachen und Folgen, vol. 24, pp. 169-173.
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