GERMANY TODAY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 49, 26 August 1933, Page 8

GERMANY TODAY

THE HOUSEWIFE'S VIEW

"Under the Nazi regime conditions are none too easy for the German housewife," states a correspondent in the "Daily Telegraph." While the necessities ,of life can be obtained at prices equivalent to our oira in Great Britain, the luxuries are extremely expensive. Such items as butter and meat arc clearer in Germany than in England, but eggs, cream, and cheese are, on the other hand,1 cheaper. . "Rents are reasonable,, and comfortable, roomy flats can be got for £60----£7O a year in small towns. The houses are we'll built, and the planning of modern towns> includes spacious parks and gardens. Shops are clean and efficient; all perishable articles are kept either under glass or covered with muslin. All prices are clearly marked. Pastrycooks (Kondittorei) display fascinating cakes, biscuits, and open fruit tarts. Whipped cream (eaten with all such delicacies) is Is 9d a pint. Elaborate ices and fruit ice puddings cost 3s, and are sufficient for six people or more. . ''Fruit is plentiful and cheap. Cherries were 4d per lb when I left Thuringia. Oranges and bananas are sold by the pound. Beer is excellent, and the best German brandy costs only five marks a bottle. "Good clothes are dear, and come under the category of luxuries. Only the rich can afford silk stockings and fancy shoes. For a hand-made rush shopping bag I had to pay as much as 11s. "Meals iii restaurants vary, but are all on the expensive side, as is also hotel accommodation. The average middleclass German travels third class in a compartment resembling a woodou horse-box.. "There is a lamentable lack of pet animals in all the towns. The tax for keeping a dog or a cat is almost prohibitive, and dogs have to take their owners' names. The tax on wireless is 2s 6d monthly. "Most housewives do all their own work, but in households of six or more persons one maid may be kept. The Nazis are everywhere—at the stations, on the trains, in the streets, and at public buildings. Even children of two Or three years old are dressed up-in uniform. No work is obtainable for people holding anti-National Socialistic views. "Women married to members of the Semitic race arc treated with scant courtesy. If they buy goods from a shop owned by a Jew, their husbands are liable to instant dismissal from their jobs. Jews themselves have no rights as citizens. Yet the Nazi regime is largely supported by women, and Herr Hitler's house is usually- surrounded by hysterical female admirers. The intelligent women are, however, mostly again&'t Hitler's medieval intolerance, but only the very brave or the very rich can afford to criticise, for to complain is to lose one's job, and at best to invite continual espionage."