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158559293
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Transcript of Letter from Katherine Fite to Mr. and Mrs. Emerson Fite
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1
Source metadata
id
158559293
contentType
document
title
Transcript of Letter from Katherine Fite to Mr. and Mrs. Emerson Fite
citationUrl
collections
Katherine Fite Lincoln Papers
Correspondence Files
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Jackson, Robert Houghwout, 1892-1954
War damage
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158559293
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day
23
logicalDate
1945-07-23
month
7
year
1945
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nara-archive
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1
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photo
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e443529f1817a804
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III
Monday, July 23.
Dearest Mother and Daddy,-
I have seen so much since last I wrote you.
You probably read in the papers that Jackson went to Nuremberg over
the weekend. Me, I went too: I was rather frightened of the trip-
both the flying and going into Germany, but it was probably the most
interesting weekend I ever had. I wish I had had time to write a de-
tailed account when I got back last night - already the sharpness of
the impressions is fading away. Anyway I shall try tonight to get
some of it down and please save the letter. I am tired and may not
finish, having worked until 10.30 at the office. In the party were
Jackson, his three principal assistants - his pressreMations man - an
officer from the engineers corps - a photographer- the British At-
torney General and two assistants and a British General, the French
representative, (the bravest man in the party, Bor he was sick- or
on the point thereof the whole time), his assistant and a man from
the French Embassy, the Justice's Sec'y (female) and myself anda
lovely Colonel who had us in charge. The Justice has his own plane,
a C-47 with a crew of four. We flew from Bovingdon in the clouds -
but they cleared over the Channel and from France we looked back at
the Dover cliffs and the Channel looked very narrow. Thence over
Brussels and Liege into Germany and the Rhineland where we flew low
(and bumpily) to see the sights. We hit the Rhine just South of Co-
logne and could see the Hindenburg Bridge collapsed. We went right by the
Hr bayd 11 en mase of svor
andy es n be tirgee fweifery
Impo tant People) we were met by a group of ófficers - inc. the Command-
ing General in the region. We piled into jeeps OF their first cousins
and set off in a cavalbade into the city. Nuremberg is a shambles.The
old city they say is 85% destroyed. The people look,as you have read,
healthy and well fed and surprisingly well dressed and clean, consider-
ing what they must have to live in. Bicycles everywhere, but as one of
the Frenchmen reminded me, the bicycles came from all over Europe. Some
how I hated to look at the Germans - some look at you boldlt and curi-
ously, others look very stupid and sullen. We were taken for lunch to
the Grand Hotel - a wreck outside, but fixed up inside by that remark-
able organization, the U.S Army, of which more anon.. I was startled
to find the hotel using German servants - bittelthis and bitte that.
We
lunched in style - grand style with linen(no napkins in England) and
wine(Rhine and Bordeaux) and Reichspartei silver. Delicious cooking
and toasts and speeches, Jackson being host to the French and British
and all of us the guests of the U.S.Army After lunch, by ca valcade
to see the old courthouse and jail and the opera house. The Courthouse
room we saw (badly damaged of course) still has the ten Commandments
and Fiat Justitia on the walls. Should be Ruat Coelumy, said Mr. Sid-
ney Alderman- a witty and brilliant civilian lawyer, 2nd to the Justice),
The opera house(with Hitler's box in which stands a sentry) is more or
less intact and is used for church services, USO shows and symphony con-
certs by a German orchestra. Sunday P.M. we attended a concert at which
the orchestra played Beethoven's Fifth, the Victory Symphony. We did
We armored car and escorted by MP's on motorcycles and each driver was armed an
not however sit in Hitler's box. Our cavalcade always was headed by
The of which the Army simply turned the proprietors and installed us.
out were "billeted" 6 or 8 miles out in a charming group of country houses
other girl said she felt as tho she were trespassing - but that
FRUMAN
"INATIONAL
ARDHIVES AMO
RECORDS
AOMIN.'