Societo Esperanto, Stockholm 1945
Read September 2007
This book is a translation into Esperanto from Swedish, and is essentially the memoirs of a well-meaning, well-connected and well-off Swedish Red Cross Official who visited Germany in the last days of the Third Reich in an attempt (mostly successful) to free Norwegian and Danish prisoners.
The book provides a limited account of life in Germany at that time, but focuses mainly on the author's meetings with Himmler, Ribbentrop and Schellenberg. These Nazi officials' main interest in the author is to open up a line of communication with the Swedish government in an attempt to negotiate a separate piece with the Western Allies. Germany at this time is all but defeated and the author recoginses this as the vane that it is to cluch at straws.
The author makes clear his disapproval and horror of the Nazi project, and yet this contrasts with his all too human interactions with these leading Nazis.
Overall, this short book is an interesting, if somewhat dated and limited, read about the period, and is written in simple and easy to read Esperanto.
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