The Revolution
all was dark around me.
Thus I arrived in hospital at Pasewalk in Pomerania, and there I had to experience the greatest infamy of this century.
There had been something vague but repulsive above the atmosphere for some time. The gossip was that “things” were going to pop in the next few weeks—only I could not imagine what they meant by “things.” My first thought was of a strike, like that of the spring. Unpleasant rumors were constantly coming from the navy, which was supposed to be in a state of ferment. But even this seemed to me rather the creature of a few scattered rascals’ brains than an affair of any large mass of people. In hospital of course everyone talked about the termination of the war, which they hoped would be soon; but no one counted on it at once. Newspapers I could not read.
In November the general tension increased.
And then suddenly and unexpectedly one day the catastrophe was upon us. Sailors came in trucks, rousing us to the Revolution; a few Jew-boys were the “leaders” in this struggle for the “freedom, beauty and dignity” of our people’s life. None of them had been at the front. By way of a so-called “clap hospital” the three orientals had been sent home from behind the lines. Now they ran up the red rag there.
By that time my condition had begun to improve somewhat. The piercing pain in the hollows of my eyes grew less; gradually I could distinguish my surroundings in rough outline again. I had hopes of getting my eyesight back at least enough so that I would be able to pursue some occupation. I could not, however, hope ever to be able to draw again. Still I was on the road to improvement when the monstrous thing happened.
My first hope was that this high treason was a more or less local affair. I tried to cheer up some of my comrades in that belief. My Bavarian hospital-mates in particular were more than receptive. Their temper was anything but “revolutionary.” I could not imagine that the madness would break out in Munich as well. I thought the devotion to the venerable House of Wittels-
201
