Larry Wayne - 2005
Opinions of Germans
Does it bother you to hear German?
No, no. I enjoy German music. I, you know, I don't feel like uh, some Israelis that they can't listen to Wagner, you know, it's music, you know, it's, uh... I might not like the man, but his music is beautiful. No, it's... I had a wonderful time being in Germany when I went back there. I don't think I could, myself, live in anymore in a place like Germany, you know. With things lurking from every corner, you know, what, what's been happening. But I had a very good time and they treated us very good. An unbelievable thing happened, you know. Uh, it cannot happen in the United States. After we got through with the trial, you know, they tell us to go to the court cashier to get reimbursed. So they, they sent us ??? but what it was, it had a bill, like showed the whole expenses, you know. We probably padded up some of the expenses, you know. And it was, like, ten thousand dollars. First class flying and uh, taking off from work. They, you can take, take advantage of whatever it is. And it came to about ten thousand dollars. And they take out ten thousand dollars in cash and they give it to us. That could never happen in United States. They would give you a check or something, but never in cash. So I run and hide away to the main express office and deposit the money. I wasn't going to go around with ten thousand dollars in my pocket or whatever. So, you know.
So were you surprised?
And then this guy a couple years later, then I left. We took another trip to the Scandinavian countries and, like, forget about him, you know. Somehow or other uh, maybe three years later I got another letter from a German counsel about the same--I got these letters still here--whether I would like to testify again. It was declared a mistrial at that time. So I said, yes. But I never.
Were you surprised at how nice they were in Germany?
No, I mean, it, it was, we treated nice. They are people known of order, you know.
Do you think they may have been that way in the 1930s and '40s?
Yeah probably were the same way, but you know, the times were different. Uh, I understand how Nazis came into being. I read a lot about it and the question at one time whether the Nazis or the Communists should take over and that, that's when, including in the whole world, including uh, the Jews of Germany were supporting uh, the Nazis. Well, to a degree, you know, because they didn't want Communists. But the question is Rosa Luxemburg and all these kind of Communist people. They couldn't--they didn't want it to become...that's why the, the papal regime in, in, in Rome supported the Nazis up to the last minute. They wanted to see the Nazis defeat communism, not uh, not the opposite. So uh, we didn't receive much help from the church. You know, so I mean, sporadic occasions of help, you know, not a whole heartedly effort of the Catholic Church or any other church for that matter to, to stop this killing of Jews, innocent people.
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