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Yorkville, Twenty Years After:
The Brownshirts Are Gone—and Much Else
- Abstract
Just before the West German elections of September 6 a workman came to our apartment to make repairs: a big fellow in his late fifties, with the friendly, rather naive manner that you find in so many German Social Democrats of his generation. He went to some pains to tell me how badly he had been treated by his officers in the Imperial Army, and how much better he found things in America. It was his way, I sensed, of expressing sympathy with the victims of the Third Reich. As he talked on, I noted that he avoided the word Nazi, and finally he let me know, with a certain emphasis, that he “had lost touch completely with Yorkville.”
“You know the Arbeiter-Gesangverein [Workers' Choral Club]. I joined it right off the boat. But now it looks like a waxworks to me . . . the Whole thing’s dying out. I was never a great one for politics, but back in Germany I had class-consciousness and I’m sure I would feel the same way if I went back. But in America things are different, and I just don’t believe in socialism any more. I wouldn’t say that everything is perfect here, but I own a little house, it has a lawn and flower beds in front. Could I ever have had that in Germany? My sons are married, my grandchildren don’t know a word of German except for the Christmas songs. I’m satisfied, no regrets. Sure, I’m a German here, and I would never deny it, but when I went back to Germany on a trip three years ago I felt I had become a real American. . . .”
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