Postwar Europe put on the spot: Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Madrid, 1966-1996

When in 1956 I received political asylum in the UK, the world suddenly opened for me. By the world I meant Europe, because I had very little interest in the rest of the world. In addition to Hungary and the UK, there were four more countries in which I did research at various universities in my field of engineering/physics for periods longer than six months.

In each country I was determined to ask questions from colleagues and friends of colleagues whom I met. I believed the views I came across were more authentic than those given in opinion polls, where the replies were supposed to be given instantaneously. In my case the replies were well considered. I could say they were given in  reflexive equilibrium, the results of extensive discussions conducted over a considerable amount of time. Obviously, I cannot give the full spectrum of opinions, but only what the majority said. Just once or twice, I give a minority view as well, because I believe they are well worth to be heard.

The questions varied. I tailored them for each country separately. It helped me, particularly in Germany, that I was regarded as a Hungarian. They talked to me with much less restraint, I  believe, than they would have talked to a Briton. Now let me go into the details: how the questions and answers varied from country to country.

Paris, Laboratoire de Physique, Ecole Normale (1966-67). I have to say in advance that this was the time when a Communist presidential candidate got 20% of the votes and that was reflected in some of the questions I asked. Question 1: “How do you think the Soviet Union will fare in the next 25 years?”Reply: “The Soviet Union will win; capitalism will disappear.”

Question 2: “Are you ashamed of Vichy France?”

Reply: “Yes.”

Question 3: “What do you think of Mers-el-Kebir [the destruction of the French fleet by the Royal Navy in June 1940 to prevent it falling into German hands]?”

Reply: “A disastrous move by the British. We lost 1300 sailors. Don’t be surprised that it made many Frenchmen pro-German.”

Question 4: “What do you think of General de Gaulle?”

Reply: “A great man. He made France a global power again.”

Reply (minority view): “I wish he would not always be so sure of himself.”

Reply (one man’s view): “Le general de Gaulle a parfaitement raison de penser qu’il incarne la France, il a tort de croire que cela soit flatteur pour lui.”

(Translation: “General de Gaulle is certainly right to think that he incarnates France, but he is wrong to believe that this is flattering for him.”)

The Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen (1972-73).

Question 1: “What did you do during the German occupation?”

Reply: “I was a messenger boy/girl conveying messages between resistance groups.” (Everybody claimed to have been in the Resistance.)

Question 2: “What happened to Danish Jews during the occupation?”

Reply: “We saved over 90% by spiriting them over to Sweden.”

Question 3: “Did you know about the ‘Danish Blue Division’ or ‘Free Corps Denmark’ [a Danish Nazi volunteer unit who fought alongside the Waffen SS]?”

Reply: “Yes, I knew about it but it did not really exist. They never saw any fighting.”

I came across a group of somewhat older undergraduates while lecturing. They turned out to be Polish refugees who had been expelled by the then Communist Minister of the Interior in the wake of the students revolution. The Danish government offered them political asylum.

Question 4: “What was it like to live in Communist Poland?”

Reply: ”Probably the worst in the Eastern bloc. It became even worse in the last few years. We were lucky to have been expelled.”

Technical University of Berlin (1990).

Question 1: “Were any of your friends Nazi sympathisers?”

Reply: “No.”

Question 2: “What do you think of the bombing of Germany?”

Reply: “It was terror bombing. Winston Churchill should have been held responsible.”

Question 3: “What do you think would have happened, had the July 20 plot succeeded in assassinating Hitler in 1944?”

Majority reply: “Millions of people would have been saved. The war would have ended in 1944.”

Minority reply: “The Army would have stayed in power at least for a while. We might have been able to negotiate a ceasefire. On the other hand, it could have given a chance for German militarism to survive and for history to repeat itself later.”

Universidad Autonoma, Madrid (1994 and 1996, 3 months in each year).

This was a confident society. In physics Spain had reached world standards. In politics I expected a divided society, with many memories of the bloody Civil War, as I had read about in Hemingway’s novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. This was not the case. Our experience was quite different.

By chance, in a walk with my wife in the Retiro park we got to know a couple of about the same age who played some role in Falangist Spain. They asked us back for tea and showed us a beautifully bound photo-album with lots of photographs where the man’s younger self and his family appeared in the company of Francisco Franco and of some top brass from the Army. It was a good opportunity to question him.

Question 1: “Was Franco a great man?”

Reply: “He was. The alternative would have been a Communist takeover.”

Question 2: “What do you think of the [then] ruling Socialist Government?”

Reply: “They do a good job. I am proud of how Franco organised the transition to a Monarchy and I have only praise for [Prime Minister] Felipe Gonzales for laying solid foundations of democracy. I am also proud of our statesmen who did not fall into the trap, into which the Portuguese fell, of exchanging the extreme right for the extreme left. Fortunately, it was only a brief flirtation with Communism.”

I also asked colleagues from the University.

Question 3: “Do you think Franco’s remains should be removed from the Mausoleum of the Vale dos Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen)?”

Reply: “Yes, in time. No hurry. Maybe in a decade or two. When we are ready.” (Franco’s remains were indeed removed in October 2019, 44 years after his death.)

Question 4: “What are your memories of the Civil War?”

Reply: “We lived in a Republican area. We knew it was the end of the war when some Moroccan troops came into the village and threw oranges to the children.”

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