Professor Binion’s article brought back a flood of memories. In June of 1940 it was my 11th birthday—no different than my other birthdays. I was in the hospital being prepared for another operation to exorcise the recurring melanoma. In bed in a ward most of the time, I had nothing to do but read, listen to a little portable radio, and work on my stamp collection. I had been an avid observer of European developments since 1937 when I helped collect food for the Spanish Republic and I was not particularly pro-allied. I considered the French rather stupid, and the English no better. The League of Nations was a failure. Spain, Ethiopia, Albania, and Czechoslovakia were symbols of cowardice. I thought that the Maginot Line, especially after the failure to link it with either the Albert Canal Line or extend it northwest toward to the sea, as a useless and dangerous fantasy. With a detailed map I followed the progress of the German army—and much later the Italian army as they pushed through France. I hated the Fascists, but, in a way, I thought that the French got what they deserved for their betrayal of Spain, Ethiopia, and Czechoslovakia.
Lee Shneidman (Sat,) studied this question.