Politics and farewell
Adolph Markus's diary addresses political shifts and preparations for emigration
“Chamberlain and Daladier explained after their return to their people that now peace was secured for a long time and that it was agreed by Hitler to get together again for a new conference in the case of further possible difference.”
LINZ
At the end of October, Adolph Markus looked back on an eventful month. Preceded by the Munich Conference, at which representatives of Germany, Great Britain, France and Italy decided that Czechoslovakia was to cede its borderlands (“Sudetenland”) to Germany in exchange for peace, German troops had occupied these areas, which had a sizeable German population totaling about 3 million. As Markus points out, with the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia had lost its line of defense. According to his diary entry, both in Britain and in France, people’s relief that war had been averted was soon followed by deep suspicion regarding Hitler’s true intentions. On a more personal note, the author mentions a hair-styling course and English classes which he has been taking in Vienna, clearly in preparation for emigration. Meanwhile, due to the expectation that soon all Jews would be expelled from his home town, Linz, half of the contents of his apartment had been sold.
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SOURCE
Institution:
Leo Baeck Institute – New York | Berlin 
Collection:
Diary, February 1938–December 1939, Adolph Markus, ME1090
Original:
Source available in English
