Hoe bereidt men een ketter

28. Een duitser over duitsers.

‘In January 1933 Hitler had become ruler of Germany and in April of that year Virginia

[p. 50]

met Bruno Walter, the conductor. “Our Germany”, he exclaimed, “our Germany, which I loved, with our tradition, our culture. We are now a disgrace”. But it was not until after the events of 30 June 1934 that Virginia became imaginatively aware of what was happening in Germany. It was then, when General von Schleicher, his wife and others, were dragged out of their beds and slaughtered without the pretence of a trial, without a thought of mercy, that Virginia, like a great many people in this country, felt that Germany was in the hands of thugs, of people without scruples, decency or pity, and she was horrified, all the more so when she read articles in the British press in which the Führer was extolled as a truly great man, a real leader.’ Dit lees ik in Quentin Bell, Virginia Woolf: a biography, 1972, blz. 178.