THE IRISH SETTER
335
these people were tried for embezzlement of funds and found guilty be–
cause they had used their "capital" to buy themselves food. What led these
people to behave so unreasonably, to forget what the consequences of their
actions would be? The "capital" of one of these poor devils consisted of
one hundred and fifty francs. What prompted the rich fellow-also a
tefugee----who reported him to the authorities to act as he did? Reason
or instinct?
The German refugees in France were Hitler's foes. Many of them
supported the war policy of the French government. At the outbreak of
the war against Nazi Germany the French government, however, threw
these anti·Nazi Germans into concentration camps. And the French ruling
classed helped to bring about the defeat of their own government and
appointed Petain, who is but a French Hacha, as the head of the state.
Were the French top rulers in doing this following the dictates of
reason or their instincts? Their instincts, which told them that it was
safer to play into the hands of their class brethren across the Rhine than
to rely on any support from below. They knew how to adapt themselves
to a new situation.
My poor dog had, unlike them, no ability to adjust himself to the
Nazi order. He couldn't get used to eating merely what the sea swept
ashore, and so he died. I admit that toward the end I had something to do
with this. But what I did for him does not alter the fact that he perished
because he couldn't take things as they are.
I had tried in vain to get some left·overs for my dog in the kitchen
where they feed the refugees. These lowest of the low
unter·menshen
would
never leave a scrap. They swallowed everything, hook, line, and sinker.
Some of them became quite a threat to the native botanists who got up
early in the morning to study the contents of the garbage can, and who
now began complaining how unfair it was to permit foreigners to com–
pete with them. A starving dog could expect the gulls to leave something
for him, but not those greedy fellows. What I could spare myself was too
little to sustain him. .
For several days I had not been able to go to the shore, for I was kept
busy running around to get the Spanish and Portuguese transit visas and to
~traighten
out other matters. When I saw my dog again he was so weak
that he collapsed three times before he succeeded in coming near me. I
thought it was time for him to put an end to his suffering and told him so.
He drew as close as possible to me and listened attentively, looking very
grave. I suggested that he should go along swimming with me into the
deep water and there descend to where the fattest crabs are. I also ex–
plained that I couldn't go with him the whole way, for I wanted to help in
bringing about the fall of my beloved Fuehrer. He consented to following
my advice, "Allons." And he came after me a few steps to where the water
was shallow. Lifting my dog and holding him on my chest I swam far out
on my back and then I said turning around, "Here I see a fat crab," and
he quickly went after .it.
